Roanoke County high school student sells art to help pay for college

ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. – A local high school student has started her own business creating detailed drawings of some of the most popular cities and areas of Southwest Virginia. 

Brook Ludy is now a senior at Cave Spring High School, but says she got started on this project as an assignment for an art class during her freshman year. 

She says everyone in the class was asked to draw where they are from, and she created this intricate piece of downtown Roanoke. 

Teachers at her school were impressed by the piece, asking for copies and prints of their own to hang in their classrooms and in their homes. 

That's when Ludy realized she may have the perfect business model. 

Now, three years later, she's created pieces featuring other parts of downtown Roanoke, Salem, and is currently working on a design for the Grandin Road area. 

They're all pieces that will be reprinted and sold on her website. 

"It's really nice because I'm doing something I love," Ludy said. "So I'm getting better at the field that I want to go into and it's also helping me get into that field."

She's putting the money she makes from her art toward her education, using the profit to buy a new camera and even help pay for her college next year. 

You can buy her artwork here.