Mushrooms are in part of a lot of folklore, with so-called “Faerie Rings” being one of the most prevalent links between fungus and the supernatural. According to myth, these circles of mushrooms can be anything from portals to the court of fae, to a place where the Devil himself has churned butter. They are said to blind or cripple people, strike women sterile, cause children to vanish, and many other ill effects.
As much is it pains me to throw a wrench into your plans to get rid of your neighbor’s annoying kid, the truth of these Faerie Rings is much more mundane: when a mushroom lets out spores they generally shoot out in 360 degrees and the spores can only go so far. The area near the originating mushroom is too filled with mycellium for new mushrooms to have much space to grow so, unless there is something obstructing the spores in their launch, new mushrooms will typically grow in a ring pattern. When the original mushroom dies, the younger ring remains. Since a forest floor generally has a lot of things that could get in the way of a ring forming, they typically show up in glades which adds to the mystique and legend.
Taking all this in mind with composition, I wanted to keep a circular motif in mind. This ended up manifesting as sweeping arcs that are repeated in smaller forms elsewhere in the drawing, nested within those arcs when possible.
Mushrooms are already good shapes for this, and I managed to fit in some goblins by repeating these motifs. The goblins are also heavily inspired by the designs used in the show Hellier, which is the only interesting thing that actually came out of that show.
