Combining her passion for heavy metal music with dark fantasy has resulted in these spectacular creations by ‘Design Z’ that have amazed some of the famous names that she has included in her work.

‘Design Z’ is actually the personal signature for Zorica Stojkovik, who became a graphic designer to combine her two childhood passions of painting and IT.

Her creations include Italian opera singer and fantasy devotee Chiara Malvestiti who was delighted with her “gorgeous artwork surprise” adding “I love it”.

And singer and harpist Lindsay Matheson who goes by the name Lindsay Schoolcraft was delighted to be turned into the Queen of crows, sharing it with her fans who were equally amazed.

Zorica also shared videos showing how the individual elements of her artworks are put together to create the final version. She told Newsflash: “I first started using Corel and I thought that I could never learn the intricacies of Photoshop, but with a lot of time spent on online classes and tutorials, I learned a lot. I think you can never learn enough and there is always more to discover.

“My art is mostly dark and gothic in style, in most of my pictures there are crows, but I also do a lot of fantasy images. I also enjoy doing portrait photo-manipulations, mostly of my favourite bands such as Cradle of Filth, Therion, and Nightwish.

“I love photo-manipulation. When I create an image, it is like recharging my batteries!

“My inspiration comes mostly from movies and music, especially lyrics. I love dark gothic art.”

She said that the inspiration that she gets from using crows was also energising, saying: “It recharges my batteries.”

But she added: “However, I see inspiration in many things and I have almost 200 pictures in my portfolio.

“I also like creating my fantasy images with elements of realism.”

Zorica told Newsflash: “At the start, I asked my brother Saso if I could do a design of him. When I finished I sent it to him and he was stunned. He asked me to do another one and gave suggestions, such as a dragon and a dark sky. It helped ignite my passion and was a moment of great satisfaction for me.

“In fact, my family and friends are a big support. I also use models for some images and seeing their faces after I’ve finished is always very rewarding.

“I have also used famous people such as Therion band members, Dani Filth from Cradle of Filth, and Simone Simons from Epica.

“I also worked on an album cover for Terry Battle and Violet Gin, and I often collaborate with a model from Serbia, Eleanore Dystopia.”

Zorica added: “My art is however strongly connected to heavy metal music and as the former owner of the ‘I love Heavy Metal’ online radio station, I often worked with bands and helped with cover art. I also did a lot of video projects for the station that were shared on the station’s YouTube channel.”