A field guide to extraordinary unseen creatures

Field guides are books used for the identification of animals, birds, flowers, or other things in their natural environment, including gardens. NMC community member Traceyanne Pilato has a love of art and nature and recently created a field guide to extraordinary unseen creatures, with distinct personalities, likes and dislikes, which if you imagine hard enough, you might just be able to see in your own garden. We asked Traceyanne to tell us more.

~ View all extraordinary unseen creatures photographs on Flickr. ~

Scabooshy

I have always had an interest in art but never did anything about it until my early forties when FSHD started to limit my mobility. I started evening classes at Stoke on Trent college and gained an A* in A level art. I work mainly in acrylics but dabble with all mediums and have had a few paintings in exhibitions around Staffordshire. 

Molamile

While in lockdown I found myself just doodling in an evening. My doodles always seemed to end up being strange little people or creatures. I then had the idea of asking my friends to give me made up words from their imaginations which I could use to create a character.

Spelovfunk

Once I had the word in my head, I would envisage what the character would look like and imagine their traits and where they would live etc. Most of them can be found outside, in gardens or in the countryside. In this way, I could combine my art with my love of nature. 

Splatwiddle

In a sketch book using just a pen and water colour pencils they came alive and after posting a few of my sketches on Facebook, people were saying that I should make them into a book. Then one friend came up with the title 'A field guide to extraordinary unseen creatures.' 

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Eniarrol

One of my favourite characters so far is Eniarrol. She collects dandelion seed heads to make pillows for hedgehogs. The creature I would least like to meet would be Knipnna. He has very sharp claws and can be rather peevish. 

Knipnna

Just before lockdown I had started to attend an open clay session at a local studio. When we went into lockdown, they supplied me with some clay to play with at home. Not knowing what to make I ended up deciding to have a go at turning my characters into 3D clay figures. I have made two so far Bimblewimbly and Schlobaldonk, words which were suggested to me by members of the NMC. 

They have since been glazed and fired and I am really pleased with how they turned out. I have done 13 characters so far but will hopefully have a few more. I have found that the more I do the more fantastical they become.