I was reminded of this oldie but goodie by a post my mastodon feed

  • casual_turtle_stew_enjoyer@sh.itjust.works
    8·
    10 months ago

    I don’t remember the artist’s name but I recall seeing their work on DeviantArt back around 2016. They made doll-like realism-inspired posable felt plushies of various handheld creatures, most based on real fauna but a couple times I recall they made little dragons or hippogriffs or something. I’m not sure if it’s all the same individual or if I’m conflating two or three artists, but it at the time appeared to be an obscure niche and each piece carried the same characteristics seen here. Reverse image search could potentially uncover the engine, but I’m lazy.

    But yeah this is 100% a posable felt plushie made by an artist that explicitly specializes in these “uncanny” fauna dolls.

    Side tangent, while I can respect the work and passion of the art, my reflex whenever I see a piece from this artist is to recoil slightly and become bitterly violent towards the concept of the plushia as an object. The only way I can explain it is that my brain is instinctually labeling it as unnatural and consequentially a threat or hindrance, even though logically I know it’s neither. I’ve seen same things happen with a dog and a teddy bear it had that looked like a puppy. She was drawn to it because she’d been separated from her puppies, but after a period of time she would just begin to stare at it before somberly ripping it apart before getting depressed. I can’t say I’m in the same situation as the dog, but I get the strange feeling that they shared some similar feelings of unease with the uncanny valley… poor girl, miss her dearly and boy was she a trooper.

    • PonyOfWar
      3·
      10 months ago

      You might be thinking of Yuliya Leonovich. Could easily be a work of hers, though at a glance I don’t see it in her gallery.

      • casual_turtle_stew_enjoyer@sh.itjust.works
        1·
        10 months ago

        Yep, that’s the artist I was thinking of. edit: actually perhaps it’s not. I thought I recognized the name and the style of some are similar, but they have a lot more fantasy-inspired and furry-/cartoon-inspired pieces than I remember. So maybe they diversified or maybe I’m remembering a different artist, but yes their more realistic pieces are more in line with the style I recall.