Tutor Emma Leyfield
Emma is an emerging artist and freelance illustrator who specialises in watercolours and portraiture and is known for her sketchbooks, which she makes through bookbinding.
Greatly inspired by the works of Shirley Hughes and Quentin Blake, She is passionate about the importance of learning traditional methods of drawing, which are now being lost as modern art becomes more prevalent in illustration and digital mediums are become more widely used. This is visible in her work which is often described as reminding the viewer of the traditional illustrations they remember from their childhood.
Emma's work is inspired by the simple delight of beautiful things. Observed and studied in a pocket sketchbook, these paintings feed into larger pictures and ideas.
She's currently completing an MA in Children's Book Illustration at Anglia Ruskin University. Around her studies, she illustrates a regular column for the English Garden Magazine from her studio in Nailsworth and teaches workshops in Gloucestershire. Emma runs a regular Life Drawing class here at the New Brewery Arts on Thursdays as well as a mixture of workshops that focus on traditional aspects of drawing and watercolours.