December Round-up

A Woodland Countdown, an upcoming Creative Retreat and Year end/New Year Sketching

Dear Reader,

Welcome to my monthly catch-up.

Happy New Year to you! This being my first post of the New Year I want to wish you a warm start to the new year and hope you are keeping well. I have been enjoying some time away from my office/studio to explore and draw some of the coastline around Cornwall. It’s been refreshing and invigorating and later in the post I share some of the pages from that time.

A selection of photos taken from our time walking the coastal paths

Now on to my round up of the last month.

This is where I give you an overview of what’s been going on this month and highlight any particular projects that I think will be of interest.

I will also include a favourite sketchbook spread, flowers that I see springing up on the Lizard, a comment on the weather and any thoughts on the season and at the end share with you what’s coming up for January.

December Stats

Wildflowers spotted: Lots more Winter Heliotrope, Ivy, Holly, Moss, Old man’s beard plenty of Lichen.

Weather: On the whole pretty mild temperatures for December, a few very windy and wet days but still no snow here on the Lizard!

This month I have mostly been: Sharing a woodland advent countdown, shipping and sending out orders and prizes, drawing a lot of festive foliage, ending and beginning the new year sketching on location

Derwent Collaboration + Giveaway Results

A big thank-you to everyone who entered last month’s giveaway, it was lovely to read all your comments and I was excited to draw 3 winners for my Derwent/Calendar Giveaway.

Congratulations to Melissa in Canada who won the pencil tin (it is only being sent out today due to the Canada postal strikes) so hopefully should arrive before the end of the month.

And further congratulations to Sketches and Scrubs in the UK and Sheryl in the USA who won my 2025 Sketchbook calendar (there are still copies available here if you need a calendar to inspire your creative year ahead- all orders received over the holiday period have now been shipped out).

Some of you had asked me about the pencil colours that were chosen in the tin- I have listed them below:

x 10 Lightfast Lichen Green, Mustard, Autumn Red, Foliage, Green Earth, Mid Ultramarine, Golden Sun, Seaweed, Pine, Forest

x 6 Drawing Olive Earth, Yellow Ochre, Brown Ochre, Light Sienna, Ruby Earth, Chocolate

x 4 Coloursoft Ginger, Grey Green, Pimento

x 3 Graphitint Meadow, Autumn Brown, Ocean Blue

x 1 Watercolour Blue Grey

I also filmed my favourite pencils for Autumn palettes in December which you can find here:

All the pencil colours have been listed in the description on YouTube if you’re interested in finding out more about the colours and brands.

The colour palette has been inspired by the Autumn season so you’ll find a mix of warm colours, perfect for woodland and landscape sketching.

A Wild Woodland Advent Countdown

Throughout the season of Advent I opened a window each day on my calendar I created for my Wild Woodland Advent Calendar Course and shared each opening on YouTube shorts and Instagram Reels. Below is a video I’ve compiled of the window openings so you can view each day and see how it looks altogether.

Illustrated details of window artwork

Join me for a creative sketching art retreat

This month I’ve been putting together plans for my creative art retreat coming up at the end of April/Easter here on the Lizard Peninsula. I’m excited to be working with Penmenner House again who will be providing luxury accommodation for your stay along with Tregullas Farm and writer Robin Bates who will be entertaining us during the evenings. The retreat will be running from April 22nd-25th.

Whether you are a seasoned artist or just a beginner my emphasis will be on drawing from observation on location, capturing the essence of the Lizard landscape creatively, playing and working with a range of materials.

It will be a time of exploration and experimentation and our focus will be on creatively sketching the Lighthouse, the dramatic cliffs, rocks, and seascape looking at mark-making, building in layers, using a mix of mediums.

I’ve had a number of queries about travelling to this area and whilst we are at the most southerly tip of Cornwall there are a number of travel options that I’d be happy to share with you further. For instance if you are travelling from overseas once you’ve arrived in London you could take the sleeper train from Paddington to Penzance and then either catch the train to Redruth or coach to Helston. We are then able to offer a pick-up if you require it. Please do get in touch to discuss.

To read more about the retreat check out this post. To book your spot and initial deposit please click here.

December Favourite Sketchbook Pages

I sketched this on Boxing day and really enjoyed using my newly acquired watersoluble graphite. I also recorded a podcast episode for my paid subscribers whilst sketching and had a number of conversations around art materials and starting a sketching habit. If you’d like to listen in you can find it here:

Year’s end and New Year’s Sketching

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post towards the end of 2024 and beginning of 2025 my husband and I took time off from our usual routine and spent a number of days visiting different sections of the south west coastal path. I took along my sketching kit and managed to sketch around 2-4 sketches each walk. We averaged around 6-8 miles each day and in total walked 32 miles over the course of a week.

Along the way we met a few different characters including this guy below who volunteered to hold my sketchbook whilst he posed and I took pictures.

I acquired a model for one of my sketchbook pages!

I took with me materials I hadn’t used before and planned to give them a good test drive on the walks. I often find I need the pressure of a real situation to learn how to use new materials and by the end of our time I feel a lot more confident in how I can use these supplies and quickly capture the landscape on paper.

The materials I used were Viarco’s ArtGRAF Watersoluble graphite and Derwent’s XL graphitint and XL Tinted Charcoal blocks. I’ll be sharing more in next month’s sketchbook pages.

Coming up for January on Substack

Here’s what I’ll be writing / sharing with you on Substack this month (P for paid and F for free)

• Process and Play video-P

• Sketchbook pages for December P

• Explore and Draw podcast Ep.21 P

Upcoming Zoom dates for paid members

• Swatch and Sketch Session Wednesday 15th January 2-3pm GMT

• A Winter Garden Drawing Date Thursday 30th January 6-7.30pm GMT

Catch up with our December Videos and Podcast

Swatch and Sketch Session REPLAY

Mixed Media Winter Wreath Draw a-long REPLAY

Winter Decorations Sketchbook Spread

A Bumper Chatty Christmas Edition

You can upgrade to paid to support my work at anytime and access the growing library of posts.

And that’s all for this month! Thanks so much for reading, commenting your support is really much appreciated. Plans for Spring workshops are also in the pipeline for the year ahead and I’ll share those here with you soon.