Plant World Spirits

A project I’ve been having fun with lately is this series of characters that are made up using illustrations, textures and photos from my archive of imagery. I like that they feel like actual creatures from nature, but my own version of them.

I tried to place where the inspiration for these came from, and I love the fictional play that comes from childhood. For me it was growing up with Slovak books, and the beautiful ways nature is depicted and romanticized with folklore. I know many children’s books do this really well, for me it was especially these stories about a mole named Krtko, and the nature illustrations from the world he and his friends lived in. The illustrations were done by Czech illustrator Zdeněk Miler.

We’ll see where this series goes as more characters join in.

I’ve also created the series into a kids memory card game that I used to play with my family when I was little. In Slovak it’s called “Pexeso.”

I love how creepy and otherworldly some of the characters are.