My learning process

The short answer is that I am a self-taught artist! I’ve been drawing my entire life and got a lot of encouragement from my immediate environment, which pushed me to continue learning. I took a few art classes in elementary school which taught me a lot about drawing from reference, but after that my art education was limited to lots of practice in my free time. I started drawing digitally with a mouse when I was 15 and got my first tablet when I was 16. After that, I spent a ton of time drawing digitally, teaching myself almost everything I know about digital software and using a tablet. I was obsessed! When I was 18, I decided to study animation and was an animation student for 5 years – one year at KASK in Gent, and 4 years at the HKU in Utrecht. I learned a lot of valuable things at these schools, but building the foundation of my digital art style was something I did on my own.

When I was 15 and first developing my style, my main influences were japanese drawing styles (animé and manga), various french comic artists (particularly the work of Aurore BlackCat) and Art Nouveau (particularly Alphonse Mucha). I was also inspired by the Disney films I grew up watching, especially The Little Mermaid. I made a ton of Ariel fan art in my early digital art days! I then joined DeviantArt and found a lot of inspiration from artwork I found there. I continue to be inspired by a wide range of artists whose work I follow online. Here is an influence map that gives a general idea of the different artists and people who influenced my style.

My style is the result of mixing all those influences that inspired my work in my early drawing days. It was something that happened organically and that others noticed before I did. I also think that the process was catalyzed by being self-taught and finding my own solutions for the creative problems I ran into.

For artists searching for their own style, I think it’s important to draw inspiration from the styles that inspire you most, and get that from a variety of sources rather than just one or two. I think working intuitively is also very important: try to draw what feels good to you, instead of getting too technical or over-thinking the drawing process. This makes it easier to develop your own unique approach to drawing! If you want to learn more about how I developed my style, my third artbook, The Style of Loish, does a deep dive into the topic and also has lots of tips and exercise suggestions for artists who are searching for their style!

My old art was all over the place! If you are curious to see my old art and websites, I uploaded them for your viewing pleasure, including traditional art, digital art, oekakis, and old website layouts. Most of these drawings are from 2003 to 2005, when I was just starting out with my current style! I also did a livestream talk with my friend Iris Compiet about our old art and creative journeys over time, which you can watch here. Prepare yourself for the cringe!