Giveaway!

Giveaway from Lizzy Stewart on Vimeo.

I'm doing a giveaway of both Living Things & Toska. Leave a comment & win (as the video says).

p.s things I have since realised about video blogging- the face you pull before filming is important so that you dont end up with a frozen crazy face on your blog which is what I have. You should brush your hair first. Also- plan, at least a bit, what you might say. Why did I not think of that?

Mrs Dalloway for the Folio Society

 

Last year I spent a fair few months illustrating Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway for the Folio Society. Ten illustrations neatly bound in a very nice hard-back book, printed on lovely paper, put together with typical Folio Society attention to detail! Its out next month but here's a sneak preview of some of it. 

 The whole process of illustrating the book proved to be a steep learning curve for me. Lots of drafting and re-drafting and research and late nights, a far cry from my normally quite relaxed approach to illustration. I'm not going to deny that it was an incredibly stressful process, one that frequently left me feeling a bit (for 'a bit' read 'utterly') useless but in the end I'm quite pleased with how things turned out. I feel like the way I work really evolved during the project and I definitely honed my photoshop skills along the way! There are plenty more images to show you but I think I'll share the full illustrations once the book has been officially released. 

(Today is the 70th anniversary of Virginia Woolf's death. If you haven't read any of her, frankly sort of revolutionary, novels maybe now is a good time to try one! I loved Orlando as a teenager despite being faintly baffled by it!)

Upcoming!

This week I'll be heading down to London town for Pick Me Up at Somerset House. Jez and Evening Tweed are exhibiting in one of the rooms again alongside other splendid folk like Nous Vous and Nobrow showing off what they do. As well as checking out what other people are up to I'm also taking part, albeit in a much smaller way. I'm going to be doing some drawing as part of It's Nice That's One for One project. Alongside four other artists (including my pal Richard Sanderson ) I'll be drawing on Thursday 17th (between 2.30pm and 9pm) and Saturday 19th (between 10am-2.30pm). If you come along you'll get to witness me frantically scribbling, stressing and screwing up paper first hand. Drawings made at the show will be for sale there and then! If you're in the area do come in a say hello. Friendly faces will be much appreciated.

As a result of my trip south (i'm heading home for a few days too) any shop orders placed between Wednesday 16th and Sunday 27th will not be shipped until the 28th!

Thank you!

 I just want to say a massive thank you for your response to my Toska book so far. Putting this book out felt like a fairly massive risk for me and its been really nice to get such a lovely reaction in the first couple of days. I'm really flattered and very grateful for your wonderful support. 

   The orders are being sent out and few of you have even got them already it seems! I'll be posting orders as quickly as I can so please bear with me! As well as my etsy store you can pick up a book at the ever magnificent Analogue Books here in Edinburgh, Comma in Oxford and (shortly) Here Gallery in Bristol. More stockists to be confirmed soon!

Thanks folks!

TOSKA

 

 At last! I finally get to share something I finished a while back. Toska is a b&w litho printed, staple bound, 20 page book filled with illustrations that I drew during January of this year (in two weeks in fact, in a flurry of inhuman activity). The concept for the book is based on a quote from Vladimir Nabokov on the uniquely Russian sensation of 'Toska' and whilst the book has no narrative I hope you can at least spot a kind of vaguely tangible theme.  This whole project is the biggest thing I've done on my own since my degree (and definitely the most expensive!) and involved me tricking myself into thinking I was confident enough in my work to spend a load of money printing five hundred copies of it! Eeek! This really has been a fairly huge leap o' faith for me.

Toska is now officially on sale for a rather reasonable £6.50 and the first fifty orders will recieve the postcard pictured above as well as their book. I really hope you like the images below (I won't show you them all as it'll spoil the surprise) and that maybe they might tempt you to invest in the book!

Been Listening

Yesterday I went to see one of my all-time, desert island top ten,  favourite bands The Decemberists play the Barrowlands in Glasgow. Having seen them a healthy handful of times (the first being in 2004 at a rather strange church hall/social club in Bristol) I knew what to expect and, of course, was not disappointed. Few bands know how to do all-consuming, heart-swelling joy like the Decemberists. This wee illustration (for Eastwing) is based on me remembering discovering them as a eager teenager desperately lapping up new music in her bedroom.

Anyway doing this got me to thinking about my music consumption (this might be a long post) From about aged 14 to 21 I was a rabid seeker of new music. I read magazines and blogs and visited record stores weekly, thoroughly raiding the racks for obscure treats. When I moved to Edinburgh from Plymouth (where decent live music was hard, nay impossible, to come by) I feverishly attended gigs both here and in Glasgow to ensure I made the most of my proximity to good live venues. Briefly I even co-ran a club night, dj-ed and organised gigs. I was obsessed (and, as any devoted indie fan usually is, I was probably a total music snob).
  In the last few years this has waned somewhat. I buy fewer albums and never really read music blogs anymore. The days of visiting Pitchfork on a twice-daily basis are long gone. In a way that's a relief. My poor computer is grateful of the hard-drive space and having my ipod on shuffle is less of a risky business now that I know that everything on there is from a carefully curated selection of favourites rather than my entire music collection. For the past couple years I've stuck to releases from tried and tested favourites (Grizzly Bear, the Mountain Goats, Radiohead, Why, the National, St Vincent for example) and made way for only a comparative few new finds (DM Stith, Ramona Falls, James Blake, The Unthanks, The Dodos and a few more). I suppose this is part of growing up; no longer needing to sum myself up with a music library, neglecting my mix cd making and generally feeling like its ok not to be on top of whats new/cool/going to be Pitchfork's album of the year. I'm ok with that really, I can't afford to buy records like I used to! But a part of me doesn't want to give up too soon. I still am still floored by good songwriting and I will never fail to swoon at good use of a brass section on record. I guess what this boils down to is what do you fine folk recommend? What albums have had you in raptures recently? What's gotten your toes tapping and your head bobbing? Only the best please. I need quality goods to lift me from my rut! GO GO GO!

Spring!

Spring has very nearly sprung here! Hurrah for blossom and daffodils and other springtime wonders!