25. Sketching Round up

Plus week 18 of my Plein Air project!

Dec 19, 2024

Dear Readers,

The final countdown to Christmas is here! With my children now on school break, I'm in that familiar whirlwind of last-minute present buying and holiday preparations.

Finding beauty and inspiration in everyday things

Amongst all the festive madness, I thought I‘d share a few sketches from my sketchbook. I haven’t really been sharing much on social media over the last few weeks. Sometimes I find it all too much and my creative energy dips. Taking a break often helps me refocus. I have touched on this before in this post. I often find myself taking a new direction and feeling re-inspired.

Taking pressure off myself to create just for the sake of it, and not for social media is refreshing. These morning coffee sketches I'm sharing weren't made with any grand purpose – they were simply moments of peaceful mark-making. Yet, looking back through my sketchbooks, I noticed these everyday desk sketches forming a theme, reminding me that finding art in the ordinary is not just valid, but valuable.

Here are a few more sketches of random stuff on my desk:

Sketches of random clutter on my desk — Things on my desk

Plein Air Sketching Project - Week 18

Speaking of regular sketching, I've reached Week 18 of my "Revolve" project with Worcester Arts Collective! For those who haven't been following along, I've committed to creating an A6-sized piece every week for a year, focusing on outdoor sketching. Recent storms (hello, Burt and Darragh!) have made this more challenging, but watching the seasons change through my sketches has been incredibly rewarding.

My latest piece captures one of my favourite fields on an overcast day. The bare trees and textures of the bird-friendly crops created such beautiful muted tones. I'm finding myself becoming more experimental and confident with plein air sketching – and I'm secretly hoping for a snow scene before winter ends!

(And please excuse my wobbly filming – juggling sketching while keeping everything in frame is quite the challenge. I keep telling myself I'll improve!)

Until next week,

Emma x

Emma Cavill Sketches

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