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 Love Letter to my Garden

This piece in my sketchbook is an ode to my love of gardening! For over 10 years I lived in London in a series of flats with absolutely zero outdoor space, and yet a strong desire to grow things. I dabbled with growing things in pots on windowsills or in the front garden, but invariably things got blown over by the wind or stolen by passers-by, so I gave up and waited until I had a garden of my own. All that pent-up gardening energy means that I have thrown myself into looking after my garden with full force. Most evenings I can be found outside pottering around with a watering can and a pair of secateurs, deadheading and weeding, and just generally admiring.

My garden is pretty well established and some previous owner down the line has done some very thoughtful planting, which means every few weeks we are treated to a new surprise, with irises, hollyhocks and lilies popping up. I’m also full of plans for what I’d like to grow next year, I’d really like to try growing sweetpeas and zinnias. There’s always something to look forward to and something to do with the garden, I’m looking forward to picking tomatoes later in the summer, I’m excited about planting bulbs in the autumn, and i’m waiting with bated breath for my many dahlias to bloom. I could actually ramble about my garden for days, so I will stop now.

This piece was painted with gouache, coloured pencil and neocolor pastel in my Odd Orange sketchbook.

Art Retreat in Valencia

I’ve been back from my art retreat for just over a week and I’m still on a high from what an incredible experience it was, still busily working in my sketchbook recording my memories and making the most of all the inspiration. It’s hard to even know where to start. At the end of April I taught a week long art retreat with UpTrek just outside Valencia Spain with a wonderful group of women and we all had a magical time. During the week we focused on sketching and painting on location, using mixed media, developing a sketchbook practice, understanding colour theory, and capturing people. The week included day trips where we sketched on location in Valencia old town in the City of Arts and Sciences, as well as lots of time spent at the venue where I taught masterclasses and everybody had a chance to work in their sketchbooks and ask for help and advice.

For me as a teacher it was truly an honour to see my student’s work transformed in that week. I’ve done a lot of teaching before, but usually just for a couple of hours, maximum one day. It was really incredible to see students develop as artists, and for me as a teacher to be able to respond to them in real time and tailor the retreat to make sure they got the most out of it that they possibly could. I could see that for many of my students perfectionism and fear of making a mistake was holding them back. Some of my students were spending a really long time sketching and not painting, and when they did paint they were scared to add bold tonal contrast and texture. I took everybody to the Umbracle, a botanical garden in The City Arts and Sciences, and challenged everybody to do a 10 minute painting of a tree. Everybody picked a palm tree or an orange tree, gathered their materials, and then they add 10 minutes to paint it. And that was when the magic happened. People who had previously spent hours agonising over a painting, suddenly painted something beautiful in just 10 minutes, sometimes less. It’s amazing how the time restraint made people bolder and encouraged them to trust their own instincts. Everybody was amazed by what they had created! We did this exercise a few times and it was such a big breakthrough moment for people.

I also loved sharing my passion for painting on location. It was something that most people hadn’t done before, but sitting together painting, chatting, sharing materials and sipping on an orange juice or a Horchata and just felt so natural and people produced beautiful work imbued with memory and atmosphere. Valencia itself is such an incredibly beautiful city and was the perfect place to paint and gather inspiration.

For me the most wonderful thing about this trip, on top of seeing everyone’s artistic development, was how much everybody bonded and what a lovely group it was. We all had so much fun! Every evening at 7 we all gathered to share our sketchbooks over a glass of cava and a canapé. It was a real highlight for everyone. A favourite moment was going to see a flamenco show in Valencia, and our wonderful host Laura teaching us all some flamenco moves before we went. We had such a wonderful time! On the last night the venue hosts surprised me with a little book which they had asked all of my students to write a message in. It was so lovely it made me cry! And a few of my students got a little bit teary eyed as well.
A lot of people have been asking me if I will teach another retreat, and the answer is I would love to! I’m already making plans for next year, so watch this space, and sign up to my newsletter to be the first to hear about any new retreats.

My beautiful students looking very proud of their final pieces.

The Perfect Gouache Sketchbook

If you follow my work on Instagram, or read this blog you probably know that I love working in a sketchbook! However for awhile I’ve been searching for the perfect gouache sketchbook, and when I couldn’t find one I decided to design my own!

A5 in size with beautiful heavyweight white paper with a subtle texture perfect for gouache. The pages are thick enough that it holds paint well without it bleeding through to the other side meaning you can work on both sides of the paper. The paper is bright white with a subtle texture and the sketchbook is soft back and saddlestitched, which makes it really easy to scan and reproduce your work. There are two specially designed covers, both of which are fun, colourful and cute. I didn’t want the artwork on the cover to detract from the artist’s own artwork inside the sketchbook, but at the same time I wanted the sketchbooks to be really cute and to be instantly recognisable as an Emma Block sketchbook, hopefully I’ve found that balance! I’m so so excited to see what people create with them!