The comic book influences of illustrator Stefanie Leinhos

Leipzig-based illustrator Stefanie Leinhos can make even the simplest of drawings appear transcendent. Her technique is a combination of clean, crisp, often only two-colour illustrations, multiplied so you get the full effect of their craft.

Stefanie studied at the university of art and design in Halle, and has been working as a freelance artist and illustrator since 2011. Her interest in illustration grew from “a formal interest in comics and their imagery,” she explains. “I like to pick out little aspects, like a certain form, and try to exhaust its visual repertoire. Repetition and variation are some of my favourite tools to do so.”

To expand her illustrations contextually, Stefanie’s practice concentrates on narrative, "not on a specific story but in the act of narrating itself,” she tells It’s Nice That. “As well as the act of reading, as its counterpart. I’m trying to explore the limits of narration, such as, what is the minimum a story needs?” Stefanie additionally likes “to play with the perspective of the beholder, for example by making a comic that is about reading a comic,” in her piece Comic Book (Untitled).

Self-publishing her works allows Stefanie to combine and contrast several print techniques, but “the final form as well as the printing technique always depend on the idea behind it,” she explains. For instance, her publication The Long Goodbye is a zincograph, where you draw directly onto the printing plate. “After the printing is done, the printing plate gets washed out and you are going to lose your drawing. All that’s left is the edition you printed from it. It’s like saying goodbye to your original work.”

Through this technique Stefanie confuses the terms, ‘copy and digital’, another element she likes to experiment with. An alternate version of this thinking process is Throwing Stones, “a zine I’m only reproducing when someone is ordering it and I always do it by hand. That means you’ll always get original drawings but to me it’s not about exclusiveness, it’s just another way of reproduction. It’s an open edition that I started in 2013, there are about 40 copies now."