Illustrators who include animals in their work often explore their adorable and silly side, but Aykut Aydogdu opted for a different approach. His illustrations are hauntingly beautiful and they show animals and humans co-existing in perfect harmony.
Aydogdu attracted over 650,000 followers to his Instagram page since he started sharing his surreal illustrations with the world. This Turkish artist is based in Istanbul, and his unique, dreamlike style transformed him into a true sensation.
Aydogdu fell in love with art as a teen and decided to explore his passion by studying Fine Arts in high school and later got a degree in graphic design from the Faculty of Fine Arts. He worked on everything from commercial illustrations to magazine covers and movie posters before deciding to explore his own personal style on his Instagram page.
Aydogdu says he specializes in “surreal figurative works […] mainly concentrated on the dilemmas of daily life.” We’ve seen his whimsical illustrations explore many topics over the years, but he caught our eye with female portraits featuring different animals in the frame.
Birds and butterflies make frequent appearances in his work, but he also seems to be a fan of dogs and wild cats. His female characters are perfectly peaceful, no matter how dangerous the animals in the frame seem to be, and they always co-exist in perfect harmony.
