New Book - Keeping a Creative Sketchbook

I am so so excited to be able to share what I’ve been working on for the last two years! I have a brand-new book coming out in April and it’s called Keeping a Creative Sketchbook. It pretty much does what it says on the tin, and it’s all about keeping a sketchbook and how that can fuel your creativity. This book is all about using a sketchbook to find your style, loosen up, overcome fear of the blank page, experiment with colour and materials, and getting outside and drawing on location. The book is packed with practical exercises and ideas to get you working in your sketchbook. I also look back at my own journey with my sketchbook over the years and how influential it’s been to my own artistic journey. I also interviewed loads of fantastic artists and illustrators and talk to them about how working the sketchbook has been important to their work. 

This book is perfect for total beginners, who would like to start using a sketchbook, and more establish artists, who want to fall back in love with their sketchbook again! I really loved writing this book, and I hope you love reading it!

It is available to pre-order now and publishes on the 9th of April!

A Feature in Art Supplies by Uppercase

My work has been featured in the beautiful new book Art Supplies, by Uppercase magazine. If you haven’t heard of them, Uppercase produce beautiful magazines and books focused on arts and crafts. This encyclopedia is packed with interviews from artists and artisans who are all united by a deep love of art materials. The photography in the book is just gorgeous, so many luscious colours and textures! It’s such an honour to be included. I love that this close-up photo of my crusty and trusty enamel paint palette has an entire page to itself. Here is a little excerpt from the interview with me. You can buy a copy here.

Here is a little excerpt from the interview with me. 

‘Dipping between the two gives Emma options, depending on what feel she is after: "People often ask me how I choose which one I use for a project, but I just have a sort of gut feeling. They both have such unique personalities. I find watercolours to be soft, romantic, light and delicate on the page. They can feel modern and fresh, or slightly traditional."
Gouache, on the other hand, plays nicely with other art supplies: “Gouache has a much bolder character; you can create such a richness of colour and texture, and it works so well with other mediums like coloured pencils. I love the versatility of gouache, the variety of textures that can be created and how you can control it with square and angled brushes. I also love the immediacy of it; gouache is quite a forgiving medium and will work well on most papers or sketchbooks, unlike watercolours which are a little bit more fussy.”’

New Book -The Further Adventures of Miss Petitfour

She is back! I am so excited to announce that Miss Petitfour is back for another adventure! Haven’t heard of her? Let me introduce her, Miss Petitfour is a lover of adventures, tiny cakes and long words, she has sixteen cats and flies through the sky with a magical tablecloth.

I was so honoured to be asked to illustrate the second volume of Miss Petitfour stories. I can’t believe it’s been six years since the first book came out! It was so lovely to get reacquainted with Miss Petitfour and her sixteen cats again and immerse myself in her world. Anne Michael has once again written the most beautifully whimsical and wonderful stories, and it was an honour to bring them to life. The Further Adventures of Miss Petitfour is coming out this summer! I will be posting some sneak peaks of my favourite illustrations in the next couple of months.

New Book - Slow Travel Journal

Slow Travel, a guided journal written and illustrated by me is now out! The journal is packed with thoughtful prompts and watercolour illustrations. The irony of publishing a travel journal in a global pandemic isn’t lost on me. But if there is one thing we’ve all learnt during the pandemic it's finding joy in the little things, which is what this book is all about. The great thing about mindful travel is it’s about slowing down and making memories, even if you’re not travelling very far at all. I know this year most of us will just be travelling within our own country, state, or even our own neighbourhood, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be magical. This fully illustrated guided journal is full of prompts to help you record all the little details that made it special, including spaces to sketch and collect tickets and tokens. I absolutely loved working on this book, it feels like such a love letter to travel, and I hope you like it too.

My 2018 in Review

So 2018 was a bit of a crazy year. I feel like I say that every year, but I think your late 20s are the pivotal years when big things happen and you start making strides in the world rather than just bumbling along cluelessly (or maybe that’s just me). The two biggest things that happened this year where that my first book, The Joy of Watercolour came out, and my husband and I bought our first home in London. It was so exciting to have my first book published, and the reaction has been incredible. It has sold so well that it went to reprint within a month. The best thing for me has been the reaction on social media. I absolutely love seeing people painting the projects in the book and getting in touch asking for advice or just telling me how much they enjoy it. I absolutely loved the process of creating a book from start to finish and I’m excited to be writing another book next year.

