Illustrator Gizem Vural impresses us with attention-grabbing personal work and commissions

We wrote about Ithaca-based, Istanbul-born illustrator Gizem Vural back in August, when we found ourselves thoroughly impressed by her expressive, vibrantly coloured work for The New Yorker, Nautilius and The Boston Globe. Eight months later, we got back in touch to find out what Gizem did next.

“After the feature, I did work for several magazines and newspapers,” the illustrator tells us. “I also won gold medal in editorial illustration category at Society of Illustrators with my Cursive Handwriting piece for Nautilus magazine." Gizem’s loose and sketchy continues to lend itself to commissions and personal work across a diverse range of specific subjects including unconditional love, ADHD in kids, cursive handwriting in education, learning with AI robots, Trump’s wall, as well as less topic-focused illustrations for The Guardian and NY Times book reviews.

“Lately, I am interested in drawing one-page comics between editorial and personal work,” Gizem adds. More paired back than her commissioned work, the comics display the illustrator’s signature eye for colour and natural ease when mark-making.