Alison by Lizzy Stewart
I have been trying to find a way to learn how to add more narrative into my illustrations so I headed to The Margate Bookshop in Market Place in Old Town, Margate to see if they had any graphic novels I could thumb through. They had just a single shelf but covered quite a broad church so plenty of choice to get started.
I opted to buy this one I think because of the watercolour nature of the illustrations. Some of the others were too heavy looking, too comic book hero or too ‘busy’. I wanted something easy to get started with.
For my original purpose of finding a way to add narrative to my work, I am not sure this fulfilled the brief. Nothing against this book, but the combination of words and image kind of work together to give that narrative, either explicit or implied.
However, I did love Stewarts’ illustration work. The majority is spreads of monochromatic work that is a lovely combination of simple line and wash.
Throughout this graphic novel, Stewart makes great use of ‘taped notes’ in her illustrations. They looks amazingly realistic.
By far my favourite monochromatic line and wash image from the whole book and a really great example of the kind of implied narrative I want to include in my work going forward. As a standalone illustration there are so many questions.
My favourite illustration from the book. The looseness and texture are beautiful and again there is an implied narrative.
Overall a nice gentle introduction to graphic fiction I think for me. I have a friend who is going to dig out a few others for me to look at so I’ll come back with some thoughts on those too.
In the meantime, to see more of Lizzy Stewarts’ work, visit the links below;