FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Illustration

Mind-Boggling Anatomical Illustrations of Steampunk Crab Machines

Old biological studies inspired the biomechanical illustrations of Steeven Salvat.
Images courtesy of the artist.

The history of naturalist illustration meets mechanical drawings in a new series of drawings from illustrator Steeven Salvat. The artistic approach is a bit like the recent explorer drawings of robots, but the ten works in Salvat's Mechanical / Biological: Crustacean Study are far more intricate—a surreal and beautiful fusion of the organic and mechanical drawings. In these illustrations, Salvat combines crustaceans and machines, with on-half of each body being organic and the other mechanical.

Advertisement

"This personal project is inspired by old biological studies," Salvat tells The Creators Project. "Each piece took me at least 30 hours of work."

To create the drawings, Salvat used a 0.13mm Rotring technical drawing pen on paper, but not just any paper: Salvat handcrafted this homemade it using an ancient technique and colored it with tea, giving it a nice brown patina.

"The font used on the final drawings is a handcrafted one, done especially for this project," he says. "I drew each letter and symbol, then vectorized and converted [them] into .otf and .ttf [formats]."

All told, Salvat spent three months at work on the ten drawings, and a timelapse video details his illustration process. The commitment shows: Salvat's work is highly imaginative on a science fictional level, but is also worthy of some of the great naturalist illustrations throughout time.

Click here to see more of Steeven Salvat's work, and here to download his handcrafted font.

Related:

Early Explorers' Illustrations Inspire Uncanny Robot Paintings

Original Creators: Hércules Florence, The Forgotten Father Of Photography

In Pencil and Ink, an Engineer Runs Wild | Monday Insta Illustrator