Tiny Desk Tour: Gizem Vural

Music, books, and windows galore!

Mar 17, 2026

Musicians have tiny desk concerts and artists have tiny desks. In this week’s installment of Tiny Desk Tour, I’m pleased to welcome artist Gizem Vural. I came to know of Gizem through her incredibly unique abstract and expressive approach to editorial illustration. Over the past few years, I’ve followed along as she transitioned seamlessly into the fine art world. It’s not easy to seamlessly transition a style back and forth between digital and traditional mediums, but Gizem excels at this. Here’s her bio:

Gizem Vural is an award-winning illustrator/artist from Istanbul, living and working in New York. She studied graphic design at Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts between 2006-2012. After dropping out she moved to New York to pursue becoming an illustrator. Since then she worked with many big publications and companies like The New Yorker, The New York Times, Apple and Bloomberg... Her colorful work is recognized by prestigious American Illustration and she is holding three medals from Society of Illustrators. As of 2024, she focused on creating abstract artworks and working with galleries and collectors.

Without further ado, Gizem’s Tiny Desk Tour!

I have always liked being tidy. I used to keep my pencils sharp, arranged by color, each in its own place and box. On my desk there were always pencils and colored pencils, good-quality drawing paper, and sketchbooks. Over the years, my desk has changed many times, reflecting the shifts in my practice.

At university as a graphic design student the main object on my desk was my laptop, central to my design projects. When I moved to New York, pencils and paper slowly took over more space. Later, as my interest in illustration grew, my desk became dominated by my laptop and a Wacom drawing tablet.

With time, working on editorial illustration, my practice became a mix of traditional and digital work, and my desk grew larger to accommodate both working on paper and digitally on an iPad.

Now, my desk is more messy. Oil pastels, crayons, colored pencils, sealing mediums, papers, and linen share the space with books and reference materials. As I work on abstract artworks and leave my illustration career behind, my desk has become messy for the first time.

You can find color charts in many sizes that I’ve made, different kinds of materials, printed reference photos from nature—some taken by me, others found online alongside books and sketches that feed my inspiration.

While developing new ideas, I keep a small circle of books and references close to me, like sources I return to again and again. One of them is Nature’s Palette, a color collection drawn directly from the natural world. Since nature is my primary source of inspiration I’m drawn to using colors as they exist in nature itself.

I also often revisit Karl Blossfeldt’s Art Forms in the Plant World, along with books on the work of Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and Tamuna Sirbiladze. These references support me especially in the sketching phase, helping me discover new approaches to composition, layering, and the development of shapes.

Sometimes I need books or images nearby to help me remember my focus. It’s easy to drift into thoughts about future projects and ideas, and these visual anchors help guide me back to what matters in the moment.

Music is important when I work. My compact CD player, playing ambient music on repeat. It helps me focus. When I’m deeply engaged in my work, I can easily lose track of time, the process becomes a form of meditation, a way of processing everything in my life. When I’m absorbed in making, I feel completely elsewhere.

In a studio, large windows are one of the things I look for. They help me feel connected to something larger than the space I’m in. I need to see the sky and the clouds. This view plays an important role in my working process, especially at the beginning, when ideas are still forming. Some people like to walk outside to think; I prefer to stay and watch the sky—the movement of birds, the shifting shapes of clouds. It reminds me that there is more than the world immediately around me. It makes me feel small in a good way, and encourages me to think beyond what I am focused on.

Be sure to check out Gizem’s website and follow her on Instagram and Substack.

Thanks for reading! I’m an independent freelance artist, writer, and illustrator. If you liked this post, one of the biggest ways you can support my work is by subscribing, sharing, or liking this post. If you’d like to check out more of my work, here’s my website and my Instagram.