Drawing With Love: Florentin Ie on Finding Freedom, Purpose, and Herself Through Art
By Natalie McCarty
For Florentin Feliciana Irawan, Ie—better known simply as Florentin Ie, or Flo—art has been a childhood hobby, a safe space, a career, a source of frustration, and eventually, a way back to herself.
Based in Bali, Indonesia, Flo is a digital artist behind @latteetie, a name inspired by her love of lattes. She started the account in March 2026 with a simple goal: to draw cute things. As it has grown, so has her ambition. She’s now interested in creating more detailed work and exploring ideas that reach beyond aesthetics.
Florentin Ie / @latteetie
Alongside her personal art, Flo has worked as a book illustrator since 2024, developing a different style for that work. The career came somewhat unexpectedly. After stepping away from drawing for two years, she returned to it because she needed a job—and found herself slowly rebuilding her relationship with art in the process.
“The moment I have a healthy relationship with drawing, I am finally able to draw with love and passion.”
That relationship didn't come easily. “I got frustrated easily, and I never liked my art. I even made a vow to never draw again. My eyes filled with hatred toward my own artworks.” Needing to support herself and not become a burden on her family, Flo took a job as a book illustrator, forcing herself to draw again whether she liked it or not. Eventually, she stopped judging her work and simply let it exist. “I stopped judging my work and just let it be whatever it is.”
Through new perspectives, people she met, and time, the way she saw her work began to change. “The way I see my artwork has changed too, and that makes me realise my artwork has always been good enough.”
Her relationship with drawing actually began much earlier, in kindergarten, when her mother helped her with a drawing assignment. Flo immediately thought it was fun. She started with houses filled with furniture, then moved on to comics and anime, eventually making her own four-panel comics inspired by Ono Eriko’s Kocchi Muite! Miiko. She still has a full book of those childhood drawings. Drawing also became a way for Flo to express herself without having to put herself in the spotlight. “I was a super shy and anxious kid. I was way too scared to be noticed and in the spotlight. With drawing, I feel like I can show my potential without showing myself to the public. It became my safe space and survival method.” Some of that shyness remains (Flo admits she still doesn’t particularly enjoy small talk with strangers), but years of drawing have also awakened an ambition she says “always hibernates.”
“I always have the hunger to create art, even when I was frustrated with it.”
Now, she sees that hunger as evidence that art may have always been where she was headed. “I didn’t realise it at the time, but now I think being an artist has always been my true path.”
Her creative process is just as instinctive. “Usually, it starts with random ideas that pop out of nowhere at night before I sleep. It’s like someone, or something, whispered in my ear and vanished.” She’ll often let an idea “marinate” until she has the time and motivation to draw it. Sometimes an idea is strong enough to send her jumping out of bed to sketch on her iPad. When inspiration doesn’t come, she looks for it in music, movies, social media, games, or simply going outside.
Finding her artistic style, however, took much longer. For years, Florentin struggled to find a style that felt right. She describes herself as inflexible and perfectionistic, always more concerned with the finished product than the process. “I was too inflexible and perfectionistic. For me, the outcome always mattered more than the process.”
Florentin Ie / @latteetie / Gut Instinct Media
Becoming a full-time book illustrator in 2024 began to shift that mindset. Her boss encouraged her to value the process, but returning to drawing after two years wasn't easy. When she was asked to sketch for a book project, she struggled for a month, worried her drawings were terrible and that she might get fired. Her boss, however, liked them. Flo stayed and committed to doing her best each day. A year later, she noticed her lines were clearer, her proportions had improved, and, most importantly, she had begun to enjoy the process.
Artist Alexandra Yvette (@thealexandrayvette), whom Flo follows, also helped her embrace more freedom in her work. Though they have never spoken, Flo found inspiration in Yvette’s willingness to break traditional rules of representation—to draw people with simplified features or unrealistic hands and still allow the work to be good. “There’s so much freedom in art, and even if it doesn’t turn out as expected, it’s still art.” Around March 2026, while sketching random things, Flo finally felt that freedom click into place. “I found my art style out of nowhere around March 2026. It happened while I was sketching random stuff.”
Initially, her work reflected her personal aesthetic. She loves cute outfits and cute things, and art gave her a place to express what she might not always show in real life. But increasingly, another side of her is making its way into the work. Flo wants to explore real-world situations, genuine human experiences, culture, politics, societal awareness, and philosophical ideas. Her challenge now is balancing those heavier themes with the visual world she loves.
“I’m trying to find the balance to create visually engaging art with a deep and heavy message. Like, I want to draw a cute outfit, but at the same time, there are untold stories about society.” That shift has also changed what she hopes people take away from her work. In the past, she was primarily concerned with how she felt about her own art. Now, she wants to provoke feelings and thoughts in other people, too.
Florentin Ie / @latteetie
One of her most meaningful pieces is an illustration of a sleeping girl whose hair is being turned into a tree by fairies. It was her first highly detailed piece, created during a difficult period when she was drawing mostly to stay consistent. The finished work surprised her. “It gives me comfort without being intended and helps me through my days. It gets better when others feel the same way too. One of my best friends told me that it is her favourite work of mine. She feels the comfort too, and that’s a win for me.”
That connection is what Flo ultimately cherishes most. “I love it when my art makes someone feel or think of something. Whatever the feeling or thought, I value that a lot.”
It’s also why she believes human-made art will continue to matter as AI-generated imagery becomes more common.
“Identity, choice, and stories.” For Flo, those things are inseparable from human creativity.
Stories and culture shape who we become, while the ability to choose gives us the power to decide what we want to create and what we want it to mean. “With all of them, it doesn’t matter how advanced AI technology is; we humans are always much more capable of creating something meaningful.” And meaningful is ultimately what Flo hopes her art becomes.
When asked what she wants people to remember about her, she doesn't put herself at the center of the answer. “To be honest, I hope people remember the message in my art more than they remember me as the artist. I know I won't last forever, but knowledge is immortal and eternal.”
For Flo, the goal is no longer simply to make something beautiful. It’s to make something that means something.
