New sketchbooks, a useless easel, an expensive tea-break

📮 Plus, drawings of cats on walls

Jun 13, 2025

Hello Powells,

I have just collected two new sketchbooks from the local Leisure Centre. Why they ended up there I’ve no idea. Had I wanted to draw whilst simultaneously taking an aerobics class I would have called my therapist, as that’s ridiculous and would surely indicate a loss in sanity. Maybe the courier was late for a spin class - who knows. All I know is I wasted 2 days of my life tracking them down. The sketchbooks are from Basenotes: one of them is HUGE and has tracing paper in-between each page, which is very fancy and provides a fun opportunity to add extra drawings on top of what’s underneath. I’m inspired thinking of Oliver Jeffers’ There’s a Ghost in this House Book or Beatrice Alemagna’s Things That Go Away Book. I am looking forward to drawing BIG things.

New sketchbooks rescued from the Leisure Centre

Talking of BIG things... Ever since I saw an exhibition of Alison Lambert’s BIG faces I have wanted to scale up some of my work. I decided I simply MUST have an easel to do this and so began a methodical trawl of second-hand furniture shops within a 10 mile radius. I eventually found a table top easel in good condition and reasonably priced at £18. I made my purchase—along with a set of folding bookshelves and a tin with a space rocket painted on the top—and immediately set off for home, eager to begin drawing BIG. I was feeling triumphant until I unfolded the easel. The pitch roof of my studio makes it absolutely categorically impossible to erect a table top easel unless I move all the furniture into the middle of the room every time I want to use it. Which I do not. Easel now lives on floor by radiator:

On the drawing board…

I’m thrilled to say, as I’m sure my clients will be to hear, that ACTUAL work has commenced on the drawing board. ☠️ Fans of The Swifts you will be delighted to hear work has begun the third book in the series - I sent off sketches of the (rather amazing!) cover today to the wonderful designer, Andrea. 🐭 Fans of Marty Moose you will be eggcited to know I re-commenced work on book 2 earlier this week. I can reveal absolutely nothing about either project though, which makes for a rather anti-climatic end to this paragraph.

Other happenings…

In an effort to add pockets of relaxation into my studio days (as suggested by my doctor) I decided to stretch my legs in the garden with a cup of tea on Monday. As is usual with a neurodivergent brain, one thing lead to another: almost immediately I forgot about my tea and began behaving like Edward Scissorhands, furiously cutting back bind weed with a large pair of long-handled secateurs. I was making good headway until I cut through my neighbours telephone wire.

And so it was that a relaxing 5 minute break in the garden cost me just shy of £100 in electrician’s fees. Two days later, I’m can report the bind weed has made excellent progress—growing back almost to its former glory—and the mug of half-drunk tea is still in the greenhouse.

✏️ Doodles of FUN

I have drawn every morning this week as part of my new daily routine. I tend to draw on a theme and this week I made a series of drawings called: Cats on Walls or Wearing Shawls. Some yet to be coloured. I think I’ll make a calendar of the same title.