24. Sketching Round Up

A week in Portugal!

✈️ Sketching Adventures in Portugal!

I've just returned from a wonderful week in Portugal with

Nikki Hawkins

and our families – a trip that marked two special firsts for me: my first holiday abroad since starting a family over a decade ago, and my first international adventure with a sketchbook in hand!

📚 My Travel Sketching Setup I packed three trusty companions for this journey:

• A Stillman and Birn sketchbook for capturing the sights and experiences

• My tiny daily sketch journal for quick daily memories

• My Peg and Awl Mini Sendak with a few basic sketching supplies

The quiet mornings proved perfect for maintaining my daily sketch practice. I'd choose a photo from the previous day's adventures and create a quick sketch in my tiny journal – keeping it simple and fuss-free! Throughout the day, I found little moments to sketch on location in my Stillman and Birn, supplementing these with sketches from photos when needed. My approach was pressure-free: focus on enjoying the process and collecting memories rather than pursuing perfection.

Sesimbra, Portugal - sketching on the beach in my Stillman and Birn Sketchbook!

Here is a short flip through of the sketchbook :)

A Week in my Tiny Daily Sketch Journal

Tiny Daily Sketch Journal on Holiday!

🎨 Art Supply Notes

While I'd planned to share a detailed breakdown of my travel art supplies, the chaos of organising a family of five for a week away took precedence! Would you be interested in seeing this breakdown in my next newsletter? Let me know in the comments!

🚜 Farmvember with The Sketching Sisters

In other news: Over at The Sketching Sisters,

Nikki Hawkins

and I are bringing back Farmvember, our month-long farm themed sketching challenge! We're looking forward to hosting this again after last year's success. Here's how you can participate:

• Our weekly newsletter will provide a daily photos for the week ahead for you to sketch. These are reference images taken on Nikki’s farm in Devon and Emma’s farm in Somerset - you can draw every day, every other day, once a week - or whatever takes your fancy!

• Watch our weekly recorded sketching sessions where we'll tackle three farm-themed images from that week over on our Sketching Sisters Substack

  • Watch the recordings at your own pace on our Sketching Sisters Substack

  • Sketch along in a relaxed, no-pressure environment

• Post your sketches to Instagram using #farmvember and / or #farmvember24 and tag our insta account @the_sketchingsisters so we can share in our stories!

We'd love to have you join our creative farming challenge!

🍂 Looking Ahead

Back to reality this week as I catch up on my Plein Air Revolve project and navigate the school runs! I'm particularly excited to get back to location sketching – the landscape has transformed into beautiful autumn colours during my time away in Portugal. There's something special about capturing these seasonal changes in my sketchbook.

See you all soon, and in the meantime – happy sketching!

Emma xx

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