Famed Richmond illustrator Eliza B. Askin says this is her final calendar

As a kid, Eliza B. Askin wasn’t a fan of those big boxes of crayons.

“Yeah, color's really not my thing,” she said. “My mother was an artist. She wasn't professional, but she could draw anything. She had a box that she had from her art classes in college that had charcoal and interesting types of pencils and erasers and straight edges. And that was the thing I liked more than crayons.”

Askin’s passion drifted more toward more permanent ways to leave a mark.

“I did like pens,” she said. “My dad was in family practice and always had all these scratch pads from drug companies, and so we were all doodlers. Everybody drew in my family except my father. Everybody drew.”

And now, after 46 years of drawing detailed calendars focused on Richmond neighborhoods, the illustrator is putting down her pens – at least for the sake of making yearly calendars. She and her husband Mark have decided to dedicate more time to their grandchildren.

“We're tired,” she said, adding that she and her husband will soon turn 71.

“But not only that, paper has tripled in eight years. And I think this year there were tariffs from Canada, which made my calendar the most expensive,” she said. “I can't sell a $40 paper calendar. I can't believe people are buying paper every year, which amazes me, because everybody uses their phone for calendars.”

In the past four-plus decades her calendars have illustrated homes along Grove Avenue, neighborhood bars and the Hollywood Cemetery.

“I really wanted to represent the neighborhoods of Richmond,” Askin said, talking about early days. “We were looking for a house to buy. And so we drove all over the city all the time. That's how I figured out what I was going to draw, just things that grabbed my attention.”

Drawing local eateries was an important part of her work each year, too.

“There were definitely bars because [in] all the neighborhoods in Richmond, it's all about where you eat and where you drink, more than the historical places,” she said. 

Chances are you’ve seen her work being sold in places like Mongrel, the Valentine Museum and even bigger businesses like Barnes and Noble. Or maybe at the recent Bizarre Bazaar. And if you’ve bought a house in the region, your Realtor may have gifted you one of Askin’s calendars. 

But before her first calendar was ever dreamed up, Askin was a student at a college in Lynchburg, wondering what classes to take. She was still doodling and drawing at the time.

“When I went to college, I went as a math major, and line drawing is pretty analytical. There's a lot of measuring if you're drawing something that's real,” she said. “But I was a math major for about a year, and I decided this was not fun.”

So switched her major to art, where a professor saw her talent as someone who could draw well, despite only being able to take classes like sculpture. After graduation, she moved to Richmond and was thinking about getting a job in the graphic arts, which she said was a new thing. 

“Then my father said it would be really nice if you got a job. And he secured me a job at the highway department in the bridge division because I had a math degree and an art degree,” said Askin. “I just drew bridge abutments. I was very low on the totem pole. But they were so good to me and so tolerant of me because I did not want to be there.”

But it was there that Askin discovered a type of pen that she still uses today. 

“They're called Rapidograph. I had this really great boss who let me do it during my lunch hours and use all the pens. I didn't bring them home or anything, but I did a lot of drawing there besides the bridges,” she said. 

During that time, Askin was yearning for something else — she wanted to break free of working downtown and start a career of her own. But even though she loved illustrating, she wasn’t sure how to make a living at it.

“I lived on Monument Avenue in an apartment and I rode the Grove Avenue bus downtown,” she said. “And I just kept looking in all these buildings and buildings and buildings, and I would sort of sketch them on the bus.”

A trip to Key West to visit her brother turned out to be the turning point in her life. 

“I saw a booklet of drawings of the buildings in Key West and I thought, that person's making a living on that, and I came back and I drew my first calendar,” Askin said, adding that she drew up 18 different illustrations of Richmond homes, a passion for architecture she got from her father. “I just picked random homes on Grove Avenue.”

Long-time Richmonders may remember buying her work at Miller & Rhoads, Thalhimers or at Cokesbury. But getting into those department stores in the early years took a lot of dumb luck and naivety, said Askin.

“I wanted to draw. I didn't want to have a business, but I needed the money because I wanted to get out of the highway department. I was determined,” she said. “We had just got married and I convinced Mark that I could make a living doing this and he said, ‘Go ahead, try.’”

After a loan, she printed 500 calendars for 1981. 

“My mother gave me the money for the first printing, which was astronomical,” she said. “I can't remember what it cost, but it was ridiculous. And because with offset printing, the fewer you print, you pay the base for everything, so the fewer you print, you're still paying a ton of money for the base.”

Askin took a batch of her calendars to the local department stores downtown to see if they would sell them. 

“I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't know what I was going to sell them for. I didn't know what they would go for,” she said, adding that her husband Mark told her just to try and break even. “My first stop was Thalhimers. I asked to see the buyer. I didn't know what I was doing was stupid.”

The buyer took pity on Askin, noticing that she was a novice. 

“She said, ‘Tell me what you paid, I'm going to call the buyer over at Miller & Rhoads. I'm going to call the buyer at Cokesbury. I want a hundred to start, and this is what I'm paying you,’” Askin said. “And it was what I needed and that's how it got started.”

That first day she sold out of all her calendars. From there, Askin was on her way, selling to not only local Richmond department stores but stores in Charleston, Lynchburg, Tidewater and Alexandria — drawing unique calendars for each location. Friends of hers would help distribute them. 

“But that almost killed me, because that's 12 different drawings for all of them. It's also five different printing fees,” she said. "So I made money, but I only did that for two years and decided I am just going to do Richmond."

And now at the end of her calendar career, Askin, who’s favorite spot to illustrate is Hollywood Cemetery, said she’ll still do commission work. But she’s satisfied with everything she’s been able to chronicle in the city. 

“So, it's time to kind of fold it up,” she said, adding that her legacy of doodling — which she doesn’t do any longer —  and drawing has now been inherited by her granddaughter. 

“My granddaughter who is eight is very talented, and she paints and draws and can do anything. She's really sharp, much sharper than I was. She's way ahead of the game,” Askin said. “I contend that anybody can draw. It's just the repetitiveness of doing it. It's a muscle. It's not hard. It's just sticking to it.”

Askin still has one box of those charcoal pencils her mother gave her decades ago.