Joy as a compass…

I used to think I had to “find my style.” Pick a lane. Pick a niche. Pick a version of myself that made sense on the internet.

But the more I tried to choose...the less like me it all felt. So I stopped chasing a style. And I started following joy.

The delight of a scribbled mark.

Colour combinations that made my heart sing.

The lines that happen when you’re not overthinking, when you’re not trying too hard. And after years of this, I can tell you: You don’t have to find your style. If you follow what feels good, it’ll find you.

You don’t have to find your style. If you follow what feels good, it’ll find you.

Because joy isn’t just a feeling or a byproduct of art making. It’s the compass. The method. The map that leads you home within your own your art.

Paying attention to all the things you love in your own art is the best way I know to make art that feels good and that embodies your style…

P.S. Joy Filled Flowers is a self-paced sketchbook class that helps you loosen up, experiment with mixed media, and bring joy back into your creative process and sketchbook practice. Online. On-demand. £58

A love letter to sketchbooks

There’s no one right way to do anything, and that includes keeping a sketchbook.

My sketchbooks feel like a motley gang of unruly but beloved friends, each one different, with its own quirks and oddities. And that’s exactly why I love them, not in spite of their weirdness, but because of it.

You know that saying about friends: “They come into your life for a season, a reason, or a lifetime”?

I think it applies to art-making and sketchbooks too. I look back at certain sketchbooks and remember those seasons of life so vividly, times when a sketchbook was an escape from life’s upheaval, a place of quiet creativity or times when it was simply a place of carefree art adventure.

Sketchbooks: A powerful creative tool

A sketchbook can be one of the most powerful creative tools an artist possesses.

For me, they’ve been life-changing. They’ve helped me move from hesitation to confidence, from creative uncertainty to finding my artistic voice. My sketchbooks have been a springboard into a more colorful and creative life. If you’ve ever considered keeping a sketchbook, here are a few reasons why you may like to start or re-start.

Making art for yourself

There is something deeply nourishing about making art just for yourself. Experimenting in a sketchbook can lift the spirits and bring immense joy. The simple act of transforming a blank page into something alive with meaning, color, and line is rewarding in itself. A sketchbook is a private place where we can have a creative conversation with ourselves. For me, it has been where I have learnt to be less critical and judgemental of myself and my art.

So many pages, so many opportunities, so much possibility has helped me loosen my attachment to how any one thing turns out…it just doesn’t matter.

A place to begin

Sketchbooks are where we find out about our own art sensibilities, not where we show up fully formed. They are part of the journey, not the final destination.

When we start working in a sketchbook, it helps to embrace a beginner’s mindset—to stay open, curious, and willing to explore. It’s okay to make mistakes, things that haven’t worked teach us something. We don’t need to expect too much from ourselves. I love this idea from Vincent Van Gogh:

“I am always doing what I can’t do yet, in order to learn how to do it.”

A place to learn and grow

In a world obsessed with outcomes, a sketchbook offers a space for discovery. It allows us to explore our interests, experiment with techniques, develop and flex the ways in which we make art. A sketchbook is where we learn what excites us creatively, where we test ideas, push our boundaries, refine our process, and reflect on our evolving art practice.

A place to practice

It is called an art practice for a reason, a sketchbook is a great place to practice and track the progression of an idea, skill or approach.

A filing cabinet of ideas

A sketchbook is more than just a collection of drawings—it’s a filing cabinet for your creativity. It gathers fragments of inspiration, allowing us to flip through pages and spot recurring patterns, themes, and ideas. Over time, our sketchbooks reveal what captivates us, helping us refine our artistic identity.

Begin where you are

A sketchbook is a companion, a teacher, a playground.

It doesn’t demand perfection. It invites exploration. It reminds us that creativity is not about flawless execution but about showing up, trying and growing.

So, if you’ve ever hesitated to start a sketchbook, let this be your sign: Begin.

Fill the pages with your ideas, your experiments, your mistakes, and your joy. Let it be a space where your creativity can run wild, unfurl and be unjudged.

You never know where it might take you.

Types of sketchbook

Here are some of the sketchbooks I like, but sketchbooks are a personal preference and come in so many different shapes, sizes and varieties, the sketchbook that is right for me, may not be right for you.

The best sketchbook to use is always the one you already own.

