Comic Book Slumber Party

 

AHOY! This wednesday I'll be talking at the Comic Book Slumber Party as part of the Bath Literary festival. I'll be talking with the excellent Philippa Rice about self-publishing and making a living from drawing pictures and whatnot. It might be interesting...at the very least it'll be distracting. There are a load of amazing people taking part (Gemma Correll, Donya Todd and Wai Wai Pang to name but three) and the whole day is totally and utterly free...which is pretty flipping great if you ask me.

You can book tickets to my talk here  and find out more about whats on here. 

Who we are and what we do

 Currently I am studying for a masters degree in Communication Design at Central St Martins. Its called 'Communication Design' but as I have no other strings to my, very, flimsy bow I'm sticking with illustrative communication because, lets face it, that's pretty much all I care about. So there are a few strands to my research but my primary goal is that at the end of the two years, which is now fast approaching, I will have a better understanding of what it is that I do.

 

I think Illustration is important. Not in a real sense, not as how I think feminism is important or social justice or the heartbreaking dismantling of the NHS, of course its not important like that. But within the culture of art and design illustration is significant, not least because it has always been here. Putting information into pictures has been humankind's way of explaining life for centuries; from cave paintings to maps of the stars to diagrams of the human body. Images can be the most powerful, concise and comprehensive way of dispensing information to a varied audience as everyone is, on some level, visually literate. We look at pictures before we can speak, we draw before we write. We know, from childhood, how to read a picture and that makes it immediately more accessible than anything written might be. I think pictures are instinctive and intuitive and, as a result, carry some weight.

However the existence of photography and film dictates that illustration need no longer be the single pictorial delivery method for factual information. Instead the illustrator's role is shifting and currently exists in a fairly malleable state in which we, the artists, can decide who we are and what we do. Perhaps we're not even illustrators anymore?

SO. What I'm wondering is what other Illustrators identify their role as being. 

• How do you define 'illustration'? 
• Do you operate under the title 'illustrator' or the more general (and increasingly popular) 'creative' or perhaps you have another name for what you do? And is ALL the work you make illustration?
• Where do you see your work fitting within Art & Design?
• What is the importance of images for you?

  
If you have the time, and indeed the inclination, I was wondering if any illustrator reading might email me their answers to the above questions. I'd really appreciate it and I think (and hope) that together we might be able to come up with some kind of portrait of what we do and why our artform deserves as much critical and historical analysis as any other artistic endeavor. 

EMAIL TO-  lizzy (at) abouttoday.co.uk 



 






 

Quiet Wilderness

The work I did for 'The Call of the Wild' is now on my website. These drawings and paintings focus on my immediate surroundings; the corner of South London that I live in. It is relatively quiet and somewhat neglected around the edges. From our bathroom window your eye can follow a tangle of hedges and fences upwards towards chimneys that stretch towards Battersea. Whilst not 'wild' in the traditional sense this place, to me, has a kind of wilderness quality found in the falling fences and peaceful streets, as though it is waiting to be discovered.

Call of the Wild

I have some new work in this show that opens in Hackney on Thursday and runs all weekend. There are a healthy handful of great artists involved so if you're in town then pop along and have a nose around!

Colossal update

WOAH. I let this blog languish somewhat eh? Oops. I'm going to catch you up RIGHT NOW. Sit tight, its about to get link heavy. 

I moved house! I can now be found hibernating through winter with talented lasses Ping Zhu and Eleni Kalorkoti and clever chap Otto Boreson. Today this is the view from my window.

I'm still at Central St Martins working on my masters degree. If you want to pitch in with some of my research visit here... or look at some sketches from the project (waaaay more to come in the future) here.

I updated my website a bit. There's new stuff dotted all over and a load of old stuff is gone. Hopefully in the coming months it'll be totally spruced up. Its good to purge the old stuff, the things that don't feel relevant. New year! 

AND FINALLY. My shop has relocated. Its here now and there are new prints and cards and whatnot  for you to peruse. There's also the option to order any of the images from my site as a print if you fancy.

And thats more or less it! There will be more stuff here in future. Perhaps in different forms than normal. Wait and see I guess..... wait and flipping see.

SHOP!

Hey. So this is a bit of shameless plea but I’m moving house and in London this costs ALL THE MONEY ON EARTH. Urgh. So I need to raise some funds in whatever way I can. SO! As a starting point- You can get 12% off in my shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/LizzyStewart?ref=si_shopwith code MOVINGHOUSEMADNESS.

Travels

The last couple of weeks I took a wee bit of time off and spent some time outside London. I returned to Edinburgh (above) for a while to catch up with friends and enjoy the Edinburgh Festival followed by a quick camping adventure with my closest friends in Dorset (below).  Now that I'm back its time to knuckle down and get some work done.

