Looking back

Making a list

Merry Christmas! We’re in that heavenly no-man’s-land between Christmas and New Year where we get to legitimately do nowt much. I wrote this before Christmas and scheduled, it so right now I am probably doing a jigsaw or watching a black and white film on the telly if I’m feeling crazy.

I always like to make a list at the end of the year, to remind myself what I got up to:

1. I made the Good Ship picture book course, with the help of my best pals Katie and Tania. I interviewed so many of my picture book heroes along the way, it was a bumper year for meeting my illustration heroes.

2. I read Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart, they broke my heart in the best ways. Then I got obsessed and found every podcast, article and TV show I could find about Douglas Stuart. 

3. Illustrated a new book for Walker Books. News on that is still under wraps but here’s a sneaky peek. It’s about pirates, and pirates were on my NEVER ILLUSTRATE list. But the story was so good I had to say yes and learn to draw pirates my way. Now I LOVE drawing pirates.

   

4. Levelled the garden in preparation for Gerry’s new print studio. Gerry filled 6 or 7 skips, we lost count.

5. Watched the studio being built by Bothanna Cabins and then filled it with Gerry’s screen printing press and light exposure ink, and all the other print gubbins: inks, troughs, squeegees… He’ll start making his whale sprints in Spring.

   

6. Recorded some Good Ship podcasts, my favourite is this one with Emma Carlisle. We have had similar career paths, in that she started in picture books, got stuck in a way of working she didn't enjoy, took some time out and started again. 

7. Started a ‘sentence a day’ five year diary. It is the first time I have kept a written diary, it feels very doable when it’s just a sentence a day. 

8. Watched Pie grow another year older and even more lovable, funny, creative, sociable, and organised (she loves a list too). Before she was born I thought the baby/ toddler years would be the best bit, but no, every phase is amazing, and the teen years are maybe the best so far.

9. Went live on Insta for many, many Good Ship pop up art clubs and made lots of drawings I love, and some I don't, which is how it should be. I think I like this 1 minute reindeer drawn with kitchen scissors best.

   

10. Met Marloes De Vries on her trip to the UK, we walked out to the lighthouse and had the best chat, straight to the important stuff, no small talk, I love that.

11. Tania had a Father Ted party. I can’t tell you how great it was! Here’s me and Gerry. I am the, ‘Feckin Greeks, coming over here stealing our women.’ woman and Gerry is Father Stone, the world’s most boring priest.*

    

12. I got married to Gerry Turley, my soul mate and best pal, after nearly 30 years of living in sin. I hated the idea of being a bride, or a ‘Mrs’. Turns out it was really good fun and I cried some happy tears.

13. We spent many of happy days with our friends Lou and Al Martin who are Rock And Roll Art School here on Substack. They are our best pals and happen to be our over-the-road neighbours too, which is double lucky. We have a regular Pudding Club which involves eating pudding and chatting in each other’s houses.

14. Saw The Unthanks at The Old School Gallery, then drove home with a car full of pals in the snow. Heaven!

15. Wrote a new picture book and did the rough drawings. I'll finish the artwork after Christmas. Also had some wonderful fun creative meetings with two of my favourite humans, Dee McDermott and Maria Tunney at Walker Books.

16. I took some summer naps in Gerry’s cabin. He’ll probably never use the bed platform because he’s not a daytime napper, but I love an afternoon nap with the doors open on hot days

    

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17. I’ve been watching a lot of Limmy on YouTube whilst I eat my morning porridge. Also, in the run up to Christmas I’ve also got a bit obsessed with watching old clips from the Cilla Black Christmas Specials. Jeezo, if you weren’t in the UK in the 80’s and 90’s consider yourself lucky. You didn’t have this inflicted on you every Christmas 😂. The shoulder pads, the bad singing and the nervous looking children. It makes me laugh until my sides hurt. 

18. I bought a Wacom Cintiq, tried a Wacom Cintiq and then sold a Wacom Cintiq. Turns out it’s not for me. I prefer my iPad and Apple Pencil, I just wish the iPad came picture book sized! I wrote a thing about it here.

19. Also been watching The Big Scottish Book Club on iplayer. I plan to read as much Scottish fiction as I can next year. BTW I loved Hex by Jeni Fagan, a brilliant piece of fiction based on a true story from the North Berwick witch trials.

20. I had my website redesigned by Sarah at Essay Studio who I met through my pal Sarah Dyer, she did her website too. My old website was so bad no one was allowed to look at it. But now you are very welcome, go and make yourself at home there.

21. How to Hide a Lion was shown at the Polka Theatre in the Spring, it was an amazing production, and makes me so happy to see my book adapted into a whole other art form and good to see the children entranced by the show.

22. The Good Ship got a new shipmate, Katie had a baby and you’ll be glad to hear she has Katie’s adorable pink cheeks and dimples!

*Not my opinion, I love the feckin Greeks.

Do you set goals in the new year? I usually do, but 2022 was another year of feeling frazzled, of not quite keeping up and feeling like I am chasing my own tail. Everyone I speak to feels the same, it seems to be the post covid norm.

So 2023 will be a ‘get your crayons out and enjoy yourself’ kind of year. If I do have a goal, it is to set less goals. I even booked a holiday for the summer, which I never do this early! 

What were you up to in 2022 and are you setting any goals for 2023? Tell me in the chat, I’m nosy.

Helenx

PS Good Ship Art Club is baaaack live at 7pm UK time on Friday the 6th of January. And we launch the Find Your Creative Voice course on Friday 13th January WAHOO!