The heart-warming drawings that show the realities of long term relationships

Roses are red, violets are blue – but is that what romance sounds like to you?

Instagram (amandaoleander)

How do you define real love?

Is it Empire State Building proposals and garlands of red roses? Or is it falling asleep in front of the TV and plucking each other’s unexplained facial hairs?

For LA-based artist Amanda Oleander, it is the latter and she documents her very realistic perception of romance on Instagram through a series of touching illustrations.

Drawing inspiration from her own long term relationship, Oleander’s drawings depict couples in a series of scenarios that demonstrate the unglamorous, and often endearing, side of love.

Her drawings show couples popping each other’s spots, being ill together and doing laundry with one another.

Speaking to HuffPost, Orleander explained that everything she draws depicts a situation that has happened to her or her friends.

Oleander has been with her own boyfriend, Joey Rudman, for more than two years.

She cites Alice Neel, Picasso and Tim Burton as her influences and explained that cartoons such as The Wild Thornberrys and Rugrats have also hugely impacted her animated style.

“I’m enthralled by the way people behave behind closed doors,” Oleander explained in a recent Instagram post.

“Intimate moments we never get to see. Those are moments that can’t really be documented because if they were, it would alter the way the person behaved. So I draw them.”

Orleander first came to public attention in 2014 when she worked as an in-house illustrator for E! Entertainment.

She left the role a year later and became a full-time self employed artist and has more than 118,000 followers on Instagram.

Now she sells prints of her most popular drawings, along with some paintings and printed clothing, via her website.