About
Lea Wade is an illustrator and concept artist living in the not so busy and not at all backwards town of Bushey. When she’s not doodling away at the PC, she can usually be found in an established coffee shop, sketching the intriguing and surprisingly unhappy locals.
Designing characters has been her lifelong passion, and over the years she has found a pool of inspirations to increase her development. One of which, genuinely is Coronation Street. For it has taught her that great characterisation comes from well defined personalities with a peppering of quirks, flaws and charm, as opposed to a solely beautiful or ugly visage. Saying that, she is pretty ashamed it took a soap opera to teach her this.
Other, more artistic influences come from Japanese game designer, Tetsuya Nomura, Korean artist Hyung-Tae Kim, and French animator, Sylvain Chomet.
Lea’s paintings are rarely, if ever, about herself, as she’d much rather be exploring the creatures, characters and environments concocted by her mind. Her approach to character design is less about conscious decisions and has more in common with filming wildlife. The typical process is to sit back, record, and let the character reveal itself from its original hazy form. During her development, Lea has learned that no matter how unique a character is, they all react like grumpy teenagers when she makes style suggestions, so it’s generally better to let them figure themselves out and make notes for further investigation. She calls this approach, Character brewing.
Services:
If you’re in need of an illustration painted, a character brewed, or you simply need a visualiser to work up scamps, storyboards and concepts then get in touch!
Lea is pretty damned friendly, and easy to work with, so don’t hesitate to request her use of her skills.
She produces her artwork both traditionally and digitally and she’s happy to work on any brief you can suggest, especially if it sounds like a challenge!
