C is for Crab

Notes on the design

Digital illustration in Procreate with monoline and gouache texture brushes (from RSCO.)

The next in the 'Animal Alphabet' series, which started as pictorial letterform practice. (The letterform of this design is a bit more abstract, if you loosely take the segmented legs forming an open, more angular C shape.)

I started sketching this piece on a harmonic armature (thanks to @tomfroese for teaching this technique in Skillshare!) Once I knew that I wanted to draw this super long-limbed crab, I thought it would be a nice challenge to fit it's leg's within the frame. Given the 8-legged symmetry I decided to use the symmetry guide in Procreate to layout the composition.

Then I worked on chunking in the shapes and segments of the body, aiming to go more minimal. But once I started to add the coloration and texture features inspired by these amazing creatures, I ended up going a lot further on detailing. The spotting and blotching of their colors, which creates high-contrast, organic shapes plays off the refracted light beams to create a natural camouflage to their sea-floor environment.

Still practicing this technique and working on some other challenges... depth of field, underwater light effects, and foreshortening. I took some liberties in simplifying the anatomy and details, while still trying to tell the story of this unique animal.

The story behind the piece

I decided pretty quickly that I wanted to create a crab for the letter C. So why not go for the largest known arthropod species, the Japanese Spider Crab, who's legs can reach up to 3.7 m (12.1 ft) from claw to claw! Super cool.

The Japanese name for this species is taka-ashi-gani, (Japanese: たかあしがに), literally translating to “tall legs crab”. (Thanks Wikipedia!)

I added the cell phone in part because it fits the C theme, and for it's attention-grabbing value as an out-of-place object in this scene. However, it serves a third purpose in that it depicts a troubling reality of ocean pollution and the threat to underwater ecosystems. Thankfully through growing public awareness and environmental policy, there are many entrepreneurs and advocacy groups working towards cleaner, more sustainable ocean habitats.