One thing is clear when scrolling through illustrator Leigh Ellexson’s Instagram page: her fondness animals. Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, she shares a home with an adorable 6-year-old parrotlet named Hercules (“known for being equally as cute as he is evil”) and a 3-year-old pup nicknamed Toadie (“good boy”). But her love of animals is also evident throughout her paintings and illustrations.
Using primarily watercolors, Ellexson loves experimenting with textures and color palettes – experiments she shares on buzzing her social media pages that include an upbeat YouTube channel.
“I see style as a fluid thing,” she writes on her website. “After tackling my 365 project (drawing every day for a year) I naturally tuned my art towards a better representation of what I envisioned in my head. I find that what helped me hone in on a style as an artist was taking a lot of time to improve my skills. I was creating so much the year I did that project that I was able to see my improvements month to month and even week to week. It’s not something everyone has time for but there’s not a better way to find yourself as an artist than making work.”
Her art practice requires much discipline, as she mostly works on her own. But she admits that taking a more conventional route never appealed to her. “I transferred art schools once and dropped out twice,” she writes on her website. “School wasn’t for me. There are TONS of benefits of going to art school such as networking, being able to learn and try expensive equipment + supplies, a concentrated community of artists, art outreach programs, among many other things. I wasn’t taking advantage of what it had to offer so I decided to spend my money elsewhere and continuing practicing solo.”
Follow her creative journey on her many platforms:
