Today we’d like to introduce you to Iyana Isom.
Iyana, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Wow, as I look back at myself, I’ve grown so much! As far as I can remember, I’ve always had a love for art, it was in my DNA literally. My love for drawing is something I receive from my father. As a child, my first love was art and just being able to create and draw. I enjoyed drawing so much that I decided to stay consist with it throughout my life and pursued it in college. I started college in 2015 majoring in Illustration. Starting college had to be the scariest thing to me at the time, but I’m so thankful I was able to experience it and learn so much to build my drawing and creative skills. While on my college journey I was also introduced to model, my second love. Modeling is also in my DNA as well which I get from my mother I must say. Along with drawing at a young age, I also always dreamed of modeling. I had my first modeling experience in my first year of college and I was so nervous but as I was able to meet more and more amazing photographers and designers at my school, I just bloomed! I love modeling because it too is a form of art, a creative outlet which also gave me an amazing opportunity to work with other creative individuals.
As I continued to grow, I would always find myself finding different ways to experience my creativity and love for art within everything I do, so I decided to start a YouTube channel in March of 2018. Again, I was nervous but I always tell myself if you aren’t nervous or outside of your comfort zone you can’t grow and flourish, so I went for it. On my YouTube, “Iyana LeShea” I do makeup, natural hair, and fashion related videos. I see all three of these categories as a form of art for me because I am able to create different makeup looks, amazing hairstyles, and techniques for hair and use my fashionable style to create lookbooks. YouTube and my college have opened up my eyes on creating and building your brand and I love that I am able to build a brand off of what I love to do, art.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
A challenge I personally had was not being confident in everything I did and doubting myself . Especially as an artist, I am my biggest critic. I have to remind myself that I am strong in my being and to always give %100 no matter what and not to be so hard on myself. Though it takes time to overcome the challenge and sometimes, I do catch myself doubting myself or my work I have to remember my goals and to just keep pushing no matter what.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Iyana LeShea – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
As of right now, I am currently working on building my YouTube brand, “Iyana LeShea” and my illustration brand. I am also trying to figure out a way to combine my YouTube brand and my illustration brand together as one.
With my illustrations, I am so grateful that I am able to do traditional and digital illustrations. My favorite subject as an illustrator is that I love to draw and paint portraits and landscapes. I also love creating illustrations for books, articles, and just written text. I am also branching out into doing digital illustration pattern making. My overalls illustration style is to create black art and African inspired pieces, that is something I truly love creating as well.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
In the future, I plan to continue to grow my brand bigger and finding a seamless way to intertwine my love for illustration, modeling, and YouTube into one. I also what to continue to grow and flourish in my modeling and illustration career. I am also planning on accomplishing a lot more opportunities in the future and continuing to grow and flourish within my being.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmLqvmxOUGyQZXN1KUO8QoA
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iyana_leshea/
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/iyana.leshea_illustrations/
Image Credit:
Photographer: Darius Voncel, Phaedra Williamson, Sandy Saintilus
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