Alright, let’s talk about this Julie Hovland thing I’ve been tinkering with. I kept seeing her work pop up, you know? Just scrolling online, maybe on Pinterest or something. It wasn’t super flashy, but it had this… I don’t know, this really appealing, simple vibe. Caught my eye.
So I thought, why not give it a shot? See if I could get some of that feeling into my own little projects. Looked straightforward enough, right? Famous last words, as usual.
Getting Started – The Observation Phase
First thing I did was just gather a bunch of her stuff. Saved images, looked closely. What was she actually doing? It seemed to be about these clean shapes, but kinda playful, not too perfect. And the colors – really specific palettes. Limited, but they worked so well together. I spent a good hour just staring, trying to break it down in my head.
- Looked at her linework – seemed kinda deliberately simple, maybe a bit uneven?
- Checked out the color choices – often quite bold, flat colors.
- Noticed the composition – felt balanced but not rigidly symmetrical.
The Actual Trying Part
Okay, so then I actually tried to do it. Fired up my graphics tablet and the software I usually mess around in. Thought I’d start with a simple character, something in her style. Man, it was way harder than I expected. My lines felt too… controlled? Too perfect, maybe. Hers have this looseness that looks effortless, but trying to fake that is tough.
Here’s what went wrong initially:
- My shapes were too geometric.
- I struggled to get that slightly ‘off’ but charming character look.
- Picking the right limited colors was surprisingly difficult. My first attempts looked kinda muddy or just boring.
I spent probably a whole evening just making blobs that looked nothing like her style. Got pretty frustrated, honestly. It felt like trying to write with my left hand.
Figuring Things Out (Slowly)
Took a break, came back the next day. Decided to stop trying to copy one specific piece. Instead, I focused on the elements I noticed earlier. The simple lines, the flat colors, the playful arrangement.
I started messing with different brushes in my software. Found one that was a bit less precise, more like a real marker. That helped get a bit of that wobble I was seeing in her lines. Then I really focused on the color palette. I grabbed the colors directly from a few of her pieces using the eyedropper tool, just to get a feel for them. Made a little swatch library.
Then I just started drawing simple shapes, figures, objects, using only those colors and that slightly wobbly brush. Didn’t aim for a masterpiece. Just practiced combining the shapes and colors in a way that felt like her style. It was more about capturing the essence than making an exact copy.
Where I Landed
After a few sessions like that, things started to feel a bit more natural. My results still don’t look exactly like Julie Hovland’s work – and maybe they shouldn’t. It’s still got my own hand in it. But I definitely managed to incorporate some of that simplicity and color sense I was aiming for. It loosened up my own style a bit, which was a nice side effect.
So yeah, that was my little experiment. It wasn’t about becoming a clone, just about learning from a style I admired. Took some trial and error, a bit of frustration, but ended up being a pretty useful exercise. Good reminder that ‘simple’ doesn’t always mean ‘easy’.
