Lois van Baarle’s Awe-Inspiring illustrations

by Allen Ray · Published August 16, 2013 · Updated March 30, 2014

Lois Van Baarle, Also Known As Loish Is An Artist From The Netherlands, And Makes Gorgeous Pieces With Her Stunning Techniques, As Well Her Traces And Colors, Which Make Of Her Work, And Unique Set Of Dazzling Art.

Lois Has Been Drawing Since The Day She Could Hold A Pencil, And Started Self Learning To Draw Digitally In 2003. Although She Was Born In Holland And Has Dutch Nationality, She Has Lived All Over The World, Including The United States, Indonesia, France And Belgium. Upon Finishing High School In 2004, She Studied Animation In Ghent (Belgium) For A Year And Then Moved Back To Home Country To Study Animation At The Hogeschool Voor De Kunsten Utrecht (HKU) In Hilversum. She Is Currently A Freelance Illustrator And Animator Located In Utrecht (the Netherlands) And Living With Boyfriend And Fellow Animator Arjen Klaverstijn.

When She Was 15, Her Source Of Inspiration Was Japanese Drawing Styles (animé And Manga), As Well As Various French Comic Artists (particularly The Work Of Aurore BlackCat) And Art Nouveau (particularly Alfonse Mucha).

For Sketches, She Puts More Emphasis On Flow And Expression Than On Anatomical Precision. Shapes, Movement And Direction Are More Important Than Details, Which Can Be Added Later. This Approach Reduces Stiffness In The Final Drawing. She Often Sketches Digitally Using Photoshop, Although Sometimes She Also Sketches Using Pencil.

Choosing Colors, She Says, Is Largely An Intuitive Process. She Just Slaps Really Rough Colors Onto The Image And Mess Around With It Until She Likes What Is Visible. Using Color Editing Controls Plays A Huge Role In This Process – Hue/saturation, Color Balance, And Replace Color Are The Options She Uses Most.

When She’s Happy With The Colors, She Then Starts Adding More Details. Her Valuable Tip Is To Avoid Using Shadows Or Highlights Which Are Simply Lighter Or Darker Versions Of Your Base Color. Try Using A Different Color For The Shadows Or Highlights To Give More Dimension And Life To Your Picture. Another Method She Uses Is To Add Textures Early On In The Process, Which Can Add Colors, Depth And Interesting Effects To The Colored Sketch (for More Info On Textures, Skip Ahead To 1.4.5 – Textures).

Textures Play A Huge Role In All Her Works. They Have An Effect On The Colors And Overall Look Of All Her Illustrations. She Also Tend To Add A Texture Early In The Painting Process, Merge It With The Coloring Layer, And Basically Paint On The Texture, Which Helps Blend The Texture In With Her Coloring. As For The Types Of Textures, Lois Often Uses Images Of Concrete Or Plaster Walls, Which Have Fine, Grainy Details And Give A Grungy Look.

She Says That She Almost Always Uses One Layer To Paint, Adding Extra Layers For Small Tweaks And Adjustments Throughout The Painting Process But Merging Them With The Main Layer Frequently. Especially While Painting In The Details, She Likes To Use One Coloring Layer And Add Layers Only While Adding Textures Or Other Details, Which Ends Up Merging Into One Layer After A While. You Can See All Her Works At oish.net.