Today we’d like to introduce you to Leah Sayles.
Leah, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
As a fine art illustrator and illustrative designer, I’ve been surrounded by creativity my entire life. I realized my talents when I was in middle school and advanced my drawing skill in high school. After high school, when I attended the University of Georgia for my undergraduate degree, I majored in Graphic Design.
Throughout college, I worked on an in-house design team, where I learned the ins and outs of working with all aspects of the team. From photography to social media to design and eventually to project management, I experienced it all. Over the summers, I worked as a designer for a local newspaper. During all of these college work experiences, I had the opportunity to work on illustrations for both the local newspaper as well as illustrative design projects for the in-house design team. I never let go of drawing and illustration even though I decided on a design-heavy pathway at that time.
Due to this multifaceted college experience, I then worked at Shenandoah University in Virginia where I served as a one-woman marketing team for the Student Life division. As often as I could, I incorporated illustrative design into my work. Within two years, I completely rebranded and redesigned the visual and social aspects of the department, from illustrative event logos to wall wraps and murals.
Right around that time, I also started painting again, and I fell completely in love. After rediscovering this passion, I realized it was time to move on from working full-time on in-house design teams. Instead, I wanted to focus on becoming an illustrator.
That was 2018. Since then, I launched my own freelance design and illustration business. When I first started, the Office of Marketing & Communications team from the same university hired me part-time to work retainer with their design team. This wonderful opportunity has allowed me to make the income that I needed without worrying too much about finding work that didn’t fit my goals, and they’ve been a wonderful team to work with. Now, more than a designer, I am the team’s illustrator.
For several years, I have continued to work closely with Shenandoah while picking up illustration projects along the way. I’ve created tattoo designs, a children’s book, trading card game tokens, movie posters, several private commissions, and more. I’ve also continued to grow my skillsets by attending workshops like Illustration Master Class as well as online continuing education classes via Smart School and the School of Visual Arts.
But there was still something missing, and that is where the challenges come to play.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I don’t think a pathway to true growth and self-awareness is ever a smooth road. I personally prefer the slow and steady road, which comes with its ups and downs, but which I believe will lead to the most fulfilling life we can offer ourselves.
When I decided to move on to full-time freelancing, I rediscovered my love of painting, as I mentioned. Unfortunately, later that same year when I was painting and making good money from commissions, I had several experiences that kept me from that passion.
Firstly, I was at the time attending conventions for a niche group of artists. I found that I jumped to the top of that pathway within just a few months and had surpassed the skill level of many of the artists in that group. At my third event, I was bullied out of my wanting to utilize painting as a skillset. To combat this loss, in 2019, I bought an iPad and started drawing exclusively digitally instead of painting. Later in 2019, I also made the choice to move back home to Atlanta and begin taking care of my mother, an elderly single parent, after a detrimental stroke.
Between 2019 and 2021, I juggled clients, family, and personal work as I continued to make illustrations that were based on my illustrative design skillset. I was under the impression that I was slowly building an illustration portfolio based on this style, but I realized more and more how disconnected I was from both the process and the final outcome of these pieces. I had sadly not yet found love for my illustrations.
It was my biggest struggle yet, but I refused to give up. My goal of being an illustrator never ceased.
This struggle in particular, on top of the Covid-19 pandemic that kept most of us hidden away from our friends and families, led me to make the decision to attend graduate school. Three is my magic number, and I had heard about the University of Hartford’s low-residency MFA in Illustration three times from three separate individuals over a period of two years. With that, I made the decision to apply. I was accepted and started attending in July 2021.
This decision has been pivotal in helping me move through my struggles.
Over the past year, my creative process has been broken down and built back up. I learned how to draw by truly seeing, and I started slowly letting go of my heavy linework. I’ve met influential mentors that have given me the small bits of insight I needed to make overwhelming changes. Then, earlier this year, in July 2022, I realized what I had been missing. Instead of picking up my iPad pencil, I decided to pick up a paintbrush seriously again for the first time in three years. I realized that everything I had experienced and learned was necessary to bring me to this moment.
What I have learned since is that struggle is necessary, and sometimes it takes longer to move through than you expect or would like. Lessons are to be learned by being uncomfortable, and I allowed myself to stay comfortable for quite some time. But even in that comfort, I was uncomfortable and struggling because what I wanted to do truly was something I was keeping myself from.
