Graphic designer and illustrator Irma Gruenholz toiled away in Madrid as an ad agency art director before shifting gears and launching a freelance career in illustration. While she’s perfectly capable of working with pencils and paints, it was her decision to work in 3D that really set things in motion. Gruenholz painstakingly builds each illustration with hand-sculpted modeling clay before lighting and photographing it, giving each piece a beautiful sense of depth.

Lately, her work has been popping up in books, magazines, and advertisements around the world and you can see more on Facebook and over on Behance. If this tickled your brain, you might also dig Shintaro Ohata.