Alysha Takoushian can hint her earliest inventive recollections again to the youngsters’s books piled excessive on her mattress at evening. In accordance with her dad and mom, she would go to sleep mid-page, cross out with the books nonetheless stacked on high of her, after hours spent poring over the illustrations.
“I used to be an imaginative youngster who did not actually slot in with the varsity system,” she remembers. “My mum describes how she would take a spritely fairy to highschool however decide up a tragic and deflated creature on the finish of the day. I would typically get informed off for daydreaming or doodling on my schoolwork.”
Fortunately, Alysha had a household who absolutely supported her creativity. She speaks fondly of afternoons spent in her uncle Daniel’s artwork studio – “he’d set me up within the nook with a artistic job, blasting music from his audio system” – and attending kids’s artwork workshops on the residence of an area artist named Sandra. “She was extremely inspiring, and I truthfully do not assume I’d be an illustrator immediately if it weren’t for her encouragement.”
It is why Alysha resists the concept that she was ever “drawn” to illustration. “It is all the time been second nature to me. I am all the time doodling, typically with out absolutely taking it in: throughout my to-do lists, whereas I am on calls to assist me assume, or reaching for pen and paper after I’m overwhelmed,” she says.
“I’ll not all the time do illustration as a profession, however I am sure drawing will all the time be a part of my life.”
Light vitality
It is onerous to pin down her work in phrases, although she says others typically describe it as peaceable, mild, and joyful. That resonates deeply along with her, since these are the identical emotions she finds within the act of illustrating.
Her observe spans each digital and analogue, although her coronary heart belongs firmly to the latter. “There’s one thing in regards to the physicality of working with analogue supplies that’s so particular – nothing beats the scratch of a nib pen on paper!” she says. Watercolours are her “old flame”, however she’s equally at residence experimenting with dip pens and ink, gouache, collage, and even gelli plate printing.
Lately, sketching on location has turn into integral to her course of. She admits she may be “very onerous” on herself in regards to the outcomes, however that is not the purpose.
“Observational drawing forces you to decelerate and hone in on a small second of on a regular basis life. In slowing down, you start to note how particular this seemingly mundane second really is… the sweetness within the impermanence of shifting colors and adjustments every season brings,” she explains. “It seems like an antidote to short-form video and the quick tempo of contemporary life.”
A turning level in educating
Like many creatives, Alysha has confronted durations of uncertainty about her place within the business. The rise of AI, the stress to supply fixed content material, and the instability of freelance work all started to take a toll between 2023 and early 2024.
“I nonetheless adored illustration,” she says, “however I used to be starting to marvel if pursuing it as my job was killing the magic for me. Each time I sat right down to make artwork that did not have a transparent finish purpose or monetary achieve, I’d really feel responsible, which places you in a tough place as an illustrator.”
The breakthrough got here when she started educating a Younger Illustrators artwork membership at an area kids’s bookshop. “It was an entire turning level,” she admits.
“Educating that class of good, quirky, energetic kids aged 4–11 introduced vibrancy and stability to solitary work at my desk. It gave me the permission I felt I actually wanted to experiment with new supplies and strategies.”
Observing kids’s uninhibited strategy to artwork proved a reminder of why she fell in love with illustration within the first place. “It was precisely what I wanted at a time when my observe had reached a stale level.”
Now primarily based in Copenhagen, Alysha has expanded her workshops to adults, aiming to assist individuals “reconnect with the childlike curiosity that exists in all of us” in a judgment-free area. “All of us possess creativity,” she says. “As we develop up, self-limiting beliefs can muddy our imaginative and prescient — a part of my purpose in educating is to take away these boundaries.”
Observing life, processing loss
Alysha describes herself as somebody who’s by no means been “the loudest voice within the room”. It is a high quality she as soon as seen as a flaw, however has since embraced as a part of her artistic energy.
“There is a quiet stillness and persistence that comes with being an illustrator, and also you positively should be snug within the function of the observer.”
Her connection to nature and commentary deepened after the demise of her stepdad, whom she thought-about a mum or dad, when she was 19. “Grief is a wierd factor as a result of by the heartache and deep loneliness, I bear in mind so typically being stunned by how lovely nature is,” she remembers. “It was painful and a shock to observe life and the seasons rolling on as regular, however I discovered a lot solace in nature and responding to it creatively.”
That have, she says, continues to be along with her immediately. “Illustration is not only a profession for me – it is a gratitude observe. Life is so brief and valuable, so I hope to all the time take time to concentrate to the issues I really like by drawing them.”
Switching scales
Whereas a lot of Alysha’s private work is detailed and analogue, she additionally enjoys the extra stripped-back calls for of minimal illustration. “It is tremendous satisfying to puzzle collectively the problem of bringing heat, character, and readability to essentially the most minimal of illustrations,” she says of her work in Procreate and Adobe Illustrator, typically for iconography and brand briefs.
Her most rewarding consumer fee thus far got here final yr, when Studio Morfar requested her for instance Forage Field’s 2025 foraging calendar. It was her first completely analogue consumer mission, portray edible vegetation and fungi in watercolour on giant A3 sheets – a departure from her standard scale.
“With a view to get good reference photographs, I needed to go on quite a lot of walks to seek for and get to know these vegetation myself, which, as a nature lover, was a really welcome aspect of the job,” she says.
“Watercolours are clear and never very forgiving, so I used to be initially nervous. I even caught myself making an attempt to zoom into my paper out of behavior!” The result was a pleasure, and Alysha hopes to tackle extra work of this nature sooner or later.
Inspirations outdated and new
Alysha’s influences span image books, animation, and literature. As a toddler, she was captivated by Sara Fanelli’s energetic, typically darkish collage illustrations for Pinocchio, and she or he admires the ornate compositions of Tomm Moore’s movies, reminiscent of The Secret of Kells.
She additionally attracts inspiration from the tenderness of Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, the fragile watercolour animation of Isao Takahata’s The Story of Princess Kaguya, and the witty simplicity of Jon Klassen’s image books. Every, in their very own approach, embodies the stability of emotion and craft that Alysha strives for in her personal work.
Trying forward
Proper now, Alysha is constant to run her Copenhagen artwork workshops, typically with a meditative focus. “I am very passionate in regards to the therapeutic advantages of artwork, and I am all the time exploring methods to weave these components into my workshops,” she says.
In her free time, she’s out sketching town’s streets, vegetation, and every day life. It is a approach of discovering connection and feeling extra at residence. In future, she hopes to jot down and illustrate her personal kids’s image ebook. “I’ve some concepts brewing,” she says, with the identical mild optimism that runs by her work.
For Alysha, illustration has by no means been nearly creating photos; it is about being attentive to the pure world, to fleeting moments, and to the feelings we feature. Whether or not she’s sketching in a park, guiding a scholar’s first brush strokes, or capturing the fragile fronds of a woodland plant, that focus stays her fixed.
