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I’ve been told by a few people that I can come across as being blunt… but hey, I just like to be honest and have people be honest with me. And, honestly, I don’t want to clutter up anyone’s inbox. I want people to enjoy my newsletter, I don’t want it to be just another annoying thing.
So if you don’t particularly enjoy getting my newsletter, then scroll to the bottom of this email and click the tiny, hard-to-locate “unsubscribe” link.¹ Sorry I couldn’t make it easier - I searched everywhere for “how to add an unsubscribe button” but it looks like that’s not a popular thing to do…
On the other hand, if you do like receiving this letter (even if you don’t read the whole thing, but it makes you smile just to see it nestled in your inbox) then let’s stick together!

I can hear my children downstairs, chattering away quietly while they eat breakfast, but suddenly my eldest loudly declared: “I want Colonel Brandon!”² To which her sister replied, “Attack!” So who knows what’s going on…

I’ve got quite a lot of news to tell you this month, but first…

I need to tell you who won the stickers!

At my Drawing Play-Date in October, hundreds of people joined in to find out who would be the fortunate few to win my new, limited-edition stickers…
…is a lie. In reality, only one person attended³ (which was a relief, because I didn’t want a ton of people only joining in to win rather than to draw), and I completely forgot to pick the winners anyway. But that’s ok, we had a lovely time, didn’t we

Núria Fitó

?
Straight after the call, I got my lovely assistant (husband) to pick the names from the hats (lunch-bags). And while pulling the second name out, a third one was caught in it… So the three winners, in alphabetical order⁴ are…

[Imagine I’m making the effort here to build up suspense.]

He’s enjoying his glamourous-assistant duties.

… Bianka Kister (

Bianka K

),
… Citla Flores (

Citlaflor

),
… and Laura & David of The Lodge.

The prizes are on their way! Feel free to share photos of them on Instagram or Substack and tag me.

While I type this, I can hear my 10 year-old reading Brambly Hedge stories to my 7 year-old, who keeps interrupting to say things she thinks are funny, like “give that mouse a deep, growly voice” and “the Kiss of Death!”⁵ And then they burst out in giggles.
It’s very heart-warming and entertaining, but makes it quite hard for me to concentrate on what I’m writing.

The rest of this newsletter is all about this newsletter,

but also has some new news, so you should probably keep reading…

I started this newsletter over a year ago with the intention that it would be how I market my business, because we’ve all been told that a newsletter is necessary for all sorts of "it's not personal, its business"⁶ reasons. And this makes sense for someone running a businessy business, but mine is more of a personal business, and I agree with Kathleen Kelly:

For those who don't know me yet, my (personal) illustration business has a few sides to it:
- drawing portraits live at markets or parties,
- creating commissioned illustrations,
- working on picture books,⁷
- and this newsletter…

…which isn’t a marketing newsletter, it’s just something I would enjoy reading. It's a way to keep in touch with the people who like my drawings. It's the showing-you-what-I’m-up-to, connecting-with-people, doing-fun-stuff-together and giving-things-away side of my business. If it markets anything, it does so as a surprising added bonus.

As a reminder: this newsletter is not only this rambling e-mail, but also a free monthly live video call where we draw together, and a chance for you to win any random things that I want to give away (like the aforementioned stickers).

So, really, I’m just being myself. And apparently if you “be yourself” you won’t please everyone, but you’ll gather similar-ish people around you and become a sort of community. Which sounds much nicer!

Because of all this, and because some of you lovely friends have asked how you can support me more, I have written this list:

A Few Ways to Make This More of a Community:

• Comment, reply or chat to me in some way so that I can get to know you a bit better, especially if I don’t know you in person. It’s nice to feel that these e-mails are not all disappearing into a void (or lying - unloved - in cluttered inboxes).

• Entrust me with your postal address so that I can send you free things randomly. (I love getting nice stuff in the post, don’t you?) Just reply to this email or send me a DM saying “I love mail!” (And then I might reply with “You’ve Got Mail!” in keeping with the theme.)

• Talk to others about me in real life, or share this newsletter with everyone you think might like it.

• Join in with my Drawing Play-Dates or any other random live calls I do.

Here’s that New News I mentioned:

(And it looks suspiciously like some sort of Official Marketing…)

There have been a few developments in the businessy side of this business:

Firstly, if you’d like to throw money at me out of wild generosity, there is now a way to do that, as I have a “tip jar” over on Ko-fi, to help me replace my coloured pencils when they get too small to hold, and will also make me feel all goood inside.

Secondly, because I keep thinking of more things to offer as part of this newsletter, but which might not interest most people, I have also started a paid subscription. This means that, if you really enjoy this newsletter, love and value the drawing calls, and want to get nice stuff in the post more often, then you can upgrade your subscription (also on Ko-fi) to support me in all these endeavours and get a few bonuses too...⁸ Would you like to know more? Then click the button:

Thirdly, here's a new, wild thing: I’m now offering live portrait illustration online. This is a 20 minute Zoom call where you can watch me draw your portrait, live. Then you get the digital illustration almost immediately, and if you want the original I shall post it to you post-haste! Here’s a diagram to illustrate the idea:

The weird, hairy dog on the screen is me, looking down.

And lastly, I’ve set up a little online shop for my stickers, and there are only 4 of each design left in stock… because I've been giving too many away. [sheepish grin]

And, yes, I am still open for commissions, so if you'd like to get a portrait of your cousin's goldfish as a Christmas present, get your order in this month.

I thought I was wrapping up this letter now, but I just remembered that I haven’t told you about the November Advent I’m doing… Ah well, I’ll just have to use the Word of the Week as a way to explain it a bit:

advent: arrival; onset; a time when something or someone first arrives or appears.
Also ‘Advent’ with a capital letter: the whole of December up until Christmas day, when social media is awash with creative Advent posts.
Let’s use it: Since the advent of social media, people have posted daily Advent content from the 1st of December - the same day they open the first door of their Advent calendars to enjoy the tiny chocolate.
I am simultaneously joining in and rebelling against that wave of social media posts this year, by doing mine early (but without the chocolate. ☹️). I’m having a November Advent, where I’ll be posting a daily drawing, quote, and other nice things (like chocolate?) throughout November. To see what I’ve done so far, click here for Substack and here for Instagram.

That’s all (and more than enough!) for this month. I hope you have a beautiful November, filled with good things. Like goodness! …and patience, and kindness, and gentleness…

With love,

1. And, if you’re reading this in Substack, go to my newsletter page and click the “subscribed” button, or toggle the “unsubscribe” toggle. Or something like that.

2. They love Sense and Sensibility and have been enjoying the 1995 movie since they were toddlers. And, really, I think we all want Colonel Brandon.

3. Don’t worry, regularly-attending and always-meaning-to-attend friends, I know that you would have been there if you could have! I love you and very much appreciate your support and encouragement.

4. Alphabetical order is my second-favourite order. My favourite-favourite order is colour-wheel order, and the best thing about it is that one can start anywhere on the colour-wheel. Because it’s a wheel and not a line. That’s art-geometry.

5. This is from The BFG, not Brambly Hedge…

6. Does anyone else watch You’ve Got Mail every Autumn?

7. Which is a heap of work in itself, and consists of writing and editing stories, sketching thumbnails, creating dummy books, drawing full illustrations, submitting to agencies… etc.

8. And I’ll probably keep adding more bonuses as I go, because I can’t help it.