At the beginning of 2018 I wrote down my goals, one of which was to buy a house, which honestly I feel ridiculous just writing down, but somehow it’s happened. It’s funny how things work out; what started as a very stressful situation, being forced out of the flat my husband and I had rented for five years with no warning, led to us buying a beautiful flat that we love. It’s a Victorian conversion with lots of original features and I’ve had the time of my life with decorating and sourcing furniture. I wrote about the living room here and I’m planning more interiors posts in the new year.

This year also included a once-in-a-lifetime trip to San Francisco, which I still need to blog about. On this trip I had the chance to meet my literary agent Leslie face-to-face for the first time after years of working together. The trip was absolutely incredible and we both loved California. Visiting Yosemite was a particularly memorable part of the trip. I had time to take a couple of meetings while I was in San Fransisco which have led to some exciting things for 2019.

This year I had make peace with the fact that the repetitive strain injury in my wrist is likely to be permanent, and I will always have a lack of strength and range of movement in my right hand. This means my live illustration career is over, but I’m not too upset about that, I think it’s important for your career to always be evolving and changing to meet your needs. I really feel my passion lies in writing and illustrating books and encouraging others to be creative.

I worked with some lovely brands this year. At the beginning of the year Kikki K spent a day with me and made this beautiful video. If you want to learn a little bit more about me and my background I definitely recommend watching it. I also had Papier visit me in my studio and create this stunning video of me painting one of their wedding stationery designs. I’m working on some new wedding stationery designs for Papier at the moment which will be launching in the New Year. I also had the opportunity to design an Emma Block illustration Easter egg with Godiva, which was a rather bizarre but absolutely lovely job. 

This year I did a lot of editorial work with clients including, Vogue Brides, Next, Magnolia Journal, In The Moment Magazine, Prima, Sister Mag, The English Garden, The House The Lars Built and Eve Mattresses. I do think my style evolved a bit this year, embracing the dry texture of gouache more than ever.

In terms of personal goals this year I read more books, the majority of which were by female authors, got back into the habit of working in my sketchbook, and developed a gym routine, which I’ve now completely abandoned since moving house. In the new year I’m hoping to find a new gym, and get back into reading and working in my sketchbook, make the most of living in London and visit lots of exhibitions with friends and family. I’m really excited about what 2019 will bring, and I can’t wait to start writing my second book.

Writing a Watercolour Book!!

I announced over on my Instagram and I forgot to share the news on here: I am writing a book!! Last summer I had an idea for a book. I realised that most watercolour books are very old-fashioned and very traditional, and I wanted to write something modern fun and accessible. I got in touch with my friend Lesley who helped me write a book proposal, which ended up being a whopping 23 pages long, and presented to some publishers. In the New Year I got offered a book deal and I am spending this summer writing the book. I am used to having ideas for illustrations in my head then making them happen on paper, but having an idea for a book then turning it into a real book deal with the big publisher is something completely new. It's just crazy that this project went from dream to reality. I am loving the process of writing this book. I am just having so much fun coming up with projects for it. The publishers have given me a lot of freedom to choose what I want to teach in the book which has been brilliant. I love teaching people to paint and encouraging them to find their creativity, so it's really exciting to be able to do that on a much wider scale due to this book. I would describe this book as everything I know and love about watercolours. It's for people who want to paint colourful, joyful things to put on their wall and not take it all too seriously. At this point I have just passed the halfway mark and I've handed the first half of my manuscript to the publishers. I can't believe I've written a half a book already. I've got just over a month to finish the second half. My book will be coming out next summer. Follow me over on Instagram for sneak peeks of my progress.

Illustrating a Book Cover

Last year Text Publishing got in touch with me about illustrating a book cover for an upcoming chapter book. It was a really lovely project so I thought I would share a behind-the-scenes peak with you guys.

They had a fairly clear idea of what they wanted from the cover so I went straight in with the sketch. The feedback was that the plant life needed to be more varied and more wild looking. After my second sketch got the go-ahead I started on the artwork. I painted the mirror and the girls separately and then layered them on photoshop so they could be edited and moved. 

I painted the botanical wallpaper straight onto green paper which looked really lovely and definitely set the tone for the piece, but it was difficult to edit in photoshop. Ultimately I started the background again, painting individual plants on a white background which could then be removed in photoshop. The individual plant motifs could then be arranged on a green background which meant the design was much more flexible. The plant motifs were also use to create a gorgeous decorative title page. I also painted some little botanical flourishes to be used for the chapter headings.