Drawing Shop

So as not to clog up my blog with drawings, i've thrown together a Big Cartel to sell some drawings that are in need of a new home. I'm attempting to raise some money for my move to London and this seems like a good way of doing so! There are drawings to suite every budget and I'll be adding a few more soon.

  While I'm here I should say that my etsy shop is due to close for a month in the next couple of days- time to get your order in!

Zine Update

There are healthy handful of new & reprinted zines in my shop as of right now! Above is 'Thursday' a zine about finding a way out of yourself (you'll have to buy it to see what i mean by that) which I did in a day and a half a couple of weeks back.

And this is 'In an Art Gallery' which is a zine version of this comic type thing I did a while ago (in b&w i'm afraid).

ALSO! This is a zine I threw together this afternoon as part of a one and a half hour zine challenge. Its not great but I finished it so I should get points for that!

I've Zine You

This Sunday & Monday I'm going to be at this with some zines and books and other printed things for sale. It all takes place at the Book Trust, 55 High Street, Edinburgh between 10am-6pm. As well as myself you'll also be able to pick up treats by the incomparable Eleni Kalorkoti, the unstoppable Robbie Porter and the unmatched Louise Smurthwaite- all good folk deserving of your hard-earned pennies. I promise. 

  This is going to be my last Edinburgh event for a long time so please come by and say hello!

Swim Poster

There's now a poster print version of my 'swim' comic in my etsy store- a bargain at £6!

My shop will be closing at the end of August whilst I re-locate to London. Hopefully it'll reopen in October!

The National Museum of Scotland

The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh re-opened recently after a lengthy refurbishment and it was more than worth the wait. The main hall has been beautifully updated whilst retaining the Victorian charm that makes it one of the most beautiful public spaces I've been in. I heartily recommend a visit (and not just to the showstopping natural history room that seems to be getting all the attention, the ancient egypt room is great too!). Below are some (very basic) wee sketches I did on a visit a couple of weeks back.

Festival frivolities

I have been horrifically neglectful on the blog front this past week. I had grand plans. I should have known I couldn't live up to them! Here in Edinburgh we're a week into the festival (the biggest arts festival in the world for those that don't know) and I'm already shattered. I've been to eleven shows so far (top three being Thom Tuck, David O' Doherty and Tim Key, oh wait and Josie Long, and Humphrey Kerr, thats five. I've become a stand-up comedy addict.) and have a load more to come over the next three weeks. This being my last full month in Edinburgh it feels good to be cramming it full of fun activities. 

   Above is an illustration for the Eastwing blog about living in Edinburgh during the festivals. Every spare square inch of space is turned into a venue or exhibition space and many locals rent out their flats to tourists and performers for the month. As a result you can find yourself living next door to an experimental theatre group, a gaggle of student comedians or perhaps a dance troupe keen on late night rehearsals! (see it up close on flickr)

Next week the goal is do some posts on my favourite Edinburgh things. I'm sorry that this might be quite dull but I don't have time for much drawing at the moment so it's all i've got! Sorry!

The sea, the sea

My sister and I had an amazing time camping in Cornwall a week ago.  We even managed to find some sunshine! I felt all rejuvenated after a couple of days by the sea (there's nothing like plunging your feet into fresh, clear water to jolt you back into being) and grateful to have had even the tiniest of summer holidays (even if the mist did set in on our last evening).

(this is my sister, Jess)

On the horizon.....

 

Time for some news of the rather big variety! I've been sitting on this for a while but its time to share that, come September, I'll no longer be an Edinburgh resident. Eeek! I'm moving to London town to do a Masters course at Central St Martins which means that, after six wonderful years, I'll be saying goodbye to my beloved Auld Reekie (for the time being). Its not a decision I've come to lightly, I love Edinburgh and have made some wonderful friends here who I'll miss very much but after six years it seems like time for a change (I'm only twenty-four after all!). I'm really excited about the prospect of studying again and looking forward to spending a couple of years experimenting with my work and seeing where it takes me. I have grand plans! I'll still be doing commissioned work at the same time and keeping the shop going too, so hopefully this blog won't suffer too much.

 

 (I'm aware that London doesn't really look like this anymore but its such a great photo!)

Over the next month I'll be clearing out my stuff, hopefully getting rid of lots of the things that have accumulated during my time here and getting my act together. Its also the Edinburgh Festival so I'll be making the most of that too- out with a bang and all that! In September my Etsy shop will close for a month so if you have orders that need making now is the time! During August I'm going to try and post some of my favourite things about Edinburgh, a blog based love letter to my favourite city, if you will!

home-time

I'm off home to Plymouth for a few days as of tomorrow. I'm hoping that the weather manages a degree of goodness and my sister and I can head out for an adventure! At the very least I'm looking forward to books on the train and catching up with the family. In the meantime....

Jez did a great wee map of nice green spaces in London for lovely map makers  Herb Lester. You can get one in his shop.

If etsy could cough up a gift for me this week I'd like it to be this super simple necklace from Elephantine. 

I'll be back next week with big news to share!

Something or Nothing

I'm currently trying to get my head around a project I dreamt up a couple of years ago (do you have those? the things that sit on your list that you really want to do but want to get 'right' so badly that they get shelved? I have loads). Its maybe complicated but maybe not complicated at all. I can't decide. Anyway this is an image for that. Or, at least, it would have been. I was happy with it for a day and now I've decided its totally wrong. This is the prerogative of the fickle artist i'm afraid! Anyway I thought I should share something as there's been a bit of a radio silence around here work-wise!

