Strategically placed shadows and highlights make these incredibly intricate nature-themed drawings more than just impressive pages in an artist’s sketchbook. The pieces reveal unexpected depths and textures, and sometimes seem to lift right off the pages and into the real world, as if the sketchbook just couldn’t contain their vitality. Artist Visothkakvei shows off a variety of optical illusion techniques on his Instagram.

Fighting for the night. Once he’s freed, the world will turn dark forever.

A post shared by Visothkakvei (@visothkakvei) on Jun 2, 2017 at 4:26am PDT

Many of Visothkakvei’s works are contained within the bounds of his books. Though the drawings of flowers, leaves, vines and other organic subjects may look like simple doodles, it’s the way the artist layers them, packs them onto the page and adds shadows that makes them special. Some begin to creep beyond the boundaries of the paper.

Awaken #original #art #visothkakvei

A post shared by Visothkakvei (@visothkakvei) on May 16, 2017 at 4:03am PDT

And, in some cases, it’s clear that more than just two-dimensional physical drawing is involved, though the artist doesn’t reveal his secrets. Some of this looks like he’s taken a photograph of his own hand working on the drawings, and layered digital drawing on top of it in a style that matches, making it unclear where the originals end and the digital additions begin.

Everytime I do the artwork, I see it around me. #original #art #visothkakvei

A post shared by Visothkakvei (@visothkakvei) on Mar 19, 2017 at 1:14pm PDT

Doodling #art #visothkakvei

A post shared by Visothkakvei (@visothkakvei) on May 11, 2017 at 5:35am PDT

Check out lots more of these works, along with videos of the drawings in progress, at Instagram.com/visothkakvei.