A Day In The Life - Hattie Stewart

This month we asked Hattie Stewart the illustrator and designer who has self published Visual Stimulation and Archive No.1: A Small Collection Of Drawings.

I am not much of a morning person! Some days I am up and straight out to the studio but some days, like today, I start a lil more slowly. I do not keep my phone in my bedroom so I now get awoken by Classic Calm, this morning with a classical rendition of Believe by Cher, on my new radio alarm clock. Very lovely. I make a coffee and spend an hour or so at home sorting bits for the studio. Right now I am going through Tumblr which I still use as I am stuck in my ways, it is still my favourite. I love trawling peoples archives and hunting for inspiration to kick off the day. After that I am currently making some final edits to the second edition of Visual Stimulation as I'm gonna pop into PageMasters later and check out some test prints.

Next I canter to said studio which takes about 10 minutes (!!!). I live in Brockley, SE London, where I have been for almost a decade now. My home is here and my studio is just down the road which is a dream. I've had many a studio over the years and shared with many wonderful friends. I feel fortunate to now have my own so close to home that I can stuff full of all my books, ideas and trinkets (of which there are many). Very excellent as I regularly forget things, so can pop home for lunch/naps at my leisure then slink back refreshed. En route, I pick up some printed out sketches ready to draw up and stop for a coffee at one of my favourite local spots, Good As Gold (shout out to Broca, Browns and Yume also, a lovely lil selection in the area)

As January is usually a quiet month for work I tend to spend it working on personal drawings and ideas. I have recently been experimenting with new mediums like rhinestones and puffy paint as well as a couple drawings and sketchbook work. I find whatever I create in this NY burst of energy tends to set me up creatively for the year and informs a lot of my endeavours, both personal and commercial, so it is a fun time to mess around. 

I am also doing some much needed organising by trying to make sense of my magazine piles, as well as sorting a couple of months worth of collected ephemera, trash and stickers into one of my folders. I have had boxes of stuff with no functional use, but too good to throw away, since I was young. In recent years I decided to put it all together in these special tomes of both memory and inspiration.

Now it is time to hop on a bus to PageMasters in Lewisham to see Justin and the team and check out some excellent test prints for Visual Stimulation 2. A very nice project to kick start the year with. After that I pop to Shoreditch to have a late lunch catch up at Bistro Freddie with my big sister Nicola, where we shared gossip over a couple Kia Royale's, a crab crumpet and a chicken pie. It was delicious so we're popping back next week for their Cod Schnitzel

Finally, I hop back on the overground to Brockley to type this all up, do a little bit of drawing and await the arrival of the most excellent Lydia Chan who will be dropping off some of her handmade frames in preparation for a new collaboration we're brewing :) Very excited for this.

Most of my days are spent either in the studio or wandering around London exploring with friends (shoutout walking buddy and fellow explorer Annu Kilpelainen!). I'm very much looking forward to some solid time in the studio over the next couple weeks but right now I'm gonna head home, flop on the sofa and play Ghost Of Yotei :) I do not know how interesting this is to anyone haha but I love this city and feel pretty lucky to call it home.