Hello there! Hope you’re doing well. How’s your week been? Today, I’ll be focusing on my trip to Portugal. It took place last week, nicely leading into the weekend and since I didn’t post my journals last week, here they are now!
It’s hard to summarise a week like the trip to Portugal but I’ll try… and if a visual journaling retreat appeals to you, I will be making a huge announcement in coming weeks for one I’ll be leading in France in May 2027. Do make sure to subscribe if you want to hear more about it.
Highlights of the Week
sketching on the train to Manchester, over the Pennines
noticing the different shapes of clouds on my flight to Lisbon
meeting all the guest participants and watching them develop their creative voices over the course of the week
teaching during the workshops on composition, colour, layering, lettering, still life and plein air sketching - teaching is one of my greatest joys
being in gorgeous Lisbon, admiring the tiles and collecting photos of them for my digital bank of gorgeousness
walking through the most stunning shop A Vida Portuguesa which used to be a tile factory and sketching some of the tiles outside their entrance where they placed a few benches
seeing the ancient olive trees, the magic never gets old
swimming in the infinity pool, looking over said olive trees
I’d love to know what your highlights have been. Let me know in the comments below or in the club chat.
Materials Used in Today’s Spread
A variety of Caran D’Ache Neocolor 2 pastels
ShinHanArt’s 107 Hydrangea blue gouache
A variety of Prismacolor and Derwent Inktense pencils
A Kaweco pen for journaling
Join the On-The-Go Sketching Challenge
It’s so great seeing so many folk getting ready for our club’s on-the-go sketchbook challenge next week.
If you want to join, here’s all the info:
The Challenge Announcement (12 mins audio introduction, narrated by me!!)
My Top On-The-Go Materials (a clear list of materials I regularly use while sketching outdoors - this will also give you an idea of the type of sketching I’ll be doing)
The May Issue of the Club Gazette (this has YouTube links of exceptional artists who also sketch outdoors, plenty inspiration for your eye balls)
On-The-Go Sketching in Portugal: I published this video just yesterday on my recent trip to Portugal with lots of sketching on-the-go on trains, planes, airports, in Portuguese gardens and Lisbon coffee shops
My chat with guest Orla Stevens during our club co-drawing session on Simplifying Landscapes while drawing landscapes of Edinburgh - during this call we shared our top tips to simplify complex urban scenes
Some more springtime posts for you to enjoy!
The gazette has ALL the club news, dates, fun YouTube links to enjoy, poetry and you may find the exact inspo you’ve been waiting for! ❤️
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on 25 Ways to Celebrate the Arrival of Spring in which I share a picnic recipe from Rukmini Iyer’s recipe book as well as many more creative ideas to enjoy this season.
Beautiful Monsaraz, a village on a hill, in the Portuguese countryside
As always, thanks for reading! If you’re new around here, welcome! These visual journals exist because of paid subscribers. This post may be truncated in some emails so best to enjoy it on the app or website.
🍋 Carve out time to be creative with us in the club!
🍊 Catch more behind-the-scenes peeks over @helen.c.stark!
See you soon!
Helen xx
