As an art college student in the early 1990s, Lisa Watkins was told by her professors that she “couldn’t see color.” Though she eventually earned her degree in textiles, she admits the assessment sapped her artistic passion for over two decades.
“My joy was pretty much all knocked out of me,” Watkins, 56, told The Epoch Times, speaking of how her art teachers’ criticism impacted her creativity. “I laid down my pencils for over 20 years, moving from job to job, always working hard but never feeling fulfilled. There was always something missing.”
After suffering a physical and mental breakdown in 2012, Watkins was encouraged by a well-meaning councilor to get back in touch with her creative side. That’s when she bought a set of 120 Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils—and “everything changed.”
“From the moment I put pencil to paper, it felt like coming home,” said the artist, who hails from North Lincolnshire, UK. “The knowledge I had once learned returned, and my passion for animals flowed through every stroke.”
Rising from the ashes of 20 years of artistic lethargy, Watkins’s first big venture outside her creative comfort zone was a competition for Colored Pencil Magazine in which she won first place in the Beginner category for her portrait of a snow leopard. Before she knew it she had people asking for pet portraits. Just six months after buying her new pencil crayon set she took a huge leap by quitting her day job to pursue art full time.
“Things didn’t go viral then as they do now, but [‘Snow Leopard’] was picked up by so many other artists and organizations,” she said. “My diary soon filled months in advance with commissions, and I worked tirelessly to improve.”
But it was her equine commissions from nine years ago (such as her works “Cowboy” and “Ziggy”) that brought her back to drawing horses again, due to popular demand from her following on Patreon, and led her to create “Ready When You Are.” Her chestnut bust of a gentle giant with a crystal-studded bridal was commended by the internationally renowned UK Colour Pencil Society in its 2025 Annual Open Exhibition.
She says one of the keys to creating her richly detailed surfaces is layering.
“I always used to start out with a watercolor pencil underpainting and then once dry I would go back in with layers of oil-based pencils to build the depth, tone, texture and detail,” she told her following on Facebook after posting the image online.
“One of the biggest problems I see color pencil artists struggle with is lack of depth in their pieces and quite often it is simply because they have not pushed their layers enough.”
Since her first art teaching trip to the United States in 2017, Watkins began holding sold-out tours internationally and online. As a result she found little time to create works for her own pleasure, though that’s now changing.
“This year, I’ve been taking some long-overdue ’me time' in the studio, focusing on personal projects and restoring balance after a small health setback,” she said.
Now, with planned art workshops in Andalucía, Spain, on the horizon, Watkins looks forward to teaching again. Once a discouraged art student, she’s now come full circle to encourage other budding artists.
“This is a dream I’ve held for years,” she said, speaking her upcoming classes. “You cannot beat being there in person to witness the light-bulb moments and joy when it all comes together for your students.”
