Bestiary: Rusalka

Niina Pekantytär
2 min readFeb 9, 2022

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I finally finished the Rusalka painting. Rusalka´s are Slavic water siren demons. According to some sources, there are spirits of ladies who drowned themselves because of a broken heart.

She is accompanied by Zmei, the Slavic dragon.

I was inspired by medieval bestiaries. Back then people believed that many of the mythical creatures existed..in faraway lands of course.

I´ve always thought rusalkas were really cool..and really creepy. Watercolour on acid-free watercolour paper. Posters, cases, t-shirts and other good stuff are available in my Redbubble store.

Here are more pictures:

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Niina Pekantytär

Niina is an Illustrator, writer and folklorist. Likes cats, tea, 19th century books and period dramas. Host of the Little Women Podcast.