June 2025 blog | sketches, zines and markets

It’s over halfway through 2025 already??? What?? Where did that time go!!?

June itself feels like it flew by. I barely remember what happened at the beginning of the month ^.^’ Unfortunately that is likely because our dog, Tilly, took a turn for the worse again (as I mentioned in my previous post, she has been ill in one way or another for the last six months), so looking after her took up some of my time and physical and mental energy. Other than that, though, I made a few final pieces, prepared for a market by making a new zine, and wrote my fantasy book until my fingers almost dropped off!

Monmouth Castle

 A couple of pages I drew at Monmouth Castle after a chill day in the town. (The painting on the leftmost page is from Hanbury Hall).

‘A Message from the Merrows’

My ‘big’ painting this month was this digital piece. I wanted to make a Mermay piece for a zine submission, and had recently written a scene in my fantasy book that included merfolk, so I decided to draw the scene! It took a bit of trial and error to draw the figures right but I really like how they came out in the end!

Draw Outside!

I made a new zine! It’s been a while since my last one, and I had this idea that I knew I needed to make ASAP.

This isn’t just a zine, though! It’s also a sketchbook for YOU to fill out! The first half shows examples on how to draw en plein air with lots of scans from my own sketchbooks, giving you examples and tips on how to find things to draw and how to lay out your pages. The middle of the book has ‘activity’ style pages for you to fill out when taking the sketchbook with you on your travels, and the rest of the book is blank for you to practice and doodle on.

I really enjoyed making this zine, I hope others enjoy it too :)

It will be up on my shop soon!

Ella’s Pop Up Shop

I sold at Ella’s Pop Up Shop near the end of the month where I got lovely comments on the new zine and had nice chats with people! I also filled a couple of spreads in the sketchbook throughout the day and worked on some vegetable illustrations for…

Clementine Anthology submission

For Clementine’s latest theme, ‘Renew’, I made a little infographic about ways to re-grow store-bought food to make the most of scraps that would otherwise go in the bin. I hand-painted the illustrations of veg, scanned them in, and used Photoshop to put the final post together.

Sketchbook play

A sketchbook spread inspired by @stillustrations.club’s photo prompt. I really enjoyed the black, purple and orange combo I created.

In other news

This is cheating a little, since it was technically two days into July when this happened, but I wanted to mention it anyway - I finished writing the first draft of my first book!! After having it in my head, developing it, growing up with it, and changing it multiple times over the course of 15ish years, I finally have a finished part of the whole story!! Of course, it is in need of MAJOR editing and refining (and cutting down, as there are far too many words…) but it’s surreal to have finally finished something I’ve re-started so many times. I can’t wait to get on with the draft for the next book (literally - I am having to force myself to have a break and do other things such as this blog, as I just want to get on with the planning and writing…!).

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Upcoming

Markets I will be selling at in July and August:

26^th July 2025

Hollyhock Makers Market, Lansdown Hall, Stroud

16th August 2025

Alright? Illustration Fair, St Mary’s Priory Church, Chepstow

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If you’ve read this far, consider supporting me and my work by going over to my Etsy shop and having a browse if you like zines, stickers and prints mostly based around nature and travelling. You will also find my pet portrait commissions there! letsgetartyshop.etsy.com <3