Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

The Art of Loish: A Look Behind the Scenes

Rate this book
Lois van Baarle is a freelance animator/illustrator from the Netherlands who graduated in 2009 from the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht. Since then, her work has become very popular across the internet, with her Facebook followers closing in on one million and her Twitter account watched by over nineteen thousand eager eyes. The Art of Loish is her first "art of" book, and will examine her inspirations while showcasing some of her early work. Following this, the reader will learn how she developed her very distinctive style and discover advice as she discusses her working methods, offering tips on a variety of techniques that she utilizes in her art every day! The additional exclusive content of this book makes it a must-have for any lover of Loish's work!

152 pages, Hardcover

First published March 7, 2016

18 people are currently reading
635 people want to read

About the author

Lois van Baarle

14 books53 followers

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
451 (73%)
4 stars
130 (21%)
3 stars
34 (5%)
2 stars
1 (<1%)
1 star
0 (0%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
Profile Image for Steph.
149 reviews76 followers
July 5, 2018
4.5 stars

LOVED LOVED LOVED THIS!! I love Loish's style and the colour schemes that she uses in her digital artwork, skeetches her characters in general. Her book is extremely inspiring. I also love the quick tips that she gave. I just wanted a few more pages in this book and I would've been completely satisfied. If you haven't seen Loish's work I highly recommend you check them out on social media and this book in general. I need to get my hands on her second book right now.
Profile Image for Patrick.
55 reviews8 followers
February 7, 2017
This is coming from a loyal fan -- this book is very good. There is a good balance of her artwork with explanations behind her work. It's rich with beauty and Lois' personality shines through each page.

However, I do wish there was a bit more to it all. I found myself wanting to know more about her process depending on what interest me. Some felt lighter than others. Each section has snippets of her journey and the book is almost constructed in a way where it leaves you wanting more despite it delivering a lot of good content. It's a must have for any fan.
Profile Image for Alexis U.
321 reviews54 followers
February 23, 2017
I got this for Christmas from my friend who introduced me to Loish ages ago and ~flails~ I love it so much it's just all so pretty and I love showing this off to people.
Profile Image for TheSirensLibrary.
213 reviews7 followers
July 31, 2016
While this was a fantastically GORGEOUS book I feel like some bits were just eh.

My absolute favourite part of this book (other than the gorgeous artworks) are the Tutorial and tips sections, which unfortunately took over a very small portion of the book. This would be a total 5 stars if there were more pages for those sections, especially tips. Excellent really.

Huge fan of Loish, always have been. Her art is stunning and so worth checking out. This book is definitely worth taking a look at as well, an excellent coffee table book too.

If able to check this out, it's beautiful
Profile Image for Elise.
18 reviews
January 2, 2020
Great book that gives wonderful insight to an artists perspective, process and learning curves!
It is not a must-have to draw but if you are a art book fanatic then it is a love on the bookshelves!
Profile Image for Waffle.
136 reviews
August 13, 2023
Good art book with a couple useful tips. Good if you like artbooks.
Profile Image for Bivisyani Questibrilia.
Author 1 book23 followers
April 29, 2018
Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! I just got my copy in the mail yesterday and I am excited as hell! When Loish started her Kickstarter campaign of this one, I was unfortunately unable to back it—as I had no credit card—and disappointed a great deal for missing out. When she started out another Kickstarter campaign, I didn't hesitate to get the tier that will enable me to acquire this one and the Sketchbook one. Without a shadow of a doubt, I am so very happy I made that investment months ago!

This book includes a lot of information into the inner workings of Loish's artistic mindset and process of improving and evolving her art work. Having followed her for several years—over 10 years now, in fact—this book just hit me with serious nostalgic feelings. It really made me understand why her works are so amazing and people—including me—fall in love with her pieces time and time again. Exploring various ways in which she produces her art, it got me all inspired to experiment and create more myself. The book includes tutorials/process on how she created 2 very different pieces—which I'm very, very intrigued to try out.

The structure of the book is very well managed and arranged, the writing style very easy to understand and beautiful. It starts with a beautiful introduction and wraps up nicely in several tips to leave us off with. So intrigued to flip through the second book!
Profile Image for Aaron.
1,041 reviews44 followers
October 26, 2020
In THE ART OF LOISH, one rediscovers the familiar combinations of color and shading and character modeling that makes van Baarle's work so recognizable.

In van Baarle's art, one encounters the floaty and floral emotive denominations that remind one of the dynamism of art nouveau as well as the polished and inimitable contrivances of color theory native to experimental digital artistry. To a point, her art is easy to fall in love with. For the sake of this artist, one then resumes an array of portrait illustrations with gorgeous soft-shading, intense and faraway gazes, and too-long necks. One also observes conceptual sketches whose breadth and variation of style envelopes and supersedes much of what is expected.

A contrasting view may hold that intuition gains considerable sway in van Baarle's art, to great success and obvious detriment. The artist is high on stylization (colors, textures, other additive elements) but weaker on form (composition, shapes, and proportion).

Art books of this sort have a tendency to articulate a way of working in the absence of obvious limitations. THE ART OF LOISH is a lovely glimpse over the shoulder of a skilled professional. But a follow-up, a dozen years from now, will likely prove more insightful.
Profile Image for Mariana Flores.
Author 18 books19 followers
December 6, 2017
Bem eu gostaria de poder comprar todos os livros que queria… e ter estantes até ao tecto! Mas não podendo fazer tanto, vou tentando ler os meus romances emprestados da biblioteca municipal, para poder investir nos meu tipo de livros favorito: livros de arte!