1. The Venezia Book from Fabriano

2. Stillman & Birn, Zeta Range

3. The Ebony Artist Book from Daler Rowney

4. Dylusions Creative Journal Large from Ranger

5. Seawhite of Brighton Pocket Concertina

6. Talens Art Creation Sketchbooks

   (Some of these links are affiliate links, if you buy something through them, I might earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. I only ever share the products that I actually use. )
   

Balancing chaos and focus in art making

Creativity often swings between inspiration gathering and disciplined execution. At the start of any creative endeavor, we might need a little chaos—openness, curiosity, and exploration. But to bring an idea to life, we need the opposite: clarity, focus, and determination.

Sometimes, we need the scattergun. Sometimes, we need the laser.

As I write this, I’m in the thick of filming my next online course. The process of creating this course has made me reflect on how creativity often demands two distinct modes: exploration and execution.

For the past two months, I’ve been in the scattergun phase—of coming up with ideas, hunting, gathering, experimenting, and throwing ideas at the wall to see what sticks. I’ve been absorbing books, discovering new artists, writing notes, journalling, sketching, expanding different techniques, and letting curiosity lead the way. This stage thrives on novelty, variety, and stimulation. It’s a time for playful chaos—inviting in fresh ideas, mixing influences, and allowing creative sparks to ignite.

But now, I’m in the laser phase—actually turning the ideas into a reality. Taking all the threads and creating the thing. This requires a completely different mindset: deep focus, structure, and an ‘all-in’ mentality. The distractions that once sparked ideas now threaten progress. Instead of jumping between concepts and tasks, I must commit, push through challenges, and sustain intense concentration.

This dance between divergence and convergence happens in most creative endeavors. It happens when making art—we start with an open field of possibilities, then gradually we define a path, make firm decisions, and commit.

Navigating the two modes in art making:

Embrace the scattergun phase fully

• At the start of a project or new body of work, embrace the ambiguity and uncertainty. There is often a lot of ‘not knowing’.

• Experiment with different materials, colours, techniques, styles and subjects—invite in the ‘new’ or novel without pressure or expectation.

• Seek inspiration from unexpected sources: museums, obscure books, nature, seek outside of your usual circles of reference...

• Fill sketchbooks with unfiltered ideas—sketchbooks are often divergent thinking in action…lots of experimentation, gathering, connecting dots…

• Follow your intuition. Let curiosity guide you. Resist the urge to make sense of everything immediately—connections and breakthroughs often emerge over time.

• Give yourself the opportunity to rest and the space to think if you can; creative ideas often surface when the mind is relaxed. “I’ll sleep on it”…is a truism for a reason. Allowing a little spaciousness into our lives, is fertile, it can allow ideas to take shape and grow.

• Gather inspiration like you’re building a virtual pinboard—often, magic happens in the weird combinations and unexpected connections.

Commit to the laser phase when it’s time

• Finishing an artwork or any creative project often requires a real focus and concentration. Align deep work with your natural energy cycles—concentration flows best when you work with your own rhythms.

• Set aside dedicated ‘studio’ time to refine, develop, and focus on your work. Set a timer for an set period of intense concentration and deep focus

• Trust the instincts you developed in the exploration phase—this stage is about shaping, not second-guessing.

• Reduce distractions (social media, external input) and fully immerse yourself in the process.

“Efforts to deepen your focus will struggle if you don’t simultaneously wean your mind from a dependence on distraction.”

― Cal Newport, Deep Work

Know when to switch gears

• If your work feels chaotic and unfocused, it might be time to narrow in and commit to a single direction.

• If you feel stuck or uninspired, loosen up—step away, explore new references, invite in something new or experiment freely again.

Creativity in art and life isn’t about choosing one approach over the other—it’s about learning to move between wild experimentation and disciplined refinement. The scattergun fills the well; the laser brings the vision to life. It seems to me that both are essential.

Creativity can be a balm for the soul

“A lot of people don’t feel creative because they’re physically and emotionally exhausted. The recipe for your life should be this: rest until you feel like playing, then play until you feel like resting, and then repeat.”

— Martha Beck, Quoted in the Los Angeles Times 7th January 2025

2025 has unfolded slowly for me. I’ve been poorly with something resembling flu and have spent much of this new year in my pyjamas coughing …

Pencil sketchbook pages from last year

I have done little in life or art, but now I am feeling a bit stronger I have spent some low-key, quiet time meandering in my sketchbook.

Playing with some simple drawing materials… Expecting very little of myself, creating as a lovely distraction. Manufacturing small moments of joy, just as a nice thing to do. Creating for the sake of creating, not for any outcome, just for the experience of doing it.

