From coloring books to animation. Lexi Branson does it all. 

Lexi knew she wanted to be an artist when she was very young, in kindergarten to be exact. She is, “mostly self taught, I did not start taking art classes until I went to Indiana State University two years ago.” 

Lexi likes art, “because it is exciting and a way to express yourself. It is whatever you want it to be and I like having that flexibility”. The artist has many roles in society; an easy one to spot is through marketing or entertainment. Without artists, there would not be video games, movies, tv, etc.”.

 Lexi’s practice has changed most noticeably in the way she studies art. She now tends to look at real life examples for references in her art. Lexi used to have a class she went to on nights and drew naked models. She was able to look at them in person and draw from that,rather than to think of them in her head and draw. 

Her favorite artwork of hers right now is “a painting I did for one of my classes last semester. It is a fantasy landscape painting of a giant statue partially submerged in a cave. My biggest influences right now are Cassandra Jean, who is an illustrator who works on graphic novels and Kevin Wada, an artist who works on comic book covers and other illustrations”. 

Lexi would love to do art for the rest of her life, and she can not imagine doing anything else for her career. Advice Lexi would give to her younger self would be, “ to practice more and take studying more seriously”. 

The hardest art project Lexi has ever done is “a ballpoint pen portrait on a piece of paper the size of me. It took over 30 hours for me to complete it”. Lexi has a lot of favorite kinds of art including oil, pen, and paint. She really enjoys doing oil paintings but it is very messy and sometimes requires working with harsher materials, so she tends to stick with just pencil or drawing digitally.

 “ What prompted me to do art was probably watching cartoons. I really loved to watch cartoons and I enjoyed drawing them”.  “ My inspiration comes from shows or video games, because I really like to draw fantasy characters”. 

If Lexi was not an artist she is not sure what she would be because she does not really enjoy anything else. She would think of being an actress but  I would not be very good at that. “

Judy Branson, Lexi’s grandma “absolutely loves that she does art; she loves her art. She is very talented and has a style all her own that is very popular with young people. She is very good with all her drawings”.

The best thing about being an artist is getting to do what you enjoy and you get to be hands on and creative on your own. The worst thing about being an artist is it is hard to find a job and it really is not a high paying profession. 

Tammy Snyder, Lexi’s Aunt,  thinks “Art is creativity either from natural or handmade”.