Last year I came across a set of season fairies that I drew when I was still in school. They were the first art I ever posted online and were the best I could do at the time. Since it had been exactly 20 years, I decided to redraw them and see the difference.
I tried to retain some elements from the original set; each fairy is facing the same way and has a similar outfit and colour scheme. In 2002 I used coloured pencils because that was my standard medium for colour, so I did the redraw in watercolour because that's become my standard medium over time. (Maybe I'll redraw one in coloured pencil too.)
Autumn is first because I drew her first back then! It was my favourite season. Autumnal fairies are still the kind I draw most, so the Autumn fairy was probably the easiest.
Winter is the one I changed most because she had a definite Christmas vibe in the original, which I remember being unintentional. (At the time I just couldn't think of any Winter plants other than evergreens.) I tried to make the new one match what I was aiming for in the past, rather than what I managed to draw.
Spring flowers are all very low-growing, so I moved the Spring fairy down to the ground. I'm really pleased with the mist effect in the background and how closely I was able to match the old colour scheme.
Finally, Summer! This one was interesting, I absolutely hated the season as a child (I had fair skin, light-sensitive eyes and debilitating hayfever) and I have strong memories of just bashing this one out to complete the set, so I had to figure out if there even was a flower that matched those generic 'flower' shapes I drew in the original. I hadn't tried very hard at the time, but in hindsight I thought her pose was more interesting than the others, so I tried to retain things like the bent legs by hooking them round the flower stem. She's also the one whose character design changed the least. I'm still not a huge fan of the season but I think the updated illustration might even be my favourite in the set.
Maybe I'll make some prints of these or some Redbubble products?
