Loish

TUTORIAL // creating interesting & flowy shapes

This is one of my personal favorite tutorials that I've made. It's about how you can use shapes to create a sense of visual flow in your art! In it, I discuss how you can cultivate your own shape language and use it to create appealing designs that have a sense of flow and life. Using interesting shapes manifests itself in every stage of the creation process, from initial sketch to rendering and detailing. Because of that, improving at shapes is something that can strengthen your art at every le...

EARLY ACCESS// nasturtium

This is apparently the kind of thing I draw when I’m overwhelmed and overstimulated! I was in need of something calming and soothing and this came out. This is a nasturtium flower, which is usually red/yellow but I switched the colors around to bring it closer to my current favorite color scheme of green and purple. I love playing around with colors that way!

Fun fact: this flower is edible and my partner Arjen often makes delicious lunches and salads with these flowers in them from o...

EARLY ACCESS // winter landscapes

The cold days are coming! We don’t often get snow here, but I hope these months will bring some snow and ice - it’s always so beautiful to see!

For these speedpaints, I wanted to play around a bit with textured brushes. I don’t use them very often - I tend to prefer clean edges, so I usually stick to my hard round brush and lasso tool. But I feel like that sometimes holds me back when painting landscapes. I want to create more complexity but that’s so hard to do when you have a...

The 2024 Secret Santa event has begun!

Hello lovely patrons! Just like last year, we're doing a Secret Santa gift exchange in the discord server! This is a virtual art exchange that is open to artists of all skill levels. It’s a very wholesome and festive event, and I would love it if you participated! I'll be joining too of course!

Head on over to the discord server to join - you'll find all the info in the #secret-santa-2024 channel in the Lounge section! If you want to join but aren't sure how to get in...

Here's a free gift as a token of my thanks!

I just wanted to thank you for being a part of my Patreon and joining the free tier. Your support means a lot to me! As a token of my thanks, I've made the process video for my Abundance painting available for free. I feel like it fits the theme of autumn and now is the perfect time to share it with you! I hope you enjoy it!

What do you think of my Patreon?

Hello lovely Patrons! I'm collecting testimonials about my Patreon page, and I wanted to ask if you could leave a little review of my Patreon if you have the time for it! I get a lot of questions about my Patreon from people who aren't sure whether it's a good fit for them, and I feel like it would help their decision making process a lot if they could browse through some reviews and get a sense of what others...

TUTORIAL // painting foliage & complex detail

It's time for this month's tutorial! It's on painting foliage and complex detail, and runs you through how you can paint dense leaves in a gradual and structured way. This way, your foliage art will look expressive, interesting and complex! You can use the same workflow for other types of dense detail, like feathers, hair or grass.

I mention a variety of brushes...

UPDATE // finding your style - exercise booklet

Hello lovely patrons! In last month's Q&A session, I discussed an exercise booklet that I created for the kickstarter edition of my third artbook, The Style of Loish. This booklet was intended as a companion to the book, and is full of worksheets, exercises, and ...

What's coming up // November 2024

It's the last month of this fall season! I just got back from Lightbox Expo in LA and am battling my jetlag, but I'm really looking forward to this month. It's a calm month without too much travel or commitments, which means I can really focus on some art ideas that I've been putting off. This is what you can expect from me this month here on Patreon!

2024-11-04 10:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post

PDF // finding your style - exercise booklet

This is an exercise booklet that was released with the Kickstarter edition of my third artbook, The Style of Loish ! The Style of Loish is all about finding your style and has lots of exercise suggestions to help you on your journey. This accompanying exercise booklet is intended as a companion to the book, and is full of worksheets, exercises, and ideas that will help you find your own artistic style! This is a PDF version of the booklet, which is 45 pages long - 18 of which are blank pages to...

UPDATE // subscribing through the Patreon app

Hello lovely patrons! As you may know, Patreon is not only a website but also an iOS app that you can use on your iPhone. You can subscribe to my Patreon tiers directly through this app - but recenly, Apple has decided to take 30% of the membership costs. That's a pretty big chunk!

This doesn't affect those who are already subscribed - so don't ...

MONTHLY CHALLENGE // same head, different angles

We are diving back into the very foundation of drawing: construction! This month, we are drawing the same head from different angles. You can draw a front view next to a side view, or add as many angles as you like. This is a great challenge for practicing consistency and improving your head construction technique! It's also a good opportunity to try more simplified styles if you're struggling with getting the details right. The inspiration folder is full of examples of such ...

What I created this month // October 2024

My favorite month of the year has come to a close! I had such a great time and I'm looking back on it with a huge smile. Here's an overview of everything I made in October!

This month's tutorial was on Creating Emotive Art! I really enjoyed making this tutorial because it was such a mutilayered top...

Last chance to grab your 2025 calendar!

Friendly reminder: this is the last chance to get your Loish 2025 Calendar! It's a limited release product, which means you can only get it until October 31st. After that, it will no longer be available ~ head on over to Loish.Shop to get it before time runs out!

RESOURCE // expressive cats

Here's a little resource video about this month’s challenge! In this video, I do a quick review of the artwork posted in the discord, walk you through my process for creating the artwork for this challenge, and discuss common mistakes and tips for tackling studies like these in the future!

