This is What Happens When a Fashion Designer Starts Painting

Dutch painter Roxy van Bemmel relies on her background in fashion when tending to her craft. With a degree in fashion design from ArtEZ Arnhem, Bemmel paints fashionable portraits of women and men, based on a designer’s point of view.

Working both commercially and otherwise, van Bemmel has collaborated with fashion magazines, creating editorial illustrations. “Freelancing makes me schedule my own time and this is absolutely what makes it worth all the extra work and uncertainties,” she told I Love Illustration. “Being my own boss and deciding for myself what to do that day is incredibly rewarding.”

And much like her day to day, her creative process also varies, allowing her much room for playfulness and intuition. “Most of the time I brainstorm in my sketchbook and make small 15sec sketches to figure out the composition and pose,” she says. “Sometimes I only sketch one, sometimes I need more, but they always help me figure it out before starting on a big blank paper.”

She starts out by drawing with colored pencils and sometimes markers for some big gestures, moving onto acrylic paint if needed. She sometimes works digitally as well but makes sure to begin with a drawing on paper. Take a look at some of her creations in the gallery below.