How did I learn to paint like this?

I get asked this question a lot lately and the answer is… it’s not one single thing. It’s years of collecting little skills, experimenting, failing, changing directions and somehow everything came together in the end.

First of all: I’ve been drawing and painting for years.

For a long time I painted portraits and especially eyes. I think this trained my brain more than anything else. At some point you don’t just see “an eye” anymore — you see all the tiny reflections, shadows, color shifts and little details.

And once you train your eyes to really see, you can basically learn to paint anything.

I also spent a lot of time with abstract art. Just experimenting with colors, shapes and textures. That helps me a lot with my backgrounds today. You slowly develop a feeling for colors, for what works together and what doesn’t. You also discover the colors you naturally come back to over and over again.

I actually don’t think you need to be able to paint everything from imagination. I use references all the time. Sometimes 20 different references for one artwork.

For me it’s almost like creating a collage in my head. For example: if I paint a mackerel on ice cream, I look up a mackerel, I look up ice cream, I look up an eyeball if there’s one hidden somewhere. Then I combine everything into my own little world.

And because I’ve painted so many different things over the years, my brain remembers details. I’ve painted certain textures, shapes or shadows before and can bring those little pieces back.

Another thing that shaped my style was digital art.

For a while I only drew guitar effect pedals digitally. They can look pretty boring, so I always had to ask myself:
“How can I make this oddly satisfying?”

Digital art has tools that traditional art doesn’t have, but somehow I trained myself to bring that digital feeling back into my paintings. The bubbly highlights, shadows, lettering, textures.

In digital art you also learn how to suggest details without drawing every single tiny thing. For example a speaker texture — digitally you might use a pattern, but traditionally I learned to loosely create the feeling of that texture instead.

I also think repeating similar subjects helped me a lot.

At one point I painted around 50 small wooden panels in one style, mostly with food. I always searched for the most satisfying fruit, candy or object to paint. And slowly I realized:
I always came back to bright colors. Neon. Sweet things. Shiny things.

Then life happened.

I went through something that changed my perspective and somehow the darker, more morbid elements appeared naturally.

I always had a melancholic side. I love combining cute things with decay, sweetness with sadness. I want my art to create a feeling. Sometimes something beautiful, sometimes something that hurts a little. Something that makes your brain tingle.

When you finally start moving into the direction that feels right, the biggest thing is honestly:
practice, practice, practice.

Good materials also help. They don’t magically make you a better artist, but having tools that actually work can level up your art and make experimenting so much easier.

Of course this is only my way.

My style suddenly appeared like it had always been hiding somewhere inside me.

I don’t think about color theory much. I only know the basics. I’m extremely intuitive with colors, shadows and light. But after drawing so much, you slowly build that feeling.

I also painted with oils for a while and painted tiny details with brushes. Standing, sitting, curled up weirdly on a chair. You learn different angles, movements and ways to control your hands.

You don’t always need an art degree.

My path was not straight at all.

But I finally arrived at a place I always wanted to reach — and of course I still want to grow much further.

And maybe the most important ingredient:

A weird imagination helps.

Sometimes I just take a random object.

A banana.

What strange thing could happen to this banana?

Maybe a chicken rides it through the ocean while fishing for strawberries. Maybe a flying fish passes by. Maybe there are bones floating between the sea and sky, little hidden messages, skulls and strange objects everywhere.

My brain just goes:

“I went swimming…
and somehow this became my last dive.”

And then I paint that.

That’s how my little worlds are created. 🖤