15% OFF!

Until tuesday you can get 15% off all the stuff in my etsy store with the discount code 'DiscountAhoy'! Which is pretty good I reckon.

Right now....

I'm currently juggling far too many projects at once and, likely, failing at all of them! Asides from work on next years Little Otsu Planner (a sneak peak of which you can see here), creating new stuff for LOOP and for next month's Art Fusion in Glasgow and helping Jez wrap up the next Sing Statistics publication (phew) I'm also trying to do a few illustrations based on Annie Proulx's The Shipping News. Above is a pretty grey and ominous view of Killick Claw, Newfoundland, where the book is set. I'll share more when I'm done.

900!

900! from Lizzy Stewart on Vimeo.


Well fancy that! Over 900 followers on blogger. As stated in my terrible video (terrible video number three...I'm making a habit of this. Sorry) I am both grateful and bewildered by the sheer number of you following this. So thank you. Seriously. You are all wonderful (probably...I mean I don't *strictly* know you...I'm just guessing). 

Loop Arts Fair 2011

Mr Jez Burrows and I are taking part in the Loop Arts Fair in Leeds this June. The event sees a healthy array of design and illustration types congregating in the fine city of Leeds for a weekend of open studios and talks and so forth. I will be doing a talk (gulp) at 3pm on Friday 17th as well as exhibiting over the weekend with Jez in a kind of working studio type set up. We'll also be bringing along a new Sing Statistics publication, which is pretty exciting and long overdue! If you're in Leeds, nay if you're in the North of England please please please come along and show your support for the event. Its rare that this kind of event takes place outside of London so if this is the kind of thing you're interested please come and help show that the North is as exciting creatively as the South!

Tickets are on sale now

(Major points go to Mr Jay Cover for putting this together.)

Annie Hall

At the start of the year I did a little contribution to Matt Pringle's Film One Zine which has just been released. The zine sees a number of illustrators (including awesome pals eleni kalorkoti and richard sanderson) draw something based on their favourite film accompanied by some words on why its their favourite. I went for Annie Hall as my all time favourite (though it had stiff competition from Together, Grey Gardens, The Shop Around The Corner, and Manhatten to name a few).

  Anyway for thems thats interested...here is what I had to say about why Annie Hall is my favourite. Apologies for dodgy writing...have you ever tried to explain why you love something? So flipping hard....
 

"Explaining why I love Annie Hall seems to be a little difficult. Of Allen's other films 'Manhattan' is more beautiful to look at, 'Sweet and Lowdown' is lovelier and 'Play it again Sam' makes me laugh out loud more often and yet it is 'Annie Hall' that has quietly taken up residence in my heart and shows no intention of relocating.

   A large part of it is, of course, emotional; it's a film that found me at exactly a point in my life when I could fall in love with it wholly and completely; as a teen tentatively discovering life beyond the walls of a Devonshire secondary school. Annie and Alvy were so strangely recognizable to me (despite their presence in 1970s New York and mine in afore mentioned Devonshire school) probably because they are so incredibly well drawn by Allen. It didn’t matter that at seventeen my romantic entanglements were slightly less complicated and my only contact with neurotic Jewish comedians was limited to a close friend with Allen-esque aspirations, the relationships on screen felt real to me and when you’re seventeen that’s pretty important. As someone who was (and still is) prone to over-analysis I rejoiced in finding characters whose over-thinking eclipsed mine ten-fold. I laughed at references I couldn’t possibly understand at that stage and laughed again a year or two later when I finally understood them (I’m thinking of McLuhen in particular). My heart swelled with joy as Diane Keaton and Woody Allen chase live lobsters across a tiny kitchen with, what looks like, genuine laughter in their eyes and I cried at the end, caught up in the heartbreaking ordinary-ness of Annie & Alvy’s inevitable break-up. I was doomed from the start. I was always going to adore this film.

Years after my first viewing I have a fairly healthy handful of films that I would call my favourites but Annie Hall was the first film I ever loved (and I mean really loved rather than fancied the lead star of).  Nowadays I watch it for comfort, for the familiarity. I guess it feels like it’s in my bones, as first loves often are."

You lot! Favourite films? Go Go Go!

Bologna- Travel Sketchbook Zine

 

Like an earlier visit to London I kept a little sketchbook during my trip to Bologna. I've just finished scanning and tidying the whole thing and it is now available as a zine on etsy. The Italy zine is slightly smaller than the London one but has more drawings and fewer notes- so thats a relief! You've been spared further insight into my inner monologue! Anyway below are all the illustrations so if you don't want to buy the zine you still get to see what we got up to!

 (I also reprinted some London zines as I only did a few last time and I know a couple of you missed out.)

Drawing Sale

Clearout time once again! This time I'm selling off a handful of b&w pencil drawings including the original Lion drawing from 'the Lion's Laugh'. As per usual if you are interested in buying a drawing then send me an email ( lizzy (at) abouttoday.co.uk) and let me know where you are so that I can calculate postage. Oh and I can only accept payment via paypal I'm afraid.

 Otter- Pencil on mountboard- £15 + p&p

Redhead- Pencil on paper- SOLD

House-sitter - Pencil on paper- SOLD

 Walking Bear- Pencil on Paper- £12 + p&p

Lion- Pencil on paper- £20 + p&p 

Bologna & Florence

 So last week we ran off to Italy for a few days in the sun (a birthday present to Jez from me) and it was rather glorious. The weather was a dream (not impossibly hot for pale folk such as myself) and the food was, as it tends to be in italy, fantastic. We drank too much coffee, wandered about a lot and did our best to speak italian as often as possible (with varying results). Bologna was great and the perfect antidote to the bustling tourism of Florence. We particularly enjoyed the portico-ed streets, stumbling across the hidden canal and having a quiet sit down in the sun in the beautiful cloisters at Santa Croce (Florence). It all feels like a bit of a dream now that we're back in rainy Scotland.

  Massive thanks to the wonderful Giulia Sagramola for her top Bologna tips!

(check out Jez's photos on flickr- they're dead nice!)

(P.S there'll be a bologna sketchbook post and zine coming very soon. I just gotta get scannin')

Travels!

Jez and I are off to the Italian city of Bologna tomorrow night for a few days holiday! I'm dangerously excited and very much looking forward to some italian culinary treats and a bit of culture! Have you been? Any recommendations? Where should we go and what should we see? Most importantly where does the best coffee?

If you're in need of blog based joy in the meantime I heartily suggest you visit one of these.....

Miss Moss- My current favourite I think, Diana has a great eye for colour and detail. She makes a mean (downloadable) mixtape too! 

Evgenia Barinova- Evgenia is an incredibly talented illustrator and her blog is a lovely way to get to know her work!

Rose Blake- another illustrative crush, Rose's work is...well...its really flipping good.

Totes & Notes

 

I've added some Totebags and Notebooks to my etsy store. I like them, I hope you do too.