Lilith Loveless and Their Lovely Demons
One of Lilith Loveless’ paintings
Lilith Loveless may not be this Salt Lake artist’s legal name, but it fits their personality like a lace black glove. Something about the name lets our imagination wander to beautifully dark places, and allows their artistic style to send our imaginations to those same dark worlds. Lilith admits, “My favorite medium of telling stories is through my art. Creating characters and having those characters do things you couldn’t do in the normal world makes me happy.” Despite a dark and dastardly aesthetic, Lilith is a down-to-earth illustrator and an aspiring tattoo artist.
Like many, Lilith never sought to become an artist. They explain, “I don’t know if there was an actual moment where I decided to be an artist. It’s kinda always been something that I’ve done to cope with everything.” Apart from drawing inspiration from their life experiences, Lilith also finds inspiration from classical paintings and music. That classical inspiration is subtly seen in their larger projects, such as their acrylic paintings. These wonderfully dark and emotionally visceral paintings are where Lilith’s unadulterated talent is truly showcased.
Lilith’s more day-to-day work such as commissions and personal sketches, tend to be created on the computer with a drawing software and by hand with markers. In Lilith’s words, they describe their style as somewhere “...in between cartoon, Western comic book, and anime style.” Apart from a sinisterly cute personal style, they occasionally have to put aside the sinister aesthetic for other projects, such as their current illustration gig for a children’s book.
Lilith’s decided to try illustration on a whim. They were attending Salt Lake Community College when they spotted this tiny hanging flyer, which was headed as ‘Illustrator Wanted’. They contacted the number and immediately found themselves thrown in the nuanced world of illustration. Lilith describes the illustration process as, “putting yourself in the author’s shoes and seeing from their point of view.” They add, “Instead of being like ‘This is my story!’. It’s like reading this person’s story and trying to be like ‘I’m into this. I understand this’. Just trying to be into their world.” Apart from navigating illustration, Lilith is now delving into the publication process alongside the aspiring children’s book author.
In Utah’s art scene it isn’t common to find an artist that balances fantasy, nightmare, and comedy so well within their art. If you dream of adding more stickers to your collection or want your Dungeons and Dragons original character fleshed out, Lilith Loveless is open for a variety of commissions. Provided that you simply want to feel darkly inspired, follow them @lilithloveless on Instagram.
