Award-winning illustrator and author, Marloes De Vries, was drawn to art before she could even talk properly. As a young girl, born and raised in the Netherlands, she would make robots out of shoe boxes and scribble on any piece of paper she would find lying around the house. And when there weren’t any papers, she would take to the walls.
Naturally, she ended up going to art school and after graduating she dipped her toes into graphic design, art direction, and photography. It was only in 2010 that she finally took the leap and decided to work as an illustrator, which was (according to her), “the best decision I ever made.”
“Drawing has always been my main focus and being creative is deeply rooted in my being,” she tells Freelance Wisdom. “I started drawing at a very early age, around 3 years old. I always said I wanted to be an artist when I was a little girl. When I got older and my cousin said she wanted to go to art school, I started saying the same. At 14 I started designing websites and at 18 I got accepted into art school.”
“I graduated with a Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication when I was 21. I didn’t study illustration as my teachers said I couldn’t draw very well. That broke my heart. I tried forgetting about illustration and I ended up in advertising. I was an art director for some years and dabbled as a freelance editorial photographer for a couple of years until something within me said I should get back to drawing.”
Nowadays, she works as a freelance illustrator and writer, working with publishers, magazines and other companies. Her illustrations (highly relatable) remind of the daily struggles of being a human. Well worth following on Instagram, if nothing else.