I hope you find it helpful ❤ And thank you to everyone who participated in this challenge! If you h...

PROCESS VIDEO // expressive cats

Here's the process video for my expressive cat studies! Here's the final result of the session:

Some info about this process:

• This was sped up by 300%, so 3 times the original speed.

• The drawing session took me about 1 hours and 45 minutes in total.

I also...

EARLY ACCESS // expressive cats

This month’s challenge for flame members was on drawing expressive cats! It's a great way to practice drawing animals but also an opportunity to draw one of Halloween's best mascots! This was my first time drawing black cats, which presented its own challenges, but it was a ton of fun to draw expressive silhouettes.

Flame members also get the full process video, plus a 2024-10-30 10:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post

PROCESS VIDEO // factory - part 2

Here’s part 2 of the process video for an older painting I did back in 2021! The first part was posted a few minutes before this one. 

Here’s some information about this process video: 

• The process has been sped up by 300%, so 3 times the original speed. 

• This painting session took me about 6.5 hours in total. This vid...

  2024-10-25 09:03:01 +0000 UTC View Post

PROCESS VIDEO // factory - part 1

Here’s the process video for an older painting I did back in 2021! I put this together at the request of a patron, who was curious to see the process for this artwork. I divided this into two parts - this is part 1 of 2!

Friendly reminder: if you want to see a process video that hasn’t been posted yet, you can always request it! I record the process of most of m...

The Loish 2025 Calendar is here!

Hello Patrons! At long last, I've released a calendar! I've gotten so many requests to make one, and I'm so happy to announce that it's finally here - and it even comes with a super cute sticker sheet! I've been working on this one for months and I put a lot of love and care into this!

This is a limited release product, which means you can only get it until October 31st. After that, it will no longer be av...

I'm going to be at Lightbox Expo!

Hey lovely Patrons! I'm going to be at Lightbox Expo this year - at least, if my immune system holds up this time! If you're going to be there too, I have a gift for you ~ just tell me the secret password and I'll give you a free sticker. The password is Bonfire!

I also have cute stickers for my newsletter subscribers. If you're also signed up to my 2024-10-22 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post

EARLY ACCESS // pink leaves

I wish I was good at keeping plants alive, because then I would definitely get myself one of these plants that has pink leaves! The colors are just so beautiful! For now I’ll just use them as inspiration for my art ~ 

Q&A // October 2024

Here's the full October Q&A session! There were some great recurring themes, like allowing ourselves to pursue our creativity and interests - despite limitations that social media or fear of failure can place on us! I didn’t manage to answer all of the questions in this session because there were so many, so I’ll probably do two sessions next month to catch up. For now, I hope you enjoy this session!

Some of the topics covered in this session are:

• Finding your styl...

  2024-10-20 20:10:55 +0000 UTC View Post

PROCESS VIDEO // autumn landscape

Here’s the process for my Autumn landscape speedpaint that I posted earlier this month! I feel like this process combines a lot of different techniques that might be interesting to watch. 

Here’s some information about this process video: 

• The process has been sped up by 250%, so 2.5 times the original speed.

• This paint...

  2024-10-18 09:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post

REMINDER // Q&A session this weekend

Hello flame members! This is just a friendly reminder that this month's Q&A session is on October 20 at 5PM CEST.  That's in four days! Visit this time zone converter to see what time that is in your area.

I hope some of you can make it, and as always, feel free to drop any questions you have into the #ask-loish channel on the ...

EARLY ACCESS // shapes

In my sketchbook post from last week, I talked about an idea I had to combine poses with geometric shapes surrounding them. I decided to try out the same idea again, this time making the proportions of the poses a bit more chunky to really push that shape-based idea. 

In this version the shapes are a bit more floaty and non-threatening, so I’m probably going to revisit the idea again and see if I can push that ‘trapped’ vibe of my original sketches. I had a lot of fun drawing...

TUTORIAL // soft & hard edges with the lasso tool

This tutorial is about a very specific workflow I use: combining the lasso tool and a brush or gradient so that you have perfect edge control, but also softer edges that blend beautifully into your drawing. In this video, I run you through this process in both Photoshop and Procreate, and discuss the benefits and advantages of working this way! Key lessons include: How you can create interesting selections with the lasso tool Which brushes you can use to get a nice mix of soft and hard edges H...

EARLY ACCESS // october sketches

Time for a sketch session! Some faces, scarf studies, and a rough idea I have for drawing poses combined with shapes. I was thinking about how I could arrange the elements to create a feeling of the girl being kind of a puzzle piece amongst the shapes. I will probably work on that idea a bit more in a future sketch session! For now, I hope you like these sketchbook pages ~ 

EARLY ACCESS // autumn trees

‘Tis the season for autumn landscapes! I love these colors so much, and it’s been a while since I drew a landscape so I felt it was time to make this one! 

I used a technique for this one that involves combining the lasso tool with the DaveMH Spellbook speckle brushes. You can watch a tutorial about this workflow here! ...

TUTORIAL // creating emotive art

This month's tutorial is about creating emotive art! It's basically about how I channel emotion into my work, and also talks about different ways that you can put the focus on emotive themes in your own art. It is not about drawing expressions - that's a different topic that I covered in my con...