Collective to collection

26 Pledges in print… 26 Habitats and 26 Pledges have seen writers’ organisation 26 producing daily posts of beautiful writing in support of endangered UK habitats, in partnership with The Wildlife Trusts. It’s been a huge collective effort, for which I’ve sketched and illustrated places and species. We’ve found ourselves with … Read More

Shopping for knowledge

Learning about people from a personal project… My Autumn / Winter range of t-shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies has gone up on my Teemill shop. It’s an offshoot of my Dispatches from a Small World blog, which started as a lockdown project (do keep up