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In Their Own Words: Steeven Salvat

In Their Own Words: Steeven Salvat

We continue our new segment In Their Own Words with French illustrator Steeven Salvat who shares the inspiration behind his modern etchings.

I’m a French, self-taught artist, passionate about drawing and channelling my creative ideas. I come from a city called Menton, in the south of France and I now live in Paris. I’ve been drawing since I was a child – it’s my passion. So I’m not new in the illustration game, but I never took it too seriously to make a living before. However, this is changing as I currently dedicate more time to it and have begun to take part in some projects and commissions.

My work is inspired by old black and white etching but with a modern twist. I love to draw with Rotring pen and China ink and started using this technique four years ago, when I met Théo Jan. We also draw in collaboration under the name: Steev & Jan.

I love detailed artworks and I really like to draw textures with the most accurate render. I work with Rotring pen 0,13 mm so it allows me to be as precise as I want to.

At the moment, my favourite project is ‘Mechanical/Biological | Crustacean study‘. It’s a personal project inspired by old biological studies. It’s composed of 10 original crustacean drawings, half shells, half mechanics. I grew up by the sea and I’ve always been fascinated by the ocean and marine creatures. I came up with the idea to mix machines with crustaceans when I first drew mechanics and gears for a previous project called ‘Rouages‘. I loved the render and the feeling of it, so I decided to mix these subjects in a new project inspired by old biological studies.

When I created this project, I really wanted to create a result similar to the old biological studies that you can come across in a museum, for instance. So I decided to handwrite the names of the species. But instead of doing it on the drawings, I thought it would be fun to create a full font. I’ve drawn each letter and symbol, then scanned it. I used Glyph software to convert the vectorised file to .otf & .ttf. You can download it for free and use it with no limits.

I’m actually experimenting with a new technique for my next project and plan to add some colour to my work.

You can find more of Steeven Salvat’s work on his website, Instagram, Facebook and Behance.

In Their Own Words: Steeven Salvat
In Their Own Words: Steeven Salvat
In Their Own Words: Steeven Salvat
In Their Own Words: Steeven Salvat
In Their Own Words: Steeven Salvat

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