Meet Leila Acevedo | Illustrator & Painter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Leila Acevedo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Leila, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I have always been drawing, it felt natural to me to always create. It was obvious to me that I would always be an artist so I might as well pursue my passion in education and as a career. I’m very fortunate to have a family who supported my endeavors and are creatives themselves; that support coming from my family means a lot to me. Art has been a haven for me, more like a coping mechanism really. If I’m having a rough day and I know I’m coming home to a project it lifts my mood. I’m a shy person but I love being able to share my work and to talk to other artists about their artistic process. I love challenging myself creatively and expanding my skills to all mediums.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My art is very eclectic, I love trying out new mediums and processes. Exploration and research are crucial to my work and help me come up with ideas more fluidly. Some of my favorite subjects to cover are the sciences, the occult, and nature, I love creating concepts for those the most. I use gouache mainly, but I also enjoy embroidery, digital painting, and printmaking. I love doing analog, but I draw digitally the most. Mainly when I want to draw characters and for ideation.

I’m proud of my growth with my art. I’m proud of the amount of effort I put into each piece and the knowledge I’ve gained on the way. I’m excited to learn more. I graduated last April from ArtCenter, since then I’ve been showing my work in galleries. Working on getting my foot through the door at the moment, it has been way more difficult than I thought it would be so in the meantime I’m working on my tattoo/art portfolio. Breaking into the industry and facing rejection after rejection can be discouraging but I’m learning to stay persistent and to stand up for myself. I’m learning about keeping my confidence as a young artist and believing in myself.

I’d like to encourage exploration with my art. For a while, I was so stuck on the idea of having a “style”, but the more I try new mediums and researching random topics, the more I feel less obligated to create in one way.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I grew up in both the city and the Valley so I was thinking of starting in the city, working our way in. We would to take a trip to Grand Central Market and then take a stroll up to the Broad Museum. We’ll be pretty hungry after so I would love to show someone where I grew up so we would go grab a chicken combo at Dino’s Famous Chicken. When we make it to the Valley I’d like to show them some of my favorite bars, like the Broken Compass or GuildHall.

Some other places I like is Carter Sexton Art Supply in NoHo. For late night munchies I really dig Monty’s. I’m a lover of baking and cafes, I’d recommend Priscilla’s in Burbank, Phoenix Bakery in Chinatown, and Frogs Bakery (they vendor at the Studio City Farmers Market on Sundays).

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Omgosh if I’m able to thank everyone throughout my life I would. However, I would have to give the biggest shoutout to my mom. She never doubted my decision to go to art college or my career. My mom has always supported my creativity and I couldn’t have gotten this far without her to cheer me on. I’d also like to mention the professors who encouraged and believed in me, specifically Ms. Pickett from high school and every teacher I had while attending ArtCenter College of Design. A book that continues to help me in my art career is ART/WORK by Heather Darcy Bhandari and Jonathan Melber. I’ve always looked up to pop culture and animated visual development for inspiration, some of my favorite artists I’d like to mention are Mary Blair and Brian Froud.

Website: https://leilacevedo.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/limonpepperr/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leilauni-acevedo/

Image Credits
Keitaro Cloward