A sketchbook from a few years ago…

It has made me think about the healing nature of creativity and how beneficial my sketchbook practice has been to me through difficult passages of life.

The last five years have presented a small rollercoaster of personal challenges, as I’m sure they have for many. I’ve had some on-going chronic health issues, my mother died after being ill for many years and we had a house flood which meant we had to re-build the bottom floors of our home whilst living in a hotel for many months… and through it all my sketchbook practice has felt like an anchor, it has been a wonderful balm for my soul and a comforting creative place to go.

Creating in my sketchbook has felt restorative, enriching and up-lifting, sometimes fun, sometimes a necessary source of calm and distraction. A small place to go and be creative. A place where I can just do a little, or sometimes a lot. Sometimes a place to rest and refuel, sometimes a place to wonder and be wild.

Previous sketchbooks

When life seems to derail our creativity, and when things happen that dampen our natural desire to create … it is perhaps in exactly these moments of life that creativity can be important.

In times of difficulty, small creative moments are perhaps more crucial, they can provide hope, light and encouragement. When we create art we are reminded of valuable lessons which are also needed for life. Our whole life is a creative act, which requires courage, problem solving, tenacity, a sense of adventure and optimism. And when we make art we remind ourselves of our ability take a blank page and make it into something meaningful.

A creative practice can be life-enriching and supportive, whatever is happening…

My sketchbook has been both a refuge and an escape. Using a sketchbook has provided a nourishing playground, a sanctuary and a safe harbour when waters have been choppy. It has been a place to ground both myself and my art.

Small handmade art journals

My sketchbook practice has been so valuable to me only because my expectations are so low.

The stakes are low. It is a place for me to create for the joy of creating, a place to create art for the sake of creating art. A place to make anything I want to make. A place where the activity is perhaps important than the outcome. Scribbling and mark making is sometimes enough.

A sketchbook is personal. Your sketchbook, your rules. It’s a place to primarily make art for yourself, to let your interests and style iterate and unfold, it’s not about displaying art, getting approval or finished and finessed works, it’s a place to work things through, figure things out and have a creative conversation with yourself. Or just to play about with materials, to colour-in, because that is what you need in that moment.

Pencil and felt tip pen sketchbook page

Whatever is happening in our lives, creativity can support us in small and large ways.

Creativity is an important way to express ourselves, connect with ourselves, understand ourselves, a way to cope, a way to find hope, a way to meditate, think, feel, process and reflect.

Ultimately making art is a way to come home to ourselves…

A pencil drawing in my sketchbook

You might like this:

Here are some other posts which you may enjoy:

Mixed Media Sketchbook Tour

The Ebbs and Flows of Creativity

Artist’s Sketchbooks

A pencil Still Life drawing

Drawing and exploring in a sketchbook

Monochrome magic

This video is one from my vault and was filmed in 2022.

Simple and striking

Colour is fascinating in all its sumptuous and seductive hues, but I am also very attracted to the simplicity and strikingness of black and white. In this post I share a few thoughts about working in black and white and a few of my favourite art materials.

Contrast and composition

The black and white palette is the most high contrast one there is, the lightest of lights and the darkest of darks. And as contrast and difference are what can make an artwork feel interesting, black and white can be a powerful and bold combination.

When using just black and white the composition of an artwork becomes more obvious, there is no colour to hide behind and this can be quite helpful in seeing how shapes, lines and all the constituent parts interact.

It pares everything back to its bones and I enjoy the elemental nature of this…when working in colour there are so many decisions to make, just using a few black pens takes away a lot these decisions.

Sometimes colour can obscure what is happening with a composition, in black and white the composition becomes extremely obvious.

The materials

Here is a run down of some of the materials I use, they’re just the ones I like, but I often get asked about which pens I use, so here they are:

BLACK PENS

• Pigma Micron Fine liner Pen for fine lines

• Pentel Pocket Re-fillable Brush Pen (this is the pen I use for the large sections of black, it is refillable with cartridges)

WHITE PENS

I can’t whole-heaertedly recommend any white pen, in my experience they are all often a little difficult. I often revert to a dip pen and a small pot of white ink.

• Molotow One4all white acrylic pen

• Sakura Gelly Roll 10

• Uni Posca Marker Pen Fine

• Uni Ball Signo Broad

I’m also just trying out some Zig pens from a brand called Kuretake which have had good reviews and I will let you know how they pan out…

OTHER MATERIALS

I often use black Indian Ink from Jackson’s Art and stick in pieces of photocopy with matt medium or a glue stick.