O livro de que falo hoje é The Art of Loish: A Look Behind The Scenes, da artista Lois van Baarle. Loish é uma artista que dispensa apresentações. É uma animadora e ilustradora freelancer da Holanda super popular na internet, com as suas contas de facebook e instagram chegando quase a um milhão de seguidores.

O livro está estruturado de uma maneira muito simples, com textos curtos e descomplicados que acompanham cada imagem. É uma leitura que é um prazer, tanto para outros artistas como para os fãs. Gostaria que as explicações fossem um pouco mais específicas e técnicas, mas talvez isso tirasse essa leveza à leitura. As ilustrações são fantásticas e a edição é muito bonita, com uma capa em papel reciclado resistente, para garantir que o livro se manterá em boas condições por muitos anos!
Profile Image for Emma.
26 reviews4 followers
January 12, 2018
Kindly gifted this for Christmas and I fell in love with the visuals as soon as I opened it up. It’s so refreshing to see someone talk through their artistic development so plainly. It read much more like a casual conversation than your typical art book, something I really appreciated as I’ve found others can be quite pretentious and unnecessarily complex. The artwork is gorgeous, the layout is clean and there’s just enough text to peak your interest and give an insight into her process. I recommend adding this to your collection if you have an interest in illustration. Read through in one sitting but will definitely be giving it another read soon.
Profile Image for Kari Larsen.
3 reviews11 followers
September 24, 2017
Gorgeous book which has provided me with a lot of insight and inspiration and given me some new ways to think about art :) the only downside is that the tutorial section in the back can be a little light and confusing in some areas but I think I can make out what she meant in most cases, however, if the reader has no experience with photoshop they might be left confused until they learn a bit more about the program.
Profile Image for Julieta Tobon.
305 reviews40 followers
November 22, 2018
She is my favourite artist and having this book along side with the second one make me really happy.
Her commentaries are super relatable, as a character designer and animator myself I feel exactly how she felt on her process and dealing with clients. Sometimes I feel frustrating with my artwork or my style but seeing that my favourite artist felt the same way and seeing how amazing she is right now, really motivates me and inspires me!
Profile Image for Linda.
375 reviews3 followers
August 28, 2025
This was a quick but still lovely read. It's always interesting to know how artists have developed their art and what their process looks like, and this was a great look into that. Admittedly, I spent less time looking at the pictures than I probably should have since I was more focused on reading, but I'll no doubt come back to it at some point, then more so for the pictures.

So yes! I enjoyed it and look forward to reading the other two art books by Lois.
Profile Image for Ali.
193 reviews13 followers
May 18, 2017
"creating artwork is such a deeply personal process; it can be as draining and difficult as it is rewarding and enjoyable"

this book's a ray of light. the concept art and storyboards was definitely my favorite part, but I also loved the sketches and studies part, and the tutorials!!! the quick tips were great too.
Profile Image for Gijs Grob.
Author 1 book52 followers
August 7, 2024
Well-printed coffee table book in which Dutch digital artist Lois van Baarle takes us along her journey as an artist. With tips and tricks for other aspiring artists in the end, whether digital or not. Van Baarle's texts are sympathetic, but it is of course her gorgeous art that steals the show. I wish more of that was included in the book.
Profile Image for Haley Kilgour.
1,310 reviews1 follower
December 28, 2022
Definitely a fun an cool book for aspiring or budding artists.

I did find a few things became repetitive.

Where she broke down her drawings I glossed over but I can see this being really helpful for other people.
Profile Image for Tyra.
9 reviews
January 23, 2024
Been so excited to read this book and it was definitely worth the excitement. I loved this art book so much it was so informative and had such beautiful art (obviously its loish art) and am definitely gonna apply the things I learnt from this to my art 💙🩵
Profile Image for Lesley.
2,422 reviews14 followers
June 12, 2017
Pretty. Makes you want to do art.
Profile Image for Oscar.
281 reviews1 follower
January 12, 2019
One of my artist idols for sure, this is a lovely trip though her various styles. Completely worth the read for the last few pages where She breaks down her techniques and offers tips.
Profile Image for Sarah.
70 reviews9 followers
January 21, 2019
A great inspirational read for all artist and worth the read!
Profile Image for indi.
150 reviews
April 14, 2020
A delightful informative book full of aesthetically pleasing artwork I could spend all day looking at !!
Profile Image for Paolo.
267 reviews
March 28, 2021
Great look into how Loish does their work!
Profile Image for Katie Jackson.
33 reviews1 follower
January 28, 2022
A Beautiful book, that creates wonderful inspiration. Some basic tutorials in the back. But I wish it went a little more in depth into her overall process.
Profile Image for Y.Poston.
2,550 reviews7 followers
Read
June 15, 2023
a gorgeous exploration of the artist
and her art!
Profile Image for Beccy.
329 reviews1 follower
July 11, 2019
True rating; 4.25 stars

A beautiful collection of Loish's art, with a bit of her background, style development and some tutorials showing her preferred work ethic.

Only thing I felt slightly disappointed by was some of the big pages being left with blank spaces. I wanted more art! I'm sure this is only a snapshot of her work from what I remember of the portfolio she used to upload onto DeviantArt.

Not sure why it took me so long to get round to this. I was one of the Kickstarter backers that got the book made, and that's how I got my copy.
Profile Image for Glen Parks.
29 reviews7 followers
February 25, 2017
A lovingly crafted coffee table book that is a little bit history of the artist, a little bit gallery, a little bit commentary, and a little bit how-to. Of all of those elements, I maybe wish there were a little bit more finished artwork, but I suppose I can always go to Loish's DeviantArt page for that. All the sketches were great though, and the how-to was fascinating.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.