人在現代所處的生活環境中，充滿了壓抑的心情，需要透過假設人物或角色暫時的轉換移情或想像來滿足心裡期待又嚮往的心靈異想世界。在不少以「精靈」為題材的視覺創作中，發現精靈的角色跟人類頗為相似，除了有似人的外表又長出人類以外奇特的造形及功能，是人類藉由「精靈」來反映自己在現實中的寄望與心靈夢想上的慾望。本研究以「精靈」在地、水、火、風自然系統中的四大元素為探討範圍，從傳統信仰、神話故事、數位應用上精靈所表現出來的視覺藝術及一些創作作品給予觀者的視覺形象、個性特質與傳遞的精神，歸納分析四系統中「精靈」的類型。以文本分析做文獻作品的研究探討，採用方便取樣分析於「地、水、火、風」中精靈各別的視覺造形，結合深度訪談的方式，針對檢選創作者、插畫家進行訪談，從受訪者中探討人們對「精靈」的認知與衍生的象徵意義和幻想世界中，獲得創作設計者、插畫家對「精靈」運用於插畫作品的形式與表現，以及在數位傳播媒體上的形象與文化產業延伸的發展，精靈在自然系統中更具體的關連，精靈不只是虛幻想像那麼簡單，而是反映著人類思維的信仰、心靈，並且越來越多產業賦予精靈可愛、正面形象，形成精靈有撫慰大眾的魔力，間接療癒了人們，將衍生於自然系統中相對關係的精靈有系統且實質的論述。

People often feel stressful and anxious in fast-temple modern society, and hence the fictional characters, such as fairies, are created for people’s temporary self-esteem fulfillment and mental escape from reality. This study found great similarities between fairy and human in many fairy-theme illustrations. However, there were always some additional features or abilities different from human, and these additions somehow implied human dissatisfaction of reality. The area of this study covered fairy forms transformed from four natural elements: earth, water, fire, and wind. The study also categorized 4 typical types of fairy form through the spirits of fairy-themed visual artworks, and in which the features and characters were designed from perspectives of culture, customs, myths, and social structure. The study adapted textual analysis as research method, and qualitative research as sampling method to analyze visual forms of fairies with elements of earth, water, fire, and wind. On the other hand, in order to explore how fairy-form characters designed under modern artists’ presentation, and how people’s acknowledgement about fairy phantasies and their symbolic meanings connected to creators’ mental expression and social reaction, in-depth interviewing method was adapted with visiting syllabus to interview selected visual artists. Through the interviews, evidences also found that fairy characters are now highly developed in various media, and gradually transformed to religious and spiritual level in human life. The media and communication industries helped to create more adorable and positive images of fairy characters, which hence endued the power of comforting people’s emotion. This study will have practical discussion for systematic fairy character relation with mother nature.