Art Smart: Lizzy Stewart

Take a closer look at the haunting, folksy narrative work of this UK-based illustrator.

By Jane Solomon
Published: January 24th, 2011 | 12:00am

Illustrator Lizzy Stewart will let you in on a little secret: When she wants to express that two living things are connected, she tends to draw one thing growing out of the other thing’s head. These chimerical hybrids, along with much of Stewart’s work, are based upon her favorite song lyrics, books, or periods in history. “The music I listen to is folksy narrative, and the books I read are folksy narrative,” Stewart explains. And so it follows that the art she creates is also folksy narrative. This theme might manifest itself in a series of drawings inspired by Russian prison tattoos, or a group portrait of the characters from Wuthering Heights. Or it might just be an illustration of a bear, inspired by nothing, really, other than the fact that she likes drawing them.

Three works: "Boat," "Magda," and "Living Things" ("Living Things" for Little Otsu Publishing)

Stewart’s been pursuing art since the age of 6 or 7, when her grandma admired her ability to draw people with perspective. What impressed her grandma was the fact that she drew the top of a head as if looking down from above, rather than in the customary straight-on, two-dimensional way most children draw at that age. “To be honest, it was probably not an abundance of perspective,” Stewart says. “But it was enough perspective to elevate it above a circle with a face in it.” Before that moment, she wasn’t aware of the fact that her drawings were anything out of the ordinary. From that age, however, Stewart started keeping sketchbooks.

In 2009 Stewart graduated with a first-class degree from Edinburgh College of Art; she’s since been working as an illustrator in Edinburgh. Her favorite project thus far is a collaboration with graphic designer Jez Burrows; together they founded the indie-publishing endeavor Sing Statistics. Their first publication, released in 2008, was a small experimental book of short stories and art, I Am the Friction, for which Stewart drew five illustrations inspired by five of Burrows’s short stories and Burrows wrote five short stories inspired by five of Stewart’s illustrations. “At the time, it was a kind of perfect object, at least for a while—and it’s rare that I think anything is ever perfect, even for ten minutes,” Stewart says. A year later, Sing Statistics published the follow-up, We Are the Friction, and continued the teamwork tradition by pairing a couple dozen international writers and artists to create work based on their partners’ creations. The resulting eclectic collections play with the concept of role reversal; by asking writers to create a story inspired by an illustration—in addition to having the illustrators create an image based on text—the Friction series aims to balance the application of interpretation to both forms of art.

Where it all happens: Inside Stewart's studio.

Most recently, Stewart has worked on a book in the Living Things series, published by small Portland-based publisher Little Otsu. This book, featuring 16 drawings of wildlife by Stewart, will be sold by McSweeney’s. Stewart also recently worked on the art for an edition of Mrs. Dalloway, put out by the Folio Society, a press that commissions artists to illustrate beautiful, bound editions of classic fiction. Additionally, Stewart and Burrows have just released the third and final book in Sing Statistics’ Friction series, You Are the Friction.

The charm of Lizzy Stewart’s illustration lies in its ability to emote far beyond its two-dimensional contours. Perhaps Stewart’s secret is superimposing living things on other living things’ heads, but a more likely explanation is that she draws what she cares about. “What I like is in direct correlation with what I make,” Stewart admits.