The Whimsical Woodland Critters of Nina Stajner

Illustrator and graphic designer Nina Stajner is known for her tender, whimsical, and cute animal characters – mainly woodland critters – drawn in a soft and delicate manner. Her work mostly employs traditional tools like watercolors, gouache, and colored pencils, with finishing touches sometimes added digitally.

“Most of my work is drawn by hand the old-school way, and painted patiently with watercolors and gouache,” she further relayed in an interview with Society6’s blog. “First layers are quite relaxed, but at the end I somehow find the patience to make all the tiny details and make my characters come to life. I do all the repeat patterns digitally in Photoshop or Illustrator.”

“I love creating animal characters,” she adds. “In my body of work, they are mostly coming from a woodland environment—that is because I draw things that are close to me and I can see in person if I am lucky,” she notes.

Based in Ljubljana, Slovenia, her artwork is featured on products like enamel pins, notebooks, coloring books, notepads, and greeting cards, with her clients including brands like Papyrus, Little Blue Nest, Craft Consortium, Lilipinso, and Lake Coloring. Besides commercial work, Stajner enjoys self-initiating projects where she collaborates with other artists, experiments, and challenge herself further.

“The world around me inspires me very much,” says Stajner. “While I work, I love to stylize them, make them more simple and less realistic. But then I want to add so many details that they appear alive again. Like they actually exist somewhere in the world. Oh, what a happy place that would be.”

A happy place it is.

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🤍Let’s all hide in out little dens, so we will soon have fun together again🤍 How is everyone doing during these strange times? Did covid19 situation also affected you immensely? Are you self isolating? We are both working from home 👩🏻🐶👦🏻 and only taking @loti_thecavie to the woods very early in the morning. We’re taking this pandemic very seriously and staying safe.🤞 Confession: I never continued doing #marchmeetthemaker challenge…mostly because I felt talking about myself became irrelevant, during these times. Continuing that I would felt ignorant, and not honest – because in all honesty my head was completely somewhere else. 😟 I am thinking about how the doctors here are heroes and I am truly grateful for their willingness to help 💙🙏🏻 …thinking about how this will change us, and what happens with the economy when the worst is over. I honestly hope for the best 🖤. Otherwise my daily routine hasn’t changed much apart from being a bit worried and anxious about my loved ones, and obviously not seeing anyone. But I am not letting negative thoughts overwhelm me. 🧡 How are you handeling this situation? I hope you are staying safe wherever you are🤍🙏🏻 #selfisolation #animals #hiding #floral #nature #hedgehog #bunny #squirrel #play #nursery #delicate #pastel #doodle #paint #painting #watercolor #illustration #illustrator

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