French artist Johanna Olk is known for her fine line illustrations of women.
Formerly a student of industrial design, Olk has always been attracted to objects and composition with timeless beauty. Whether it’s her fine line drawings or her large scaled canvases, Olk represents women who seem to dream, enveloped in a certain melancholy. She also tattoos some of her illustrated women, which has caught the tattooing world’s attention.
“It’s easier to draw what you know,” explained the artist in an interview with wertn. “So when I want to illustrate an emotion, it’s natural for me to portray it in a way that looks like me: a woman. That seems more realistic to me. I had a complex about my body for a long time, and drawing women has been a kind of way out of that. I also find women bodies easier to draw, I like their curves. Men have more angles, it’s harder for me to represent them.”
“I enjoy watching people in general, the way they move, they dress, they talk,” she added. “I used to draw women looking very different and dressing very differently but I am now more interested in emotions and very minimalist images. My personal emotions are very linked to my paintings and my characters can look a bit like me.”
“I started tattooing my friends for fun and posted it on my Instagram,” she revealed. “Unknowns then started to want a tattoo as well. That was a bit crazy.”
Check out some of her lovely illustrations in the gallery below.
