Cities can change so rapidly, leaving behind barely-recognizable versions of the streets we once knew and loved, adapting and transforming along with the rest of the world. It may be a fact of life, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to preserve what we can of the history that’s meaningful to us – even if that just means paying tribute to it with art. Australian-born, London-based illustrator Max Tiles does just that with tiny illustrated cut-outs, which he often photographs against the real-life buildings they represent.

Tilse’s most recent series captures some of London’s most charming pubs, like The Bricklayers Arms in Fitzrovia, which he describes as “a quaint piece of Georgian architecture… the Bricklayers Arms has been a running pub since 1789.” Other pubs seen here include the Coach & Horses at 5 Bruton Street in Mayfair, The Blackfriar, The Crown in Seven Dials, Covent Garden and The Dove on Broadway Market in Hackney.

Tiles also draws miniatures of other major London landmarks, from Big Ben to the Tower Bridge. While backpacking across Europe, Tilse kept a ‘diary’ of sketches of the scenes he liked most, turning them into 5×5-inch postcards.

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A post shared by Maxwell Tilse (@maxwellillustration)

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A post shared by Maxwell Tilse (@maxwellillustration)

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A post shared by Maxwell Tilse (@maxwellillustration)

You can see more of his work at his website, and purchase prints at his Etsy shop.

A pane of glass overlaid with a simple line drawing brings crumbling ruins to life at one of Austria’s most famous historical sites, reanimating the partial building near the Open Air Museum Petronell. When a viewer lines up the illustration with the structure, known as Heidentor (Heathen’s Gate), the image completes itself in a compelling yet entirely low-tech fashion.

Located just east of Vienna, Carnuntum dates back to the the 1st Century A.D., when Roman soldiers expanded on an existing town 50,000 people to create a military encampment. Between 354 AD and 361 AD a huge triumphal monument was erected next to the camp and city. Contemporary reports suggest that Emperor Constantius II had it built to commemorate his victories.

“When the remains of Carnuntum disappeared after the Migration Period the monument remained as an isolated building in a natural landscape and led Medieval people to believe it was the tomb of a pagan giant. Hence, they called it Heidentor.”

Preserving ancient historical sites is often a balance between stabilization and restoration; fully restoring can enhance the exterior appearance, but is costly and arguably diminishes the authenticity of a ruin. This approach strikes a balance, much like augmented overlays in digital history apps.

Massive deep sea monsters, jungle predators and swamp creatures lurk in the grimey shadows on the backs of trucks, thanks to interventions by illustrator Nikita Golubev. Most of the featured critters are of the potentially creepy variety, including a deep-sea angler fish, octopus, shark, alligator, lion, owl and orangutan.

Based in Russia, the artist works on cars sometimes as well, but finds the broad doors and long sides on larger vehicles particularly inviting as blank canvasses for light-on-dark works of art.

As a subtractive strategy, there is less risk associated with these impermanent pieces as well — at worst, some truck driver may be less than amused to find their dirty vehicle highlighted in such a way.

Reverse graffiti is nothing new, but most artists who work in that vein operate at smaller scales, cleaning up sections of door and rear windows rather than tall trucks. Naturally, these pieces are all temporary, destined to come off in the wash or rinse out in the rain (but live on in photographs).

The Golden Ratio has been a source of inspiration (and contention) for thousands of years, lurking behind great works of design. Venezuelan architect and illustrator Rafael Araujo is fascinated with patterns of nature and their applications to built environments, but as his artwork shows, is particularly interested in the Golden Ratio as found in natural settings.

These painstakingly created drawings trace this ratio into reality, animating everything from fluttering bird wings to the formation of seashells. Some of these sophisticated works take days or even weeks to complete — fans can also get in on the action with his recently created coloring book.

This coloring book provides a version of his pieces as frameworks for others to complete. The artist got the idea after fans started asking for prints, seeing it as a way to bring them into the process rather than simply giving them a framed product.

Using pencils, rulers, compasses and protractors, he spends as much as 100 hours on a given illustration of these mathematical expressions. Leftover lines, like those found faded in architectural drawings, give extra depth to each piece while also highlighting the geometry that goes into it.

His work shows how the geometric formulas of the Golden Ratio can be found in spirals of plants as well as the delicate flights of butterflies, all through hand drawings of each phenomenon. And as fascinating as they are in their finished form, animated images and process videos of the works in progress are especially intriguing.

Part of the challenge in his representations is their three-dimensional nature — showing complex organic curves accurately in 3D is an incredibly difficult feat of science applied to art. At the same time, something would be lost if these creations were simply done using computer programs (h/t Colossal).

Has doodling ever been more creative than this? While most people wouldn’t give a second’s thought to the shape an everyday object’s shadow casts upon adjacent surfaces, artist Vincent Bal looks at them and sees the beginnings of a character or scene. It might be a phone charger, a fallen leaf, a drinking glass or a Christmas ornament, but in its shadow, Bal sees far more than the object itself.

Each of Bal’s quick and clever illustrations is a testament to the creativity of an artist’s brain. Calling his work ‘shadowology,’ Bal plays around with silhouettes and light sources to find inspiration for sketches most people would never dream up. It takes the game of finding shapes in the clouds and applies an artist’s hand to the process, embellishing the shapes into something more.

Calling himself a ‘filmmaker and doodler and procrastinator from Belgium’, Bal shares his work on his popular Instagram account and sells prints on Etsy.