Bio

How I Got Here

Ashleigh Heyns, born in Zimbabwe and raised all over Southern Africa studied to become a preschool teacher and has worked in the teaching field for eighteen years. Ashleigh specializes in children's book illustration and has created the illustrations for three books that are currently on the market, two of which she’s written herself and has more coming out soon. Ashleigh works in two popular styles, watercolor and cut paper designs. Ashleigh illustrated her first story at age 7, completely by mistake. When asked to draw a picture of her favorite story in art class, Ashleigh asked for a larger sheet of paper and divided it into eight sections then painted out the most important scenes of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. This piece took a bit longer than that particular art class so her teacher allowed her extra time each day so she could finish it. Her illustration of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ won Ashleigh her first award at school, an award for originality and dedication.