Aiyla Beau is an NFSW Hyper-realism artist and Model based in Bristol, UK. Having used COVID Lockdown to finish her largest piece of artwork to date and just this year taking her ‘hustle’ online, in a time of remote working becoming popular we thought we would pick her brain.
At around 22 years old, Aiyla Beau began working for various lads mags and after a while, this turned into stripping in a gentlemen's club in Bristol. Already pole dancing for fitness someone suggested she should try it for working and so it happened kind of by accident.
“I thought why not and had a go. I loved it straight away and went on to dance full time for around 5/6 years”.
There are a few reasons Aiyla Beau decided to take it online, the main one being she developed chronic fatigue syndrome after a bad flu infection. Aiyla could simply not keep up with the late nights and backwards sleeping pattern, so her last shifts were at the end of 2019.
In January 2020 the online hustle was begun using the site Onlyfans instead of the strip club.
“This has meant that I have more energy in general and I’m able to make the most of my time and manage my condition a lot better. Being in control of my schedule and the amount of work I do in a day has made such a huge difference to my overall health I’m a lot better than I was”.
The only downside that she can think of is that you’re on your own a lot while working. All of Aiyla’s work now whether its art or modelling is now done in isolation for the most part.
“It does get lonely sometimes, but on the whole I’m fine, you just have to make time to see friends and have time off”.
During this time Aiyla-Beau has also become an ambassador for Get Your Bits Out consultancy. GYBO is a service built by sexy content creators for sexy content creators.
“We cater to anyone and everyone, and are the place to find all the info and tailored help you can think of to be successful in your online hustle”.
The platform is Founded by Alex Simwise and Von Wager, they help with anything from workbooks on how to get started, social media manuals, tailored programmes, online seminars, calendar creation and of course the free Onlyfans page for fans and creators alike to get exclusive access to hundreds of new models and constant help and promo for the models to an ever-growing fan base.
We asked Aiyla-Beau if they have seen an increase in people looking for this kind of work during COVID lockdown? The answer as we suspect is yes. She thinks people's financial stability being shaken has caused a lot of folks to expand into different fields.
“An awful lot of strippers, for example, jumped online pretty much immediately. Honestly, though I think there was perhaps this idea from a lot of people that they would just have to start a page and add a few pics and start earning thousands when that is really so far removed from reality".
In reality, content creation is hard work, harder than even Aiyla Beau had anticipated.
“You have to be consistent in your content, promotion, and engagement to make it work, its a full-time job that takes time to grow into a sustainable business, not a quick fix. I think the reality of this upset quite a few people when they realised that”.
Her advice would be to think on it before setting a page up because once those pictures are out there, they're out there forever.
“The internet never forgets so make sure you're ready for that”.
Being an introvert anyway Aiyla Beau has enjoyed lockdown in the UK, it wasn't hard for her to stay indoors at all and it gave her the time to finish the largest piece of work she has done to date, entitled "her glory consumes you".
“It’s a drawing of model Von Wager that plays with ideas of allowing a desire to consume you, to sink into a feeling willingly giving up control, of letting go.
Aiyla likes rendering hyperrealistic images for the challenge of getting it to look like a photo as much as she can.
“And of course it’s gonna be NSFW, cause it seems everything I do is NSFW lol, I’m just built that way I guess?”.
In much the same way as content creating, as an artist now you have to also manage your online presence and be constantly promoting yourself and getting your art out there. Aiyla Beau thinks social media is a great tool for artists and states that she wouldn’t have been able to do half of the things she’s done or sell so much work had it not been for social media so she believes it’s something that is very much worth the effort.
“Personally I use it to put myself in front of the people that I believe need to see my work. To apply for shows, to galleries, and just to inject myself into that scene in general. Make friends with the people that are already where you want to be and go from there”.
The advice Aiyla Beau would give for anyone wanting to be a hyperrealistic artist, or any professional artist for that matter, is first and foremost practice as much as you can.
“I can’t stress that enough, and be patient, careers take time, mine is still in its infancy and is only really now starting to gain any kind of traction, don’t get disheartened by rejection as you’ll get it a lot, dust off and move on and most of all don’t give up”.
Two new pieces are in planning for the artist for a show coming up in November this year with UKcolab called "the judgement show". An all-female show that she is really looking forward to. “I’ll be painting some more abstract stuff alongside the hyperrealistic rendering of images, having a slightly free-er feeling to them that I cant wait to get stuck into”.
Outside of working on art and modelling, Aiyla Beau enjoys spending time with her partner, friends and her dogs. Time off normally consists of relaxing, watching films or when they can find the time, going on mini trips abroad.
As for life advice from Aiyla Beau, it is to find what you love, what really interests you, no matter how weird or odd it might be to the more conventional ideas of living, and do that.
“A life filled with what you think you should be doing rather than what you want to be doing (to me at least anyway) will end up being a life of regrets and wondering what if. You get one life, live it your way”.
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