'I'm a colour-blind Leeds artist turning places into pictures'
You may have seen Zac Rossiter’s travel prints on sale in the Leeds Corn Exchange. You may have also seen them while scrolling on TikTok. Under the name Zacrosso, the Leeds-based illustrator creates vibrant prints of everyday scenes across the UK. His aim is to capture the heart of communities, one local landmark at a time.
Back in primary school, a teacher gave Zac the nickname “little artist” because of his early passion. Even as a child, he knew he wanted to study art at university and perhaps even make it a career. With a family supporting him every step of the way, he moved from West Lancashire to study Illustration at Leeds Arts University.
In 2020, amidst worldwide Covid lockdowns, Zac graduated. Being forced to stay inside only made him more appreciative of his favourite places outside – and this gave him a business idea which he has built on ever since. “It was kind of like a weird blessing from lockdown that it forced me to really sit and focus on my local area,” he says. “It became really important to celebrate the places we kind of took for granted beforehand.”
Zac has been able to illustrate cities such as Sheffield, Manchester and Edinburgh. Each idea for a print begins with a research trip. Zac aims to approach the area like a tourist but, alongside trailing the well-known “best bits” of each city, he also tries to uncover hidden gems. “I’m looking for lots of different elements that make up a space,” he explains. “If they have any local traditions or histories or anything, I want to put that in.”
Once the research trip is complete, Zac digitally paints his imagined scene. The process can take hours, but the resulting prints are worth the wait. His two most popular illustrations, the Viaduct Showbar in Leeds and the Knaresborough Viaduct, are both filled with colour, from violet skies to a rainbow bridge. Yet Zac experiences a form of colour-blindness called deuteranomaly, which can make it difficult to differentiate between some colour combinations.
He’s never wanted to change the fact he is colour-blind. In fact, he considers it to be an asset to his art. “Reds will appear more brown or blues might appear more faded and purply. But usually when I paint, I’m always trying to counteract this by using a more intense version of the colour.”
Over the years, Zac’s business has grown in popularity. He sells his prints on his own website, but they are also now available to buy in independent shops across Yorkshire including retailers in the Leeds Corn Exchange.
His prints may be locally-themed but they’ve attracted social media attention from across the globe. On video sharing platform TikTok, he’s garnered more than 350,000 likes on videos sharing his art.
“[Social media] definitely makes a big difference but it’s never been the main reason I make artwork,” Zac says. “If social media didn’t exist I would still be painting, I’d just be showing it to people in a different way.”
To see his work, visit zacrosso.com