Instagram story viewer> @aorists> Posts

Anshika Khullar | AORISTS 🦋🧶

@aorists

21.8K

followers

2775

following

Indian, non-binary, Stonewall Book Award winning illustrator and maker of things 🌈🦩🪡 🧶 🦋
✍🏼: Apple, Elle, Hodder, Mubi, Penguin, Quercus, Tate, Vox

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Download All

The World of Queer Stories 🧩📚✍🏼 One of THE most fun and exciting projects I've worked on in the eight or so years I've been making art for a living was this jigsaw puzzle (!!!) for @laurencekingpub last year, with the insert featuring vital background on some of the most impactful queer writers throughout history, authored by the brilliant @queerbooktakes. 💛 As an enthusiastic puzzler that simply loves to lock in, when I tell you this project was a total dream to work on I'm really not kidding. It's full of visual easter eggs relating to the best queer books and their authors that paved the way for us all, as well as major queer literary events, moments and landmarks- the only thing more fun than conceptualising and illustrating all the elements within was actually putting the pieces together! ☁️🦋

Available online and in all the best places that sell books and puzzles and bits and bobs!

Enormous thanks to Ayesha Kinley and Hannah Coughlin at @orionbooks for your direction and trust 🌷 by @aorists

3

4

7 months ago

i didn't know how to possibly choose ten from the thousands of photographs we have of you, mama. but i tried. i am trying every day. to do things as you would have done them, and as you would have wanted them done. i miss you, and i feel your presence all around me. i feel your love, filling me up, guiding me even now at my lowest ebb, like you've always done: my eternal protector, my fiercest ally, my most vocal champion. words were never enough for us to convey the way we are tangled together, cosmically and inextricably tied together. i feel you even now, looking after me. 🕯️ there isn't any way for me to say all the things i want to say, no way to express the infinite depth of my gratitude and good fortune to have been yours, and you mine. but you knew. you know. "this we have always known." i'll keep my promises to you, mama. i'll do everything in my power to be the grey-haired little old lady pottering around, writing poetry, making art, devouring books and loving doggies that you so cruelly weren't afforded the chance to be. you're my guiding light, the flame that burns bright in me; everything good in me is yours, mama. is you. i'm yours, forever forever forever. ❤️💔❤️

9th july 1965 - 22nd september 2023 🕯️💔🕯️ by @aorists

3

112

3 years ago

🔊🚨🗣 Fun news! I illustrated a COLOURING BOOK 🗣🚨🔊 Color Me Queer is full of fun little activities, tear-out posters, cut-out paper dolls, and lots more, and it’s ALL colour-innable 🥰 I wanted you to have the opportunity to fill in your own patterns and designs onto clothing and backgrounds and really make them yours- I hope you have so much fun with this book. It’s especially important now more than ever to feel a sense of belonging, community, and joy in our true selves- I hope this book can give you that, as well as comfort and the bone-deep certainty that we have ALWAYS been here, and always will be. 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

Available to pre-order now (🔗 in bio) and officially out on the 10th of May! I can’t wait to share more with you from this delightful project. 💛

Enormous thank you to @clarksonpotter @penguinrandomhouse, editor @saranev (who wrote all the wonderfully witty copy and had faith I could bring it to life) and designer @_fleur_de_lise (without whom this book would simply be a random and very boring collection of my drawings). What a dream this was. 💛 by @aorists

3

20

4 years ago

A little WIP (weaving in progress) on a very rudimentary DIY cardboard "loom"🪡 🧶 Been working on this vvv slowly for a couple of years but I'm finally coming to the end of this panel... any guesses what it's eventually gonna be? 👁️👄👁️

#weaving #weave #weaver #weaversofinstagram #handweaving by @aorists

3

3

2 months ago

Annie, 2026 🌸❤️‍🩹🕯️ a textile ode to my littlest pal 🪔🐾♾️

Knitted, duplicate stitched and crocheted with a combination of cotton and acrylic yarns from my stash 🧶 by @aorists