Drawing Sale

I'm moving house soon so its time for another one! You know the drill. Email me at lizzy (at) abouttoday.co.uk if something takes your fancy- let me know where in the world you are so that I can calculate postage costs. I can only accept payment via paypal at present. 

 Banjo-SOLD

 Mountain- SOLD

 Bird Girl- SOLD

 Flowery hair- SOLD

Garden- SOLD

Many Hands Olympic Collection

 (by Owen Gildersleeve) 

To celebrate the 2012 Olympics Many Hands have curated a splendid collection of Olympic/British themed artworks by a variety of exciting designers and artists. Here are a few of my favourites...oh and mine, which is vastly less good than everyone elses. For shame. It takes its inspiration from the Games' Ancient Greek origins and my favourite sport, swimming!

 (by Ciara Phelan)

 (by Lesley Barnes)

 

 (by Jenny Bowers)

(by Lizzy Stewart)

Leftovers

I just added a handful of odds and ends to flickr. I don't really use flickr much any more but I thought this stuff needed  home so thats where it ended up.

The Working Proof

I have a print for sale on The Working Proof. A portion of the profit will go to Médecins Sans Frontière. You can read a wee interview with my on the Working Proof blog here should such a thing take your fancy (also- inordinately large photo of my head anyone? anyone? No. Thought not)

Paintings

 

In between jobs I've been doing lots of painting recently. Here are a few. Some I quite like. 

 

'Nigel's Shoes'

A few years ago I wrote a children's book for my Mum's birthday and recently I completed one for my Dad too. 'Nigel's Shoes' is about a boy (my Dad) and his red, shiny shoes. It rhymes (as did my Mum's book) and features various little boy scrapes that I imagine my Dad and Uncle got into as children. Here are a few images from inside. 

 

Website Update

I've added new work to my website. There are fresh additions to the 'Landscapes' series plus some Editorial images and a new section for cards and stuff in 'Stationary'.  I've also slipped in a few extra illustrations from Cardigan Heart. The sketchbook bit is being constantly updated too! Phew!

Summer in London

Thought I'd update a bit on what's been going on with me here in the fine city of London.

I recently moved into the lovely OPEN Studio where I'm sharing a desk with my arch nemesis Ping Zhu (not really! she's flipping ace). We've only been there a couple of weeks but so far its been super. I'll try and share some pictures of our desk once we get it 'just so'.

This past week favourite folks Jez Burrows and Eleni Kalorkoti were in London which meant walking a lot, eating a lot and not really doing much work at all. A glorious week all told. (above Jez and Eleni enjoy some tasty poster design at the London Transport Museum. Nerds.)
  

I'm all done with Uni for the summer and will be heading back in Autumn for the second half of my masters course. Plans are brewing, ideas are evolving. I'm looking forward to it. Above is something I did this term, more a starting point or an experiment than a finished piece (probably worth clicking on to see it better, its a bit long and thin!)

Nomads

'Nomads' is a wee zine about being a teenage girl in an uneventful town; not much happens I'm afraid. I guess this is a continuation from the kind of thing I was doing in 'Cardigan Heart' so if you liked that maybe you'll like this!

  I'm doing a lot of zine based work at the moment. I guess it might be tedious for everyone else but I like the urgency of it, racing through a project and having a little book at the end of it. I'm a bit fixated on storytelling at the moment. So I reckon there'll be a bit more of this kind of thing in future.

Tiger Meeting

 

This is a painting I did for a show (called 'Earthly Delights') curated by super duo Tuesday Bassen & Pete Gamlen at Light Grey Art Lab in Minneapolis. Its a tiger and a lady meeting in a jungle and making friends. Because...that would be pretty delightful I reckon. 

Prints from the exhibition are available to buy here. 

Summer Sale!

I haven't had a good clear out of my drawers in a while so I thought it was about time to attempt to re-home some drawings. As usual if you're interested in a drawing send an email to lizzy (at) abouttoday.co.uk and remember to let me know where you are so that I can calculate the postage costs. At present I cannot only accept paypal payment transfers I'm afraid. Thanks!

 SOLD

 Magnitogorsk Factory- £40 A4

 SOLD

 The Men Who Built Magnitogorsk- £100 A2

 The Arrest of the Rich Peasant- £120 A2

 Mountain- £45 A2

 Family- £70 A4 (mounted A3)

 SOLD

 Garden- £10 15cm x 15cm

 Hare- SOLD

 SOLD

 Anja- £25 17cm x 18.5cm

 SOLD

 SOLD