Advice To Sink In Slowly

You can now get my 'Find some place..' poster as an A2 litho print from Advice to Sink in Slowly. The poster will hopefully raise some money to go towards distributing advice posters to university students across the uk. 

You can also get a t-shirt version of the poster from Howies who are kindly sponsoring the Advice To Sink in Slowly project- Womens / Mens

Reverence Library

Hooray! FINALLY we've launched the third Sing Statistics publication. Its been a long time coming (as contributors will attest), held up by printing setbacks, format overhauls and monetary freak-outs, but at last I can say that Reverence Library is ON SALE NOW! The book features nine writers and nine illustrators dealing with three non-fiction subjects (in this volume- Nikola Tesla, Galleons & the Trans-Siberian Railway) in any way they see fit- mostly by making stuff up about them. You might learn somethings, but likely not. Mostly you'll read some great writing and enjoy some fun illustrations (including some of um..mine- to make up the numbers- i'll share those images soon).

   The book is £10 and ships all over. Limited to 1000 copies so pick one up fast!

(I'm very pleased to say that the book features three of my favourite british illustrators- William Goldsmith, Luke Pearson and Richard Sanderson.)

Betty, Dupree & Me

 

I have a series of cards available from splendid new stationary folk Betty & Dupree. Pop over and have a look- there's also some great illustrated tape by Gemma Correll and some beautiful cards by Tom Frost. 

I've got some work in this show curated by unstoppable doodle machine Amy Blackwell at the Malt Cross Gallery in Nottingham alongside some very talented ladies. If you're in that neck o'the woods I suggest you check it out after it opens on Saturday! 

There's a wee interview with me over at Ventricular Projects. I am not especially interesting though. Sorry!

Paintings That I Did Not Paint

 I thought I'd share some more of my most recent zine, as I feel its one that needs a bit of explaining. I'm really interested in why we draw and how people learn to draw so I thought I'd go back and try and re-create how I developed my drawing skills as a child. In the UK at least, Schools teach you to draw by telling you to copy other artworks and so that's what I did for this zine. Copying teaches you to look, it tells you how good images are composed, how to use colour and how to tell stories with images. Its a tried and tested method and it seems to work. But once you've made you're copy what are you left with? This was what I was really interested in. Is the image mine or theirs? The components were dreamt up by someone else but the image as whole is from my hand, filtered through my eye so can I claim that I am the author? When I draw Millais' Ophelia (bottom image) the result is something different from the original and that, to me is interesting. Anyway I don't want to ramble. There's some more writing in the zine if you're interested. Here are some pictures! 

New Things

 Thought I better share some of the new work I did for Loop. Hopefully I'll have photos of the event to show you guys soon. Above is a new screenprint (A2) of a fantasy houseboat. If anyone can build me this in real life I'd be pretty excited! The print is on etsy now.

This is one of the images from Toska only with a bit o' colour worked in. Available as an A4 giclee print. 

 I did a zine of drawings based on paintings I love. This was a bit of an experiment and an investigation into drawing and copying and learning.

 

 I also made some tentative steps towards doing more work in 3D. Don't get me wrong- I love paper based things but it was nice to work on some solid objects. Above, a family of Norwegian knitwear fans and below a little wooden town. For prices email me directly.

LOOP- this weekend

So this week Jez and I head down to Leeds to take part in Loop Arts Fair at Marshalls Mill. Whilst there we'll be launching a new Sing Statistics Book as well as exhibiting some of our own work (lots new) in our space (which will function as a studio while we're there. We're also both doing talks which you can reserve spaces if you buy advance tickets. I'm talking on Friday at 3pm! I heartily recommend getting a full weekend ticket as there's a tonne of amazing stuff going on and it'll be good to be able to pop in and out at your leisure! I've not done a talk for a while and I was wondering- if you're planning on coming along what do you want to hear about? And if you're not coming- what kind of thing would you like to hear at a talk by an illustrator? I want to make sure I don't just ramble my way through it!


p.s if you are in Leeds and free on Friday afternoon please consider stopping by for my talk! I'm having horrible visions of talking to an empty room!

Art Fusion- Sunday 12th

If you're in Glasgow this Sunday head down to Gibson St to check out Art Fusion at the Gibson St Gala. I'm going to be exhibiting and selling work in the outdoor gallery alongside a tonne of other artists (including Fiona Purves and Libby Walker). We'll be there from 12pm-6pm and it'd be pretty great if any of you Glasgow residents would come and say hello!

One of the things I'll have on show is this new poster print. Which is available now in my shop.

Swim

Friday was sunny and warm. I think that was it- the Scottish summer over and done with already! On the rare occasions that the weather is good all I can ever think of is being near water. I grew up just outside Plymouth, in South Devon, in close proximity to myriad rivers and beaches; perfect for summery afternoons. I miss dibbling my toes, wading through ankle high waves, avoiding seaweed, getting the guts to put my shoulders under the cold, clear water. Hopefully, at some point this summer, the sun will come back and we'll find somewhere to mess about by the river. In the meantime I'll have to make do with drawings.

The Shipping News (continued)

 

I've recently complete a short project based on the novel 'The Shipping News'. You can see the full set of illustrations on my website. Below are some progress images of the set's most bleakly epic image! 

You can also read a post about my current inspiration on the new Easting Blog.

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.)