SKETCHBOOK

The sketchbook I use here is called the Venezia Book from Fabriano which comes in several sizes and has 200gsm paper and 48 sheets or 96 page surfaces. I mostly use the largest one which is 23cm x 30cm as it can take quite a bit of wet material and collage and the double page spreads in this size book lay quite flat…

Constraints

The limitation of using just a few pens and a limited choice of black and white quite liberating. Sometimes constraints can be, paradoxically, very freeing in art making, they can make it easier to start and cut down the decisions needed when infinite possibilities lead to option paralysis…

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Tuning into our own wisdom…

In this video I chat through some personal thoughts about the art making process... The things I’d like to remember for myself and which I thought may be useful to also share with you.

I’ve just finished five new paintings. I just love how they turned out, but there were some ups and downs along the way… a little wrangling and a few days of challenge. I find the journey of a painting is not always smooth…

Risk and reward

I had a few days in the studio with all of these paintings where I didn’t love what was happening… I thought that perhaps they would never become finished paintings, sometimes that just happens.

If I am wrestling with a painting I often find that adding something completely different, unexpected, something bold, something uncontrolled helps me to get out of a rut. `Sometimes I need to shake things up,

Introducing a little risk can lead to reward. Perhaps a huge sweep of colour or completely painting over sections… I applied this idea to all of these five paintings. At a certain point in each painting I did something bold and unpredictable…I completely changed the colour palette I was using, I painted right over a whole painting, I applied paint in thick uncontrolled daubs and as soon as I took a bold step, I began to see possibility and began to fall in love with them again.

The grit makes the pearl

I dont really want the painting process to always feel easy and simple. I actually relish the challenge of working through the the difficult days, it is part of what I love about being an artist. I appreciate the problem solving...and try and remember that it is the grit in the oyster that makes the pearl…

Capturing wisdom

After I finish a series of paintings, I try to take a moment to reflect on the process, to take stock, to think through what I did, how I did it and what it felt like. To ask myself a few simple questions as a way to better understand myself as an an artist, as a way to clarify my thoughts and to access my own wisdom.

Learning to tap into and trust our own wisdom is so important as artists. This kind of exercise helps to strengthen that muscle. Here are the type of questions I ask myself incase you’d like to do the same:

• What did I learn?

• What worked?

• What do I want to remember?

• What did I enjoy?

• What are my observations on the process?

• What advice do I want to give myself?

• What must I remember for next time?

Sold out

Original Painting: The Wisdom Tree

Sold out

Original Painting: Deep Roots and Wide Branches

Love of Pattern

My love of decoration, ornament and pattern has been a life-long love affair.

All of my very earliest childhood memories involve pattern in some way..,the wallpaper in my infant bedroom, the pattern of a dress, a carpet, a bedspread, a plate, the decoration on our neighbour’s biscuit tin when I was only three or four. I see and remember the world via pattern.

The art we make reflects who we are back to us, doesn’t it?. It can be a projection, an extension of who we are, a culmination of our experiences, our sensibilities, our curiosities, our feelings…. And my art definitely celebrates a love of pattern.

Humans are pattern makers

I think perhaps patten also has an instinctual universal appeal too. Humans are pattern makers and pattern seekers. From the earliest times we have added ornament, decoration, motifs and marks to the items in our world, we turn the ordinary into the extraordinary through making our mark on the world. .We have always added pattern, ornamentation, decoration and detail to the items in our lives to make our lives more beautiful.

Humans are pattern seekers

We seek patterns as a way to understand the world.. there is comfort, familiarity and understanding in repetition and repeats…and at it’s most basic form that’s exactly what a pattern is. It’s a shape, a motif, a mark… repeated.

I seem to agree with the saying that ‘repetition makes perfect’…

Books and links

Here are the books I share in the video.

Terry Winters. Paintings, Drawings, Prints 1994–2004 Hardcover, 2005 by Richard Shiff (Author), Rachel Teagle (Author) Published by Yale University Press.

This book is now out of print but you can see more of Terry Winter’s art on his website here

Matisse in the Studio Hardcover – 6 April 2017 by Ellen McBreen (Author) et al, Royal Academy of the Arts

Looking back to go forward…

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In this video I show you some recent studies, sketches and sketchbooks and chat about how I often review my artwork as a way to take stock and inform my next art making move…. 

Spending a little time looking back over previous creations is a lovely way to recall, retain and be reminded of things that may have been forgotten and can bring clarity about what to make next.

