flower petals form fantastical exotic animals in josh dykgraaf’s painstaking photomontages

photographic illustrator josh dykgraaf will make you do a double take with his intricate, seemingly animate artworks depicting birds and animals made from flowers. the collection of images forms part of his ‘terraform’ series, a body of work which sees the melbourne-based artist merge photographic images of flower petals and leaves with animals such as pangolins and parrots. ‘I enjoy being able to create a sense of wonder,’ dykgraaf says. ‘my work comes from a curiosity about the world and enjoyment of creating things, playing with perspective and illusion.’

in terraform, dykgraaf rebuilds elements of the earth into familiar fauna — the culmination of countless hours of exploration, both literal and artistic. while traveling the world, dykgraaf developed a photography bank of thousands of landscapes and textures, which he has used to create works such as ‘kulu’ — a curled pangolin made using leaves and magnolia flower petals — and ‘bunyjul’ — a frilled dragon made from protea flowers. ‘the conceptual development of this series as being a lot like staring at clouds in the sky and seeing all kinds of shapes and forms,’ he continues. ‘technically, I work with the idea that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

project info:

artist: josh dykgraaf

series: terraform