Ruling out the line work

Lois explains how changing the way she works helped her find her voice, a style and a mood that she’s become synonymous with When Lois van Baarle decided to abandon line art and instead paint over her sketches with the bright colours that have become her calling card, it marked a turning point in her creative career.

“This sounds like a detail, but it changed my entire way of working,” the Dutch artist says. “I stopped planning out my artwork ahead of time and stopped wasting time on details in the line work.”

Changing her technique in this way helped Lois shape a trademark style she calls “feminine and emotive”, while also drawing on two of her biggest inspirations: Disney and Art Nouveau. Her overall aim is to capture a very specific moment in time, and she achieves this largely through colour.

“My process became more intuitive and I added details while painting, not in the line work. This has become the defining feature of my current digital painting process.”

“I like to play around with colours and see how much I can make them stand out. In this case I wanted the hair to feel like it’s glowing.” “One of my inspirations is Art Nouveau. It’s not only the decorative quality of the works, but also the ethereal feeling and the sense of flow. I tried to capture these flowing forms with the hair, as well as the golden elements.” “This is based on a series of photographs I took of my living room around sunset. I don’t draw environments as often as I draw characters, so when I do, I try to base them on existing places that I know well.” “Space is always presented as a hostile, unforgiving place to be. I wanted to try portraying space as a calm, peaceful and beautiful

place in this image.”

Lumen

sunset

Silence

Gl ow in the Dark