Artist Interview: Lucia Leyfield

Lucia Leyfield 'Wild In Ink', is an artist, letterer and teacher who loves creating illustrated journals and artist books. Through mediums such as watercolour, collage and mixed media sketches, Lucia records life as it happens, conversations and experiments in her journals. Her drawings have been described as 'quietly joyful... a nostalgic treasure chest of creativity and inspiration' which led her to win the ‘Shirley Hughes Sketchbook Award 2024’!

We had the pleasure of asking Lucia a few questions, delving into her world of illustrated journals!

 ©LuciaLeyfield

'The best way to learn is by actually doing it, making a few mistakes and doing loads of dodgy drawings. Each drawing is like digging for gold, every now and again you’ll find a piece but there will be quite a bit of mud on the way!'

Lucia Leyfield

'It’s hearing how the process of journaling, drawing, painting, folding and cutting bits of paper has helped people who are creatively stuck or played a part in overcoming personal difficulties. I didn’t realise how powerful drawing and journaling could be until I started to teach. It’s literally magic!'

Lucia Leyfield

Q: Congratulations on winning the ‘Shirley Hughes Sketchbook Award 2024’! Could you go into more detail with the process of your sketchbook observational drawings that you submitted?

Thank you, so much! I mostly draw from life and from imagination as tend to get bored when sketching from pictures. I really enjoy the ‘seat of your pants’ style of drawing that sketching from life offers. It’s especially good for me if I’m drawing people who are actively doing something and more likely to move without warning, or people who are unaware that they are being drawn. My drawing tends to move with them, giving a ‘living line’ and is often then resolved by inventing things that aren’t actually there... I just make it up. I love the feeling of not knowing where my drawing will go. I practice this way of drawing at home a lot during the winter, sketching my family sat on the sofa or around the dinner table. I like drawing my kids when they are doing things like hair braiding, playing cards, playing the guitar, the unpredictability of not knowing what they will do next is a lot of fun for me! The drawings I submitted to the competition were examples of this way of working.

 'Tea in front of the telly' ©LuciaLeyfield

Q: Would you be able to explain your creative journey and how you ended up specialising in sketchbook and journaling?

Keeping an illustrated journal came from my desire to learn how to draw. As a teenager, I did a 9 month foundation course at a local art collage then a design degree in Typography but I didn’t really draw that much. I went on to train and work as a lettering artist when my children were young. I made signs and ran a small business selling bespoke metal signage on notonthehighstreet.com and Etsy. During this time, I was doing small drawings when we went on holiday and keeping a type of travel journal because I felt a deep desire to record and collect things and wanted to hold on to thoughts, images and memories. These pages were never very good as I was often wrangling a baby, toddler or both! I was also trying too hard, I think, to create a ‘good’ drawing rather than just recording what I could see. I was overcomplicating things and, also, confused about what to draw, how to draw it, to how to lay things out, how to add text, what materials I should use... I could go on! I was then given a book curated and written by Danny Gregory which I found really inspiring as it had images of illustrated sketchbooks by loads of different artists. These artists were using their sketchbooks like illustrated diaries, drawing and writing about their life. This was a huge lightbulb moment for me because the idea that you drew everyday stuff from your everyday life took away the problem of figuring out what to draw... just draw what’s in from of you! I realised that through this process, the ordinary becomes elevated and extraordinary, telling the story of your amazing life. It’s a really flexible way of working and I particularly love how it can be fitted into the intersections of even the most busiest of lives. For me it has always been a way to record the things I notice but also gives me time to pause, I find it mindful, restorative and addictive. I used to draw a lot when my children were at an age where they went to after school clubs, waiting at gymnastics, waiting at parents evening, netball, karate etc. It would give me moments of time and I would always fill those tiny gaps with drawing. You don’t need very long, just five or ten minutes to do a little drawing.

 Drawing on location in Venice ©LuciaLeyfield

Q: What made you delve into the teaching world within your sketchbook practice and what is the most rewarding aspect of teaching your workshops?