Now that I have found myself in my work again, I have fallen in love with two aspects of myself: the new Fine Art Illustrator and the renewed Illustrative Designer.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Now, I am proud to call myself a multidisciplinary fine art illustrator and illustrative designer who conjures up creative work that focuses on combined themes of everyday magic, fantasy, adventure, and connection to our humanity. Whether I’m working on concepts involving design, illustration, or fine art, I am at my core, an artist first and foremost. Through dynamic composition, vibrant color, expressive shape language, and a variety of textures, I enjoy taking viewers of my work through a labyrinth of storytelling that helps them to escape into my edgy and imaginative worlds, as well as the very human worlds of ourselves and others. Whether I’m focusing a piece on commentary, portraiture, fantastical lore, or any client work, I make sure to grab the attention of my audience via the big picture ideas of the work, including design aesthetic, intense color, and message, to then bring the focus to the small details of texture, believability, and self-reflection.
Seeing myself grow and change over the past year, or even just the past six months, has been immeasurably exciting. Allowing myself to hone in on my true self and goals has been the most important part of my life journey thus far. Now, I can truly call myself multidisciplinary and multifaceted in an artistic way that I have been looking for but was not yet aware of. This wide variety of skills, and the ability to dive into any creative project with a big-picture point of view, set me apart in a way that is more unique than I could have imagined.
I am most proud of the pieces in the works and acrylic & gold leaf paintings that have yet to be made, although I have included some finished paintings and illustrations, as well as final drawings, in this article. That being said, I’ve also been incredibly proud of how I’m getting my work out into the community. I’ve been selling my work at Hodgepodge Coffeeshop on Moreland Avenue for close to a year now, where my “Very Krispy” illustration merchandise has been a best seller.
The personal project I am currently working on speaks most to themes of fantasy, magic, and self-reflection and will be released in several years as a tarot/oracle deck. In addition, I’m also working with several clients on exciting projects, including a book cover for a memoir about getting past generational trauma as well as an exciting illustrated ad campaign for Shenandoah University.
From here, the growth and excitement will only continue.
What were you like growing up?
Childhood was a strange thing for me. I lost a parent in a traumatic way at the age of three. This trauma helped me to become the individual I am now and was then: independent, caring, empathetic, insightful, creative, adventurous, and a total nerd. To move through this trauma, I also painted with my mother in her studio daily.
I firmly believe that we don’t lose our personality traits as we grow older, but we do go through periods of time where we lose or forget these traits. As we grow, we have the ability to pick and choose the traits that we want to highlight in ourselves and let go of the ones that no longer serve our growth. I have slowly let go of self-conscious traits caused by trauma as I have moved onto this new version of myself, and have simultaneously allowed my caring, creative, adventurous, nerdy self to be showcased in a truly authentic way.
Both then and now, I loved to read fantasy books and watch fantasy movies. Lord of the Rings is one of my favorite series, and I’ve even been re-“reading” (via Audiobook) the new versions, read by Andy Serkis. I was an edgy type, then known as the “scene kid” and listened to pop punk and alternative music. I still do, although now I also sprinkle in ambient Lord of the Rings or Skyrim music when I need a more relaxed setting. When I wasn’t reading or writing fan fiction way back when I was also a big gamer. World of Warcraft and Skyrim were high on my list of favorites.
More than anything, both then and now, my community and friendships have always been very important to me. I feel thankful to say that I have several friends that I’ve had for almost 20 years and that I have the opportunity to be close to my family, even through times of struggle. It’s important to keep yourself afloat when you need to, but communities, friends, and chosen families help us to be our best, most authentic selves.
I’m excited that this journey I’ve been on has reconnected me with the most authentic parts of my childhood self that I thought were lost. I think many of us need to stop trying to be such a grown-up – it’s important to tap into what we loved and were inspired by as children. For those of us who were supported in our independence, we were our most authentic selves. I’m excited to be finding this in myself once again.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.artforsayles.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/artforsayles
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/artforsayles
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/artforsayles
- Other: www.linktr.ee/artforsayles
Image Credits
All images are taken or created by the artist. Below are the details about each piece supplied. Please include these details below the images, if possible. 1. Pisces/the Moon – 6×12″ acrylic and gold leaf on cradled board, 2022 2. Portrait of the Artist, by the Artist, 2022 3. Leah Sayles Illustration illustrated logo, 2022 4. Very Krispy – 12×16″ digital illustration, 2021 5. Star Trek Stacey Abrams – 6×9″, colored pencil, acrylic, and matte medium, 2022 6. Bag End – 1.5×1.5″, acrylic, 2018 7. John Lewis Final Drawing – 4×6″, graphite on duralar, 2022 8. Aries/the Warrior Value Study – 3×6″, graphite on duralar, value added in Photoshop, 2022 9. Ryan Gosling Portrait – 2×3″, acrylic on canvas, 2022