REMEMBERING AND REMINISCING 

Looking back over work we have previously created is like catching up with old friends, remembering and reminiscing. 

CONNECTIONS AND COMBINING

When we look at our work collected together we are better able to see connections and themes and ways in which we may like to combine elements and ideas together to create something new. 

I find it useful to review my work with an inquisitive eye, asking questions such as:

• What do I find interesting here?

• What is calling to me?

• What do I find visually pleasing? A colour, a mark, a line quality, a combination or juxtaposition?

• Why does this appeal to me?

• How does it feel?

• How do I want my current art to feel?

• How could I evolve this?

• How could I develop it?

I find that what I have already created holds important signs or signals and reviewing it can ignite something new or prompt me to explore and expand on a theme or technique, spending time ‘mining’ our own creations can be a useful way to better understand our own artistic sensibilities and style.

THE PAST INFORMS THE FUTURE

There is a lovely continuum in art making, everything that we’ve made before, we bring to our new creations, nothing is ever wasted, it’s like everything we’ve already made informs everything to come….and I relish that continuity and evolution…

Need a little sketchbook inspiration?

Take the Sketchbook Love Class.

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Searching for joy and delight

Music Credit: Supine by Peter Sandberg via Epidemic Sound.

In this video I take you inside my mixed media sketchbook and share a speedy art demonstration experimenting with ink…

I often write notes to myself about my art, things I want to explore, things to remember, ideas to expand upon, fragments and whispers I want to capture.

Sometimes I list the things I want to do more of or the things I want do less of…

I’ve always found writing to be a useful way to think…by pouring words onto a page, I organise and clarify my thoughts and bring light to what I believe.

Joyful abandon

Recently a phrase has repeated itself in my notes and thoughts in terms of how I want my art to feel. “Joyful abandon.” has appeared twice in my notes… I only noticed it when I read back through them. And then I noticed I’d written it not once, but twice, on different days…in the same week. A subconscious thought made visible.

And what did I mean? I think I meant I want joy and delight to be the things I seek in my art making, my north star…

In this season of my life I want to lean-in to what I find and feel to be joyful…and perhaps abandon the things that don’t support this. There is something unapologetic, exuberant and enthusiastic about the concept of ‘joyful abandon’ that resonates with me. A lack of inhibition and constraint that feels expansive.

When there is so much darkness and difficulty in the world, it may perhaps sound naive of me to be seeking joy. The last few years have been a little challenging for me, I have struggled with some ongoing health issues and various other challenges, and it is exactly this difficulty that has made me more attuned to joy, more keen to seek it out, to celebrate it and appreciate it….

Seek what you value in your art

Creating art isn’t always easy, there will often be problems to solve, fallow seasons, perhaps times when it feels more challenging than others, sometimes art making will feel vulnerable and exposing, we will often get in our own way, but making a decision to seek out what you value the most and do less of the things that don’t serve this seems like a good ambition to me…

Art demo: abstract painting inspired by shapes

Music Credit: Supine by Peter Sandberg via Epidemic Music.

In today’s video I demonstrate a way to build up an abstract painting using layers of acrylic paint and shapes.

In a previous video I shared a drawing exercise which created a grid of shapes. Today I take some of the shapes from that drawing exercise and use them to develop striking abstract painted pages in a sketchbook. It is a method you may want to explore as a way to progress your original drawn ideas and use your repertoire of shapes in a painting. You can watch the original drawing video here if you’d like to:

In today’s painting demonstration I am using heavy body acrylic paint from Sennelier in a Daler Rowney A3 Sketchbook which has 160gsm paper.

This paint has quite a matte finish (although I think it is technically described as satin) so it doesn’t tend to result in sketchbook pages which stick together, some heavy body paint can be quite glossy and it is this shine that results in finished pages sticking together, despite them being dry when you close your sketchbook.

This demo and exercise is messy and playful and it can create interesting and surprising results…(if you enjoy a pristine sketchbook or are at all concerned that the paint you are using might possibly cause your pages to stick together you may want to try this on a piece of paper instead). I hope you enjoy it.

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Online art classes

Fun, Experimental Semi Abstract Still Life Class £40

A Playful Approach to Abstract Acrylic Still Life £40

Mixed Media Sketchbook Class £20

Colour and Pattern Sketchbook Class £20

Mark Making Sketchbook Class £20

Make an Experimental Mixed Media Art Journal £30

Make a Concertina Sketchbook £30