Lois van Baarle | Oct 11, 1985 | The Netherlands
Short story: I’m a digital artist who has been drawing my whole life. I do character design work for clients all over the world, and spend my free time making digital paintings and sketches.
As for the long story, I’ve been drawing pretty much my whole life. Ever since I can remember, my teachers and classmates told me that drawing was my ‘talent,’ which motivated me to keep practicing. I was born in the Netherlands, and I was 4 years old, my dad got a job at the Dutch embassy and our family relocated to the U.S.A (Falls Church in Virginia, to be exact). After that, we relocated every 3-4 years, so I spent my childhood years in a mix of different countries, including Indonesia, France, and Belgium.
When I was 15, I discovered digital art. We had a trial version of Photoshop which I liked to experiment with, and I also discovered Oekaki, a kind of online drawing program similar to Paint. I spent all my free time drawing and when I was in my senior year of high school, I had to face the fact that I loved drawing too much not to pursue it as a career. I ended up choosing animation, and signed up for the animation course in Ghent (Belgium). I studied there for a year and then moved back to my home country to study animation at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht (HKU) in Hilversum, where I studied for 4 years and finally got my master’s degree in 2009 with my graduation project Trichrome Blue.
I decided to start as a freelancer after graduating and took on all sorts of odd jobs making animation, game art and promotional illustrations. Over time, my focus became more and more centered around character design. I’ve done character designs for LEGO, Guerrilla Games, Amazon, EA, Coca-Cola, and more. Next to my client work, I always prioritized working on my personal paintings and drawings in my free time.
In 2016, I teamed up with my publisher, 3Dtotal, to release my first artbook, The Art of Loish, which was funded successfully on kickstarter in under two hours. Two years later, I released my second artbook, The Sketchbook of Loish, featuring rough work and sketches. Finally, I completed the trilogy with The Style of Loish – a book about how I developed my style, filled with tips and advice for artists who are searching for their own artistic voice. These artbooks not only feature my art, but also contain tips, tutorials, and background information that give insights into my creative process. Writing these made me realize that I really enjoy sharing knowledge about drawing, and demystifying the digital art process.
As a result, I started giving workshops and lectures. I’ve spoken at events, given live demonstrations, and travelled to many different countries to give interactive workshops to aspiring digital artists. Through these workshops, I discovered how much I love teaching, so I also set up a Patreon page where I post tips, tutorials and behind-the-scenes material about how I make my art. I also created a free library of resources called Loish’s Digital Art School for artists who are unsure of where to start with their learning process.
I’m currently based in Utrecht, the Netherlands, where I live with my partner in crime, Arjen Klaverstijn, who helped make this site!
Still have questions? Check out my FAQ, where I give information about my art, career, and advice for artists.