Welcome to May: Inspired by islands
Audio message for May and what's coming up this month in the membership.
Hello! And if this is the first post you’re reading, welcome! You may like to read my welcome post which tells you more about the membership and what to expect from being part of The Creative Flock.
Below is my regular monthly audio message and further down the post is more detail on what’s coming up this month including the details for our drawing session which will be on Thursday 16th May at 7 pm (BST)
Last month I paused the membership, took a rest and spent time with my family. You can read more about that here:
It’s good to be back after a month away. During April I enjoyed some much-needed downtime and ate a LOT of Mini Eggs. Damn you Cadbury (or whichever company you’re owned by now) for making these so moreish!
How have you been? Did you eat too much chocolate over Easter? Watched anything good on telly?
Here’s a snapshot of what I got up to:
Highlights were:
Attending the FCBG Conference. This is an annual conference hosted by The Federation of Children’s Book Groups, a charity I’ve been working with since 2018. This fantastic three-day conference brings together individual and school members, regional volunteers and people who are passionate about children’s books. It was great to catch up with other volunteers from the charity, see what’s new in the children’s book publishing world and meet some children’s book heroes such as David Almond, Cressida Cowell and Michael Morpurgo.
I came home with a collection of new books and proofs and I felt very inspired after attending so many talks and workshops. I’ll be sharing my haul of books with you later this month.
The Easter Holidays. In my opinion, the best of the school breaks as it carries little expectation and planning, apart from making sure I have enough Mini Eggs in the cupboard!
I enjoyed some lovely, chilled family time and despite the wet weather, we were able to get out and about for nature walks and visits to local farms. George made a new guinea pig friend and is very keen on getting some chicks for his birthday. I did explain what they grow up to be but he wasn’t deterred!
Meeting up with illustrator friends at Castle Ashby Gardens. Great company, great location, sunshine, coffee and sketchbooks. Plus a menagerie of animals to sketch. What more could I ask for! Thanks Zoe and Amy for a lovely day out 😊
Sketching more people. I made a conscious effort last month to practice my people-drawing skills. I joined one of Sarah Dyer’s life drawing sessions and i’ve been sketching from black-and-white reference photos.
Slowing down… Going through recurring illness and burn-out so early in the year has forced me to reevaluate my work ethic and be less ambitious with what I can achieve. I often forget I’m just one person juggling a heap of roles and responsibilities in my home, family, creative and business life and I CAN’T DO ALL THE STUFF. I’ll be writing this on a post-it and glueing it permanently to my desk as a reminder.
Now, on to what’s coming up this month in The Creative Flock!
I’m very excited to be going to Wales at the end of the month and will be taking a trip to Skomer Island to see some puffins up close!
To celebrate my visit to Skomer, I’m theming this month around islands and the unique and delicate relationship between islands and their native wildlife. I’ll be focusing on Skomer but also Lundy Island which I was fortunate to visit a couple of years ago.
I’ll be looking at the influence islands have on artists and writers and why they inspire so many stories.
To access everything the membership has to offer this month you can become a paid member in just a few clicks. Details of benefits here.
If that’s not possible you can still support me by sharing this post with others who might like it, leave a comment or click the 🩶 Thank you x
Islands inspired me during last November’s Folktale Week and it was the setting for my story, The Island of Echoes. During that month I shared insights into the writing and illustration process in the paid membership, but for May these posts will be free for all members to enjoy.
This month’s live drawing session (for paid members):
Pop this date in your diary - Thursday 16th May at 7pm (BST)
The drawing session will be themed around island wildlife and I’ll share the zoom/lu.ma link and image references closer to the time. I hope you can join me!
Chat
Since I started the membership last September, I’ve been starting weekly chat threads. This is a conversation space that I set up exclusively for The Creative Flock members, kind of 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 members.
I had been starting chats on a Friday: Share Good Stuff from your Week (all members) and also Monday: Set your Creative Intention. (paid members)
Moving forward, Friday’s Share Good Stuff chat will remain the same but the Monday Creative Intention chat will kick off at the beginning of the month, and this ‘thread’ will be open for paid members to join all month and I’ll check in at the end to see how everyone is doing.
The reason for this change is that creative output looks different for everyone, and not all members will be working on creative projects daily or even weekly. I want this chat space (and indeed the whole membership) to be inclusive and not one that is for full-time artists or creatives only.
I hope that starting a Creative Intention for the Month chat will be more manageable and encourage more members to join in.
Please also note that paid members can start chat threads, share thoughts and updates and ask questions of the community.
This is one of the benefits of being a paid member ❤️
You can use chat on the Substack app or web and adjust the notifications to suit you.
I’m excited for this month and what we’ll create together 💚
Welcome back Emma 🤍
Welcome back Emma! I'm off to Hafan Y Mor in a week. Probably not quite as arty as visiting an island but I'm hoping to get plenty of sketching done 😊