ISArt Mentor Voices｜Louise :“艺术灵感，源于生活的观察”

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At ISA International Academy Visual Arts Centre, Louise wears two “hats”: she playfully introduces illustration to younger children, and guides senior students towards the world’s top art schools. Her students have secured illustration offers from prestigious institutions such as the University of the Arts London, Glasgow School of Art, the University of Edinburgh, and Parsons School of Design.

Yet her proudest achievement is not the acceptance letters, but nurturing her students’ lifelong ability to see beauty in everyday life — turning ordinary moments into a “treasure trove” of creativity.

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For an illustrator, inspiration often hides in the small gaps of everyday life. Louise’s way of capturing it is simple: she always carries a sketchbook. The greenery by a café window, fallen leaves on a park bench, a croissant on a breakfast plate — these ordinary fragments of daily life are carefully collected in her book.

Louise studied Illustration and Animation at Kingston University, London, and later pursued a Master’s in Illustration at the University of Edinburgh. Her sketchbook habit was firmly established during her years abroad. Pigeons on Princes Street in Edinburgh, cosy old cafés in Glasgow, bustling street markets in London — her sketchbook is always filled with vibrant snapshots of life. Even her popular original comic series Alice in Wonderland, beloved by children, contains meticulous observations drawn from everyday life.

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“A sketchbook is an illustrator’s ‘inspiration savings jar’. Its greatest purpose is to train yourself to observe life — which is exactly the essence of illustration,” Louise explains. Sketches of kittens by the roadside or shadows of trees on the way home from school gradually build into a rich “library of materials” for future creations.

Her time studying abroad also helped her move beyond the obsession with technical fundamentals, despite having learned to draw since childhood and participated in art entrance exams. “More important than technique is what you want to express,” she says. This philosophy has become the core of her teaching: illustration is not just about putting pencil to paper, but about using your eyes and heart to “draw” life itself.

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After graduating, Louise worked as a contracted illustrator for Visual China and illustrated commercial picture books. She deeply understands the importance of nurturing artistic interest and the frustration of getting “stuck” in the creative process. This experience of “finding answers in everyday life” has been brought into her classroom, where she tailors the Life Observation Method for students of different ages.

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scenes with playful transformation, embedding knowledge points into moments familiar to the children.

For example, when explaining that “points, lines, and planes form the basis of shapes”, she doesn’t use geometric diagrams. She starts from a rainy day: tiny first drops are the “points” in the picture; as the rain gets heavier, streaks running down the window become the “lines”; when many droplets gather along the windowsill to form a shiny puddle, that becomes the “plane”. By using scenarios children can perceive, abstract concepts become tangible and concrete.

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For older students, Louise first helps them reduce creative pressure: they don’t need to draw perfectly. Simple lines capturing “mum knitting a sweater” or “classmate’s paint-stained uniform” are enough. The key is to record one small detail from everyday life each day.

She recalls a student who often said, “I don’t know what to draw.” She encouraged him to start with the fruit he ate each day: one day a bitten apple, the next a peeled orange. After a week, he noticed the patterns of the orange segments resembled little moons, and the apple seeds looked like tiny flowers. He gradually became more observant. Later, he transformed sketches of “grandma’s old reading glasses” and “stone lions at the front gate” from his sketchbook into a picture book, which even inspired a series of merchandise.

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In portfolio guidance classes at ISA Liwan International High School Visual Arts Program, when students feel stuck choosing a theme, Louise encourages them to start from their interests and life experiences — using the principle of “seeing the big in the small”.

For example, she might guide students to explore family relationships through the state of the household, or examine the lives of a generation of immigrants through a single home-cooked dish blending American and Chinese cuisine. She often reminds them that, through careful observation, the small details of everyday life often contain the most powerful creative core.

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Finally, for all children passionate about illustration and eager to go further along this path, Louise has prepared a “stage-based growth guide” to help students of different ages find a learning pace suited to them.

 Early Years (Interest Awakening): Nurturing Passion, Bringing Art into Everyday Life

Senior Students /(Preparation for Further Studies): Let Work Reflect Deep Thinking