Teaching was a way of earning a living around the needs of three children and all the general chaos that it brings! I used to teach ‘in person’ classes locally in art, lettering and calligraphy. When these stopped because of the pandemic, I began sharing the results of the small online classes I was teaching on Instagram and lots of other people wanted to join in and suddenly, instead of teaching 10 people it was, 20, then 50, then hundreds! It was a time when we needed art and joy in our lives. My workshops are a bit like a recipe where I provide the prompt, method and materials and as a student you ‘cook’ but depending on your experience you can swap out the ‘ingredients’ so it works on all levels. During the pandemic, especially, this system was important because it took away the difficult creative decisions leaving only the joyful ones and often it’s these difficult decisions which stop people making art. The most rewarding aspect of teaching is linked to this, I think. It’s hearing how the process of journaling, drawing, painting, folding and cutting bits of paper has helped people who are creatively stuck or played a part in overcoming personal difficulties. I didn’t realise how powerful drawing and journaling could be until I started to teach. It’s literally magic!

Q: You've previously stated that journaling is ‘a little creative response to my day’, is this how most of your artworks start or do you also have a theme/process in mind?

There’s rarely a theme, although, I particularly like gardens, flowers and the small creatures that inhabit them. In the winter I tend to draw more people who are inside warm cafes or pubs. The process of creating my journal pages differs from my art process which feels a bit more wriggly... like a living, evolving thing, although I really do wish I had a more nailed down process, I’m envious of people who do! In my journals, I want to draw quite quickly and I want to limit my decisions wherever possible, so tend to just use a pencil. I write in pencil too because I like the feeling of it on the paper. If I’ve got time after doing a little drawing, I will add colour with a bit of watercolour or coloured pencil. Whereas, I used to draw purely from life, I now often draw from imagination and memory, so I’m documenting in words and images the small things I’ve noticed and done through the day and I often include conversations or words that I have overheard and part of the text. It’s a really cathartic process and very calming for my busy head, helping me to create a bit of order and focus where often there is none! If I go out somewhere interesting, a museum, art gallery, a walk in the woods, I will often sit down and draw the things that interest me, usually small objects (natural and man made) and people. I’m not so interested in drawing a bigger scene, it really is the little things that pull me in!

©LuciaLeyfield

Q: Do you have any advice to artists who want to start journaling?

Take action and start today! The best way to learn is by actually doing it, making a few mistakes and doing loads of dodgy drawings. Each drawing is like digging for gold, every now and again you’ll find a piece but there will be quite a bit of mud on the way! Drawing anything and everything will help you notice what you notice and, slowly, themes appear and you begin to understand what it is that interests and inspires you. A great tip if you fancy journaling, but are a bit worried about messing up that beautiful white page, is to start creating a scrapbook style journal. Do a little drawing each day on cheap copier paper, cut it out and stick it in your book. Add a few written notes about something that you’ve done or seen that day.

©LuciaLeyfield

Q: Which art materials could you not live without?

Pencils! I love them! A lovely soft graphite pencil is pure joy to me. I also like using coloured pencils (watercolour and permanent), my watercolours, a couple of good brushes, an eraser, a pencil sharpener and, of course, my sketchbook. I make my own sketchbooks using thick cartridge or watercolour paper and a cardboard cover. They are pretty wonky and very rustic looking which means I feel less precious about them. I often use old hardback covers from vintage books which is fun. If I buy a sketchbook, it’s always got good quality paper in it. I like the Royal Talens sketchbooks as they have good paper for drawing and hold a bit of paint well too, plus they are not too expensive! I also like the Stilmann and Birn Alpha series sketchbooks, the paper is particularly good for painting on.

©LuciaLeyfield

Q: Could you tell us some fun facts people may not know about you?

I always leave the tops off of everything! It’s very annoying for me and my family. I love reading aloud... and doing all the voices! It was my favourite thing to do when my children were little. I’m a super recogniser, brilliant at remembering visual things (but terrible at remembering anything I have read or been told!) I collect sound bites when I’m out and about and write them down in a notebook. I often use them in sketchbooks or as a writing prompt.

Q: Thank you so much for your time and knowledge!
We would love to know what you are currently working on/ do you have any exciting future plans in the making?

Currently, I’m enjoying creative writing from prompts and responding to the words with my own drawn image. I’m not sure where this is going at all...I guess at the moment it’s just play! My ongoing project this year is developing my paper gardens which are mixed pieces depicting small seasonal changes. Currently, they consist of wonky houses and overgrown gardens and will feature in a couple of exhibitions this year. In my teaching, I’m continuing to develop workshops on our journaling theme for the year which is ‘simple pleasures’... a broad topic but so specific to us as individuals and really nice to explore!

Paper Garden Project ©LuciaLeyfield

Be sure to follow and find out more about Lucia Leyfield:
Instagram: @wildinksketch
Website: www.wildink.co.uk
Workshops: wildink.mykajabi.com/buy-workshops

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