Charming animated portraits by Shenja Tatschke explore our special bond with animals

Created during lockdown in Germany, the Berlin-based freelance illustrator and animator wanted to take a closer look at our special relationship with animals, as a way to beat isolation. "For a long time, I lived alone," says Shenja, "and since there was no way to physically connect with another human being during the pandemic, I wanted to reinterpret friendship and relationships by answering the question, what would it look like if humans and animals shared a very special bond?"

Shenja came up with quirky characters that are connected to their pets in very specific, playful and visual ways. "It's about being bold and eccentric and building unexpected relationships," she adds.

The colourful gifs are hand-drawn frame-by-frame animations using RoughAnimator on the iPad. Personally, we love the friendly starfish helping to protect its human friend's modesty. Or how both human and animal in every case tends to look like each other.

Originally a graphic designer, Shenja has more recently focused on hand-drawn gifs, quirky illustrations and creating eccentric characters. See more of her work at shenjatatschke.com. Or follow her on Instagram.