July Round-up

Opportunities, summer sketching and postcards

Dear Reader,

Welcome to my monthly catch-up.

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 August.

July Stats

Wildflowers spotted: Knapweed, Common Mallow, Sea Holly, Wild carrot, Creeping Thistle, Fleabane, Loosestrife, Sneezewort, Great Mullein, Betony, Bell Heather, Oxeye daisy, Scentless Sea Mayweed along with masses of dried umbellifers- Hogweed, Hemlock, grasses and dried docks along the coastal paths.

Weather: Warmer, milder, with a light breeze.

This month I have mostly been: Completing client work, drawing wildlife, leading sketch walks, filming, painting wildflowers

BBC Filming at Gunwalloe

An unexpected opportunity arose for me when researchers from the BBC’s Songs of Praise program got in touch to see if I would be interested in talking about my sketching on location around Gunwalloe and my faith.

The crew and sketchbook gang!

Funnily enough the opportunity came about through my 2020 postcard project. This was a personal challenge I had set myself to sketch outside everyday for the year.

No. 245 St Winwalloe, Church of the storms 1/09/20

I had sketched the church at Gunwalloe, St Winwalloe several times and as I had posted every single postcard online they found me through searching for the church in that area.

Snapshots from the day

So early in July I assembled a small group of ‘sketchers’ and they joined me in a sketching session around the church yard. Along with the presenter, Claire McCollum, I led everyone in some sketching warmups before we had a 15 minute drawing challenge to capture the church or view we liked. During this we were all asked questions about our connection to the area and I was interviewed about how I got sketching on location and my faith.

Everyone ended up with a series of black and white sketches and memories of the day. In preparation I had drawn a couple of sketchbook spreads and these may be used in the b-roll of the program.

We’ve been told that the date for transmission will be Sunday 22nd September, 13:40pm BST. So if you’d like to tune in you can do so on BBC One but I’m sure you’d be able to catch it on replay too.

Me with presenter Claire McCollum

Paperlike Postcards

Speaking of postcards I was commissioned by repeat client Paperlike to design a new postcard for their customers. I last worked with them in 2020 and they were keen for me to work with them again.

The brief was completely open so I chose to do a map filled with wildlife of the Lizard Peninsula. As this has been something I had been wanting to research for a while this gave me the perfect opportunity to and time to delve a bit deeper.

I designed a postcard and sticker set which will be sent out to new Paperlike customers from August-December.

Flora and Fauna of the Lizard peninsula

I have since then been illustrating more wildlife including butterflies, birds and bugs and hope to produce more card and product designs which feature these.

Six spotted Burnet moth on Betony

Excited to spot a set of six spotted Burnet moths on a recent walk around Nare’s point. I even managed to take a few photos and film as they were so enamoured with the Betony that had recently flowered.

Avington Park Estate Map

A map that has been in the works for most of the year was finally completed for the estate of Avington.

Avington Estate Map

And more maps were created for my regular clients Ferment and Glug.

Maps for Glug and Ferment

Workshops, Sketch walks and Summer Outings

As Summer time feels like it is finally here there has been more interest in individuals booking a private sketch walk with me and/or enrolling in my sketching on location course.

It’s been lovely to introduce holiday makers and locals to the beauty of the Lizard and take them to the wilder parts of the peninsula.

Here are some recent pics from sketch walk outings.

I led my workshop at Roskorwell where we had a variety of subjects to draw -wildflowers, lavender, sheep and the pond. There were also a couple of curious sheep who braved taking a closer look at what we were up to.

Snapshots and sketches from the session

This month I also met in person fellow sketchbook enthusiast

Helen C Stark

. Her family came down to Cornwall to spend a couple of weeks in the area and myself and Tony arranged to go across to meet up and sketch together whilst they were here.

We had a lovely warm summer’s day taking in the scenery at Porthluney beach and in our time together I sketched the cliffs, a tree, a turret, some wildflowers and half a castle. See below some film snippets of our time together.

YouTube

If you haven’t already watched I shared this garden themed sketching video on my channel

Favourite Sketchbook Page

As with June, July has been filled with many opportunities to sketch on location. I’ve been really taken with the wildflowers and am currently working on ways to translate what I see on to pages outside my sketchbook. I will share more about this in another post.

However I really like this sketchbook page I created whilst out with Helen, I feel it captures the summer season.

Cornwall/Latvia Wildflower Drawing Date

Coming up in August I’ll be collaborating with Latvian illustrator and friend

Kriksis

. We’ll be hosting a LIVE zoom drawing date together, looking at the wildflowers of Cornwall and Latvia.

The date for your diary to join us live is Thursday 15th August. We’ll be starting at 6.30pm and run until 8pm BST. It is open to join for all my paid substack subscribers and Kriksis’ Patreon members.

If you want to join just upgrade to paid for the month and you’ll be sent the zoom link the day before. You’ll also be able to access all the unlocked content for the month.

For those of you who are already paid members I’ll be sharing the link in our SSS chat and send out an email the day before to remind you.

In this month's process and play I'll be sharing about the importance of value, we’ll be looking at contrast, using colour as value and there will be opportunity to sketch along with me. The post is due to go live on Friday 2nd August.

Coming up for August 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-the importance of Value P

Sketchbook pages for July P

Wildflower Drawing Date with Kriksis P

Explore and Draw podcast Ep.17 P

Sketchbook Surgery no.8 P

August Roundup F

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

Hope this newsletter find you well during this season,