All images via her Tumblr.

Check out the events. If I were going, I would love to see the TOY Roundtable or Lizzy Stewart’s talk!

Some of the featured artists:

Chris Gray


David Sparshott


Jez Burrows


Jon Boam


Lizzy Stewart


Matt Hodson


Nicholas Saunders


Nous Vous

Lizzy completed the illustrations for Toska after two weeks in January spent with inhuman activity. The concept for the book is based on a quote by Vladimir Nabokov:

No single word in English renders all the shades of ‘Toska’. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vauge restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for something, of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest levels it grades into ennui, boredom.”

–Vladimir Nabokov

Lizzy started her book off with this quote, and upon reading it really set the tone for the entire thing. Looking at the images she had drawn, one does really get the feeling of toska. I spent some serious time with this during a gray morning, and the feelings conveyed in Lizzy’s illustrations were something that I could relate to. Isolation, meandering, contemplation — all what I gathered from this beautiful book.

There was some serious care taken into the construction of this book. Heavy weighted paper and high printing quality make this something precious. Below are some of my favorite spreads out of ‘Toska’:

I found Lizzy’s work so relatable that my original intention with this entry was to take sort of my own form of toska, but to juxtapose her drawings with my urban neighborhood, matching photos with images in the book. Unfortunately it just couldn’t come together, but one image (of my supplies) is a take on a spread:

You can buy the book in Lizzy’s Etsy store. I would highly recommend you do this!

Thanks, Lizzy!

If you have a pub­li­ca­tion, book, etc., that you’d like me to review, email me! I’d love to talk.

The Sketchbook Project is like “a concert tour but with sketchbooks”, and available to everyone. Participants sign up and choose a theme to their book and use it as a basis for imagery. From there, each individual fills the book with drawings, collages, painting, writing, etc. until the project deadline. After it’s been sent it to the good folks at the Art House Co-op, all of the sketchbooks tour the United States until they are put in permanent collection of the Brooklyn Art Library. If you are interested, you have until October 31st of this year to sign up and choose your theme!

From top to bottom, in order: Andrea Posada // Jesse Draxler // Lizzy Stewart // Lili Scratchy // Tyler Parker

Lizzy is really great at the portrait. She captures an essence to her characters through few lines or color, and you feel for them-even when some have a blank expression on their face. Emotion is captured through her drawing style– the fact that she records every hair on a fox’s face, or the unkempt woman’s hair. She often uses selective coloring to highlight the important parts of her images, making me ponder their meaning.

I first discovered Lizzy through her “What I Wore (Illustrated)” set on Flickr. I’d highly recommend looking if you like to look at outfits (and you appreciate wonderful drawings!).

All images via her website.