3

11

2 months ago

♾️💔🌸 annie mouse forever 🌸❤️‍🩹♾️

i have so much to say, i've been saying it all in my stories, and yet there is nothing to say. annie was the best, littlest mouse in the world. her little head contained all the knowledge of the universe, past, present and future. she was everything. our lives will forever be less rich, less beautiful, less funny, less full of love without her and her imperiousness. our sweet little diva, the most characterful pup we've ever known; it's been a privilege to look after her for over a decade and to have been one of her humans slash royal subjects. our eternal puppy. rest well, darling one, and give mama, nana and keishie a snuggle from us ❤️‍🩹🌸🪔♾️

edit: i got got and didn't realise the music was AI 😣 i'll be super careful in the future to make sure i'm triple checking music sources first 🗑️ by @aorists

3

17

2 months ago

Every single thing I hear about AI is worse than the last, and that's saying something 🚫 This week I read about how books- including and especially rare and antique ones- are being bought en masse by AI companies in order to scan and "learn" from them, but not before destroying them by ripping the pages from their spines. 🫡 It's deeply telling that this is the direction generative AI is going- the goal was always to remove our ability to think critically and sell it back to us at a profit, once we're good and addicted. Not to mention the unashamed theft of a truly staggering amount of creative material for the purpose, at the cost of truly staggering amounts of water, when globally we are experiencing record heatwaves and droughts that are already affecting food chains and taking lives. It sounds unbelievable even to me as I type this!! And yet this is where we are!! 🥴 If you're using AI, please for the love of the planet: stop. We don't need it. We certainly don't need generative AI. Creating, in all its forms, is a deeply human thing we do- it's not just how we survive, it's essential to our thriving, to our very souls. Don't let them take it from us, in any way, shape or form. 🔥💧 #notoAI #noAI #noAIart Illustration on a white background of a pair of disembodied, dark-skinned hands holding open a butter-yellow book. The book has two illustrations on the front and back: the left shows a droplet of water in light blue, with a green tree embedded inside. The right shows a bright orange and yellow flame. The spine of the book is also illustrated and shows a chain vertically dropping down, but one of the links is broken, further shown by the cartoon-style depiction of an explosion. The hands have long nails painted in a salmon to pink gradient, and have letters on them spelling out 'DOWN W AI' across the eight visible nails. There are nail piercings on a finger from each hand, one with a dangling heart, and the other with a dangling broken half a heart. The hands are also wearing two silver rings, one with waves of water across the thin band, and the other a larger, signet style ring that bears the letters AI enclosed in a red outline of a circle with a line through it (indicating a ban). There is hand-drawn text at the top and bottom, book-ending the illustration, that reads, 'hands off / our books,' in all capital letters in black. by @aorists

3

16

2 months ago

Create a whimsical illustration with me for Pride with @Tesco! 🏳️‍⚧️💛🏳️‍🌈 [AD]

Tesco is supporting over 40 Pride parades in the UK, as well as helping LGBTQ+ charities all year round- not just during Pride season. I’m glad to be partnering with them to get a group of my closest queer friends together for a beautiful day outside, making the most of the season with fresh fruit and veg, and creating whimsical art inspired by nature. 🌱🌺🌷💐 I’d love to know how you’re celebrating Pride- lmk in the comments! 💌 by @aorists

3

24

2 months ago

made a necklace with various vintage glass, ceramic and resin beads 🐚 it's sooo good and sooo heavy and i want to make twenty more 🪡 by @aorists

3

4

4 months ago

another little sketchbook page full of quilt motifs :~) 🦋🪸💐 by @aorists

3

2

5 months ago

DEEPLY into these textures + colours + shapes together 🌷🌹🪻🪷🌺🌸🌼🌻

✍🏼 #prismacolor #floralartwork #floralillustration by @aorists

3

4

5 months ago

finally got some @prismacolor pencils, subsequently had an incredible time freehanding flowers in my sketchbook 🌷🌹🪻🪷🌺🌸🌼🌻 by @aorists

3

6

5 months ago