Every so often I will be highlighting an automata artist that has inspired me, whose work I feel is fantastic and that you should know about them too. My first inspiration, my “hero of paper automata” is a fine arts painter and paper crafter from the Netherlands by the name of Johan Scherft.

I didn’t discover Johan for his automata work, I first found out about him for his unbelievably realistic birds made from paper. He starts with some basic 3D forms in the computer and then finesses the heck out of them by hand. When the forms are perfect, he hand paints the entire thing in highly detailed watercolors. His animals are masterpieces, both artistically and technically. I do have some first hand knowledge of his work, I’ve purchased a bird and a dinosaur download from his site as well as his paper bird box set. His site has some free downloads too if you want to try building one of his creations. His automatas are not available in kit form (he does have an awesome free hatching dinosaur finger puppet, which is not technically an automata, it still moves).

Johan automatas are not strictly paper automatas, the main focus of the automata is an animal of some sort that is lovingly detailed out of paper but all his mechanisms are wood, metal and so on. He also makes fantastic use of magnets and mirrors too. Irregardless, Johan pushes the boundaries of what paper automata can be, making creations in paper that I have not seen surpassed in terms of realism.

Please check out his site at the link below.
Johan Scherft’s paper automatas
The link takes you right to his moving animal section but do yourself a favor and check out his whole site – if you are a paper crafter it is a real treat!