Hi! My name's Melissa Lee, and I'm an illustrator and surface pattern designer living in the hilly forests of Northern California. Alongside doing freelance and art licensing work (I’m a proud Riley Blake Designs fabric designer!), I've spent much of my time cultivating my love of sharing what I know and encouraging others to nourish their creative side through teaching online art courses on Skillshare. I love making patterns, character art, and watercolor paintings. I'm endlessly inspired by animals and nature (whether living today or extinct), science fiction and fantasy, space and astrology, witchy things, and bees.

Always bees. 

If you're curious to learn what I know, check out my classes on Skillshare, (where I’m a Top Teacher to over 60k students) and get 1 month of free membership through my link! (The normal free trial offer is just 7 days.) If you wanna read more on my story, CLICK HERE for the long-winded, but heartfelt, version of my bio. ;)

For custom commissions, collaboration, events, interviews or podcasts, licensing & sales inquiries, or anything else, please contact me. 

(This page contains affiliate links.)

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#1 I own a ball python named Tony Ssstark.

#2 You may have noticed that I use bees in my branding. My name, Melissa, comes from the Greek words for "honey" and "bee", which is part of the reason why. The other reason is that I love them. 😆🌷🐝

#3 I majored in Studio Art in college but graduated without knowing what I wanted to do with my art professionally. I love character design, but after interning at a video game company for two years, I discovered that I really only like making my own characters.¯\_(ツ)_/¯ So instead, I make classes on character design where I get to only make my own characters, lol. I also draw people’s pets by commission.🐾 🥰

#4 I am both a huge skeptic of anything supernatural and a lover of everything supernatural. Are ghosts real? Probably not, but I love and support them.

#5 I also enjoy astrology and tarot. Do I believe in accurate predictions of future events based on horoscopes or tarot readings? Nah. Do I think astrology is scientifically sound? Nah. Do I find comfort in the joy and guidance it provides me? Totally. I thrive on being contrary.

#6 “Allow yourself to fail before you succeed” has become a career motto/mantra for me because I truly do believe in the power of embracing failure and learning to love and appreciate your “bad” art as a valuable part of any creative path or journey.

#7 The next snake I own will be named Snake Plisssken.

COLLABORATIONS & PARTNERSHIPS

 

INSTAGRAM FEED

I shared a bit about this on Valentine’s Day, but forgot to post about it in my feed! I am so thrilled to share that I have created a special date experience for long-distance couples to enjoy on @withlovewick Distance Dates! Lovewick has desig
Immersion season (as I like to call it 😉) is in full swing and I’m REAL excited because I’m returning for the fourth year running as a part of the support team! And I got a promotion! My official title is Love Squad Expert, and I’l
Over the past couple of years, I’ve presented at some local quilt guilds where they allowed me to sell some of my fabric. One of the attendees (Leslie @photonut55) bought my Dessert Sunrise print and made this awesome tote bag out of it! 😍 The
I made these bunnies a few years ago for my @skillshare class, ‘Characters for Surface Pattern Design’ as a part of my ‘Character Design Crash Course’ series. I should really start drawing cutesy animal characters like this ag

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