Pencil Pals

New #walktosee prompt for August: Messed up some pages in your sketchbook? Arg 😤😫 No, that’s perfect! Paint over the bad drawing or stick a bit of paper over it - Bam! New page! 1. Post your pic with #walktoseereuse and tag me (so I defo see it 👀) 2. Comment on my #walktosee post on Insta with a pic of your drawing, yes, that’s possible now! 3.

This month’s challenge: sketch people who are completely lost in their phones. The art of the stealth drawing! Quick, bam 💥 , got em! They’ll never know (because, well, phones) Share your drawings and join the #walktosee community: 1. Post your pic on Instagram with #walktoseepeopleonphones and tag me too, hashtags can be flakey these days 2. I started a thread here on Substack, add your drawing there 3.

Morning! I am thoroughly enjoying everyone’s contributions to the #walktoseetinysketchbook prompt. I started an Instagram ‘Add Yours’ for the first time, which is very exciting. Join in! #walktoseetinysketchbook prompt I stopped drawing in small sketchbooks. I lost the habit, only ever using a giant A3 that opens to A2. Not handy in stealth sketching situations. Over the last few weeks, I have been working to find my way back into drawing small. At first, A4-ish was as small as I dared go.

Thank you to everyone who took part in #walktoseepeople last month, I think it is the most popular one yet! I LOVED seeing all your drawings of people. I enjoyed these by Lemady_Art , Laura’s Creative Chaos , Studio__su and Sheena Davies. By @Lemady_art and @Ladadraws, @studio_su and @Sheenamary #walktoseetinysketchbook Get out your teeny tiny sketchbook (personally, I am scared of anything below A5 but I will give it a go!) There’s only one rule: It must be drawn from life on location.

Good morning! It’s the 1st of March — St David’s Day, the national day of Wales! And what does a new month mean? Leek hats! No. It means there’s a new #walktosee promt! 🙄 (Print found while pootling on Pinterest - owed by the British Library) This month’s #walktosee prompt is: Think spring bulbs, catkins, wild garlic, seeds on your window sill… Use any materials you have at hand and interpret it any way you fancy. Only one rule, your drawing must be drawn from life.

It’s a proper thumbs up for a book when Waterstones select it for a special offer at pre-launch! Good on ya Salty Dog! πŸ›Ÿ Receive 25% off when you enter the code FEB26 during checkout before MIDNIGHT ON FRIDAY! Buy here We made a Masterclass all about how my pal Katie Chappell and I made the book together at my kitchen table. Claim your Masterclass here A big thank you if you already placed your order! 😚 Helenx

The Good Ship Illustration is heading to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in April (exciting!), and afterwards my niece Holly and I are staying on for a proper Italian adventure. This is where I need your help: where should we go? Pencil Pals is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

We always round off Good Ship Art Club with ‘ten second animals’ and this week the animal was (horror of horrors) Guinea Pig. Arg! I CANNOT draw guinea pigs. So I scrambled together this potato with a tiny hand in each corner. That ten second timer is magic, I think I drew the best guinea pig I have ever drawn — and ever will! Do you have anything you CANNOT and WILL NOT ever draw? I swear, all artists have a drawing nemesis.

Me and Katie Chappell made you a film all about how we made Salty Dog and Pals! 🛟 Place your pre-order, lets us know in the special form below and ta-dah! You’ll get your Masterclass! Artwork on my studio wall 🛟 What will I learn in the Salty Masterclass? 🌊How me and @katiedraws wrote the stories together at my kitchen table - on two iPads, one Google doc, a load of layout paper and sticky tape 🌊How we brainstormed 10 stories over 10 days.

Since we last spoke, I took a wee jaunt to the big smoke where I stayed in my beloved Hammersmith (where I lived for about 12 years waaay back) and visited Walker Books with Katie Chappell . We were very excited to get our paws on early copies of our new book Salty Dog!Eeek! You can place pre-orders here! Hang on to your receipt if you do—because we have an exciting present coming up for all of our preorder pals. Pencil Pals is a reader-supported publication.