Welcome to January - A month of slow & steady creativity

Audio message for January and what's coming up this month for subscribers and paid members

Welcome to January in The Creative Flock! And hello to all the new people who have joined recently. If you’re brand new here, you may like to read this welcome post which tells you more about me and what to expect from being part of this community.

Below is my regular monthly audio message and links to things I mention.

• The Art of Noticing book by Rob Walker

• There are lots of creative challenges happening this month:

  • People Skills by Beth Spencer at Introvert Drawing Club

  • 52 Creative Things in 52 weeks. Teresa Barroso

  • Charlotte Hamilton from "A World of Colour" is sharing daily art prompts this month.

  • Plein Air challenge from Helen C Stark at the Time Foragers Club (who i’ll be guest hosting a live session with! See below)

Plus, I’ve made last year’s Small Drawing Challenge available to all subscribers for January. Details below.

Head further down the post to see what’s coming up this month for both free and paid subscribers, including the details for a special collaboration with Helen C Stark and the Time Foragers Club, which is taking place on Tuesday 21st January, 7pm GMT.

January - A month of slow & steady creativity..

This time of year I think about those savvy animals which are currently hibernating, saving their energy during winter, waiting for the spring to come and the cue to emerge, rested and ready for the challenges that lie ahead. 

Sleepy Dormouse - an original drawing I created for a friend. Inks, graphite and pencils.

Although that’s not possible for us humans, (or is it? Could I start a hibernation trend?) I like to adopt the spirit of the dormouse, hedgehog and other snoozing mammals into the way I start my year. Instead of going full-throttle with resolutions or big lifestyle changes in January, I start slow, work with the rhythms of my energy and consider what small actions I can take to keep my creativity going at a steady pace until Spring arrives and my energy naturally increases. That’s the intention anyway!

One of the small steps I’ll be taking this month, to stay creative and make progress, will be to keep up my nature journal practice. It may seem a strange time of year to be recording nature, when there’s less abundance of plants or wildlife but, with intentional observation, there’s plenty to be inspired by.

I’ll be looking harder at my surroundings, seeing what catches my eye and then observe, with more intention. I’ll be looking for the beauty in the ordinary and for inspiration in the small things, which can be easily overlooked. Depending on the weather, these trips might be short, and I might only sketch a page or two a week, but whatever I can manage will feel rewarding and will help keep my practice going. 

I undertook a similar challenge last January, after emerging from my post-holiday haze and keen to get out on a solo sketching trip. It was the first day in weeks when it hadn’t rained and it coincided with my son’s first day back at school after the holidays, so after dropping him off, I headed out for an hour of wandering, looking and sketching.  

I brought minimal art materials and my small pocket sketchbook, but that was enough, as the most important tools I needed were my eyes and a bit of concentration. 

You can read the full post here, but here’s a snippet from it:

With it still being early January, there wasn't much colour to be seen and aside from the green of the grazing fields and evergreen trees dotted about, everything was mostly a greyish-brown. Some of the fields and footpaths were flooded so I stuck to walking along the narrow, country roads and this meant I had to work a bit harder to spot anything interesting to sketch. 

However, it wasn’t long before my eye was caught by the beautiful silhouette of an ash tree against the sunrise. I didn't have much time available (combination of a long to-do-list that day and not having had breakfast yet) so I decided to work small and with a maximum of three drawing materials. After sketching the tree, I walked a bit further and spotted an interesting view through a gate with a nice combination of natural textures. And lastly the drooping, dried seed heads of another ash tree. Soon my need for breakfast and some warmth in my hands got too much and I headed back home. 

Sketches from that day

During this month of gentle creativity, I’ll share more experiences like this where I actively seek out the beauty in the ordinary and spot small wonders in nature. 

This month’s live drawing session

(for Time Foragers Club/ Creative Flock members)

The Art of Noticing - Tuesday 21st 7pm GMT

I’m excited to share that this month’s live drawing date will be a collaboration with Helen C Stark in the Time Foragers Club! If you don’t know Helen’s work, head over to her Substack where she provides a warm and welcoming space for anyone interested in visual journaling, painting, working with the seasons, or simply looking for a place to be creatively inspired. This month, Helen is running a wonderful plein air challenge, perfect if you’re looking for a kickstart to your creative year.

Join Helen and me for a gentle drawing session which will be focused on the art of noticing. Bring your photo references or objects to draw and sketch-along with us while we chat about our respective topics for the months and how noticing with intention is crucial in both of our creative practises.

I’ll share more details in a post for paid members soon, in the meantime, sign up via the luma link in this calendar post and pop the date in your diary.

Live Sessions Calendar

Reflective exercises to bring into your practice

(for Creative Flock members)

Carrying out reflective exercises have been crucial in my development and I wouldn’t be where I am now without regular questioning and evaluation of my work and progress.

As mentioned in my audio message, I’ll be sharing these exercises with my paid members this month and I hope they help you in your development as much as they’ve helped me. 

Small Drawing Challenge

(Available for all subscribers during January)

For those of you who are looking for a micro challenge to get yourself back into a creative habit after the holiday hiatus, I’m releasing this post from a year ago, it’ll be available to all subscribers for the whole of January. My New Year gift to you!

Some of the small drawings from the challenge

You can see the drawings I created during the challenge in this post:

Round-up of 'Small Things' Month

Co-sketching sessions this month.

There’ll be two co-sketching sessions this month, open to all subscribers.

I’ve found these one-hour periods of concentrated drawing time so useful and they force me to focus on creativity instead of admin or my ‘to-do’ list. Thank you to Emma Carlisle for introducing me to virtual co-working!

Details are below, sign up via luma.com to get these sessions in your time zone and receive handy email reminders.

All subscribers co-sketching:

Thursday 9th January, 7-8pm GMT https://lu.ma/iczbj7o8

Monday 20th January, 2-3pm GMT https://lu.ma/7zd3ndiz

These co-sketching sessions are not recorded, all participants will be muted on entry, but you are welcome to switch your microphone on at the beginning to share what you plan to use the hour for, or you can use the text chat function.

I look forward to sharing a golden hour of creativity with you! 💛

All the dates and links for the live sessions are in the calendar post, updated each month:

Live Sessions Calendar

Chat Threads

If you’re unfamiliar with the chat function on Substack, it’s like a group chat or live hangout. I love this space as it’s a great way for us to get to know each other and encourage supportive conversation among The Creative Flock members. Chat works best in the app, but you can join in on desktop too.

I have two threads:

• Every Friday: Share Good Stuff from your Week (all subscribers)

• Beginning of the month: ‘Toot your horn’ 📣 (paid members). Use this as a place to share your wins, passion projects or anything that deserves a big ol’ pat on the back. I know a lot of us are bad at cheerleading ourselves, so let this be a place for that!

Paid members are also able to start new chat threads to kick off community conversations, ask questions or even share a brilliant new art material you feel we all need to know about.

I look forward to joining in these chats with you 😊

Discounts on art materials and my print store

If you’re new to The Flock you may not be aware of the discounts I share with my subscribers and paid members, details below and in your welcome email.

Deep Deep Light - 10-15% off site wide:

All Creative Flock subscribers receive 10% off at the Deep Deep Light store, and paid members receive 15% off. Use code emmacarpendale10 for 10% off, paid members will receive their discount code in their welcome email after upgrading.¹

Cult Pens 10% discount:

Cult Pens is my preferred online store for pens and inks due to its wide range of products. Click this referral link for 10% off your order at Cult Pens.

My online print store:

https://www.emmacarpendale.co.uk/shop

This is a great way to support me if you can’t manage the paid membership, plus you get some unique art too! 😀 Free subscribers receive 10% off my giclee prints, paid members receive 20% off. Use code printshop10 for 10% off, paid members will receive their discount code in their welcome email after upgrading.

Looking forward to a gentle start to the year and lots of drawing in the weeks to come.

1. I receive 5-10% on each sale when you use the discount code. This will be something that helps fund and support my work as an artist and I want you to know it’s very much appreciated. I’m happy for you to share the code with fellow creatives, along with a link back to my Substack. Thank you! 😊