The drawing dutchy

Hi, I am Dorothea, but most people call me Dorien. That is pronounced kinda like the American “Doreeen” but with less e’s. Writing this bio is going to be a bit of a stuggle for me because I don’t like talking about myself, so bear with me! Also, I know they tell you to write these bio’s in third person. Talking or writing about myself in the third person makes me sound distraught, so I’m not doing that.

I am born and raised in The Netherlands, but I currently live in Denmark.

Part of the reason for that move was that I found a guy I liked who happened to be a Dane. Other people would have thought “okay well, I guess that was fun while it lasted but I need to find someone who actually lives in my own country.” But as I like to give myself challenges, I went all in. 

When you live abroad as a Dutch person, you get the whole “heeeyy it’s the flying Dutchman/woman!” a lot. That explains why I decided to go by “The Drawing Dutchy”. As the website name might imply, I draw! I originally started with graphite pencils and charcoal, dabbled a lot in ink drawings also. Then I fell heads over heels in love with soft pastel and pastel pencils so that is what I am focussing on right now. My passion is in drawing portraits, both human as well as animal portraits. I like to get as close to hyper-realism as I can get, but working with Pastel is teaching me to be more “loose” and artsy.

My “ talent” comes from my dad, 100%:

Yes, I still put talent in air-quotes because I feel uncomfortable calling myself talented. My dad used to draw all the time when I was young so it was always around us. He gave me the books about color theory and shading techniques and he was the one I shared my first attempts with. He isn’t with us physically anymore, but he is still with me every step of a drawing because of what he taught me. Because of that, I sign all my drawings with a box of old charcoal pencils my dad used and then gave to me. He deserves to be right there with me in that signature too.

Next to drawing, I do a lot of volunteer work, and I tend to love animals more than I do people. A bit cliche, I know. But I am an introvert, and animals don’t small talk as much so it’s generally easier to let my guard down around them. I have a giant passion for horses. In fact, there are only two places I can “get out of my head” and completely be in the moment. On the back of a horse or in front of a piece of paper holding pencil or a pastel stick.

To complete the artist cliche:

I also have my fair share of mental health challenges. I am a mother but most people don’t know that, because my only son was born stillborn at full-term. I lost my mother half a year after I lost my son, and 9 months after that had to leave my house and most of my belongings behind because the abusive relationship I was in reached a very dangerous point. I spent the next decade healing and un-brainwashing myself.

During that period I also spend a lot of time on art, but each and every piece was left unfinished. I was too insecure, self-sabotaged and was so afraid that the end result wouldn’t be what I imagined it to be that I just didn’t finish any piece. Untill 2021, where I used some of the money my father gifted me to buy a brand new pencil set and new paper. I told myself I would not give up this time, and I would finish every drawing I started from that point on. And I did.

How I use drawing to heal:

It helped me to shut off this over-active trauma brain I had. All the negative thoughts would just stop when I was in “the zone”. I started posting my finished pieces on social media, even if it scared me to bits. I showed them to friends and family. To my surprise they received praise and not criticism, and I slowly started believing in myself a little bit more each time. With each finished drawing, my confidence grew.

So here I am, taking the next step! And here on my site I will share my work-in-progress pictures and write a little (or a lot) about what I use to complete my drawings. I will share finished work too, ofcourse. Next to that I will write about general mental health, and more in debth about what art and creating has done to help me through my journey.

Mainly, after shying away from the world for a long time and forever struggling with this idea that “I am not good enough”, I am here to be me. Unapologetically, unfiltered, me. I am here, scribbling away on my very own little piece of this canvas that is the world, and I hope you’d like to follow along with that.