A Powerful Elemental

The Sylph, an air elemental with humbling control of the winds and weather.

In four distinct elements of our world, Fire, Earth, Water, and Air, dwell four distinct types of elemental beings. Where the world’s natural forces coalesce into physical form, we find beings who are such a part of our world that they are almost always invisible to us; taken for granted and largely forgotten.

Few mortals are fortunate enough to glimpse a Sylph, and even fewer are chosen to share in their hidden world. When a Sylph decides to reveal itself to a mortal, it is often a life-altering encounter. If the fortunate soul who meets with a sylph is aware, they may request a wish granted. As with all immortal beings, such requests should be made with great caution as the granted wish may not be quite what we had in mind.

As the Air Elemental Sylph takes its place within the Compendium, its presence serves as a reminder of the hidden wonders that surround us, just beyond the veil of our ordinary perception. These spirits of the air, guardians of the natural world, enrich our lives with their awe-inspiring abilities — even as they remain invisible and an enduring mystery.

This week, as the digital pages of the Compendium turn, a new entry emerges, revealing a few secrets of the Air Elemental we’ve named the Sylph.

Float along with this link and find yourself gently landing upon the page containing the Sylph!

https://www.fairywingstudio.com/the-compendium/sylph

Welcome!

The second newsletter is already here! Time just seems to continue to speed up the longer I’m on this earth. The week was a blur with much of my time spent touching up old artwork and re-writing page content. Next week will introduce a much more somber note to the pages, but for this letter, we’ll be focused on a fairy we know very little about. The sylph.

Books I’m reading

I mentioned Rebecca Ross’s A River Enchanted last week, but I’d only just started it. I’ve completed the story and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’d highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys books about the wee folk, magic and a bit of mystery. It starts a little bit slow (I genuinely didn’t mind tho… slow, not boring), but by about halfway through I was shirking some of my to-dos to find out what was going to happen next. I’m waiting on the second book in my Libby app and cannot wait.

I also quite recently finished Mark Lawrence’s The Book of the Ancestor Trilogy. I am a huge fan of Nona Grey. Her character is quite endearing and fierce, as is necessary to survive the life and world she lives in. The magic system is genuinely unique and a joy to learn along with Nona as she grows up and attends classes at the Convent of Sweet Mercy. Another very enjoyable read.

Sketchbook Peak

I did some digging for this one. The drawings for the Sylph page were created quite a while ago and I wasn’t sure if I had the sketches for them. After some thorough scouring, I managed to find the very beginnings.

There are only a few sketches here because I got pretty excited about the sketch on the right and took it straight to the drawing board. Drawings often change a bit from sketch to final, but this one stuck all the way and was a joy to draw all the way through…. which is really rare.

The symbol she seems to be creating is the symbol for the element of air. I have some drawings in the works that will further incorporate the elemental symbols.

The Sylph portrait started as a much earlier drawing. I believe it was drawn in 2019 and I re-drew it around 2022. As such, I don’t have the sketches for this drawing, but since she was never posted anywhere, I’ve shared her here.

As I mentioned, I redrew her in 2022 and have added a few more details this week. You can see that image in the compendium! I know some artists feel a painting should be considered done and left untouched, but I really love taking some of my old drawings and improving them when I learn something new.

And one final share of a much older artwork:

I haven’t reworked this painting, but maybe I will someday. For now, it’s fun to give them a place to exist.

Thank You!

That’s it for this newsletter, thanks for taking the time to read. Feel free to leave a comment or email me directly if there is anything you might like to see in these newsletters. See you next week.

Thanks for stopping by,

Stephanie

Fairy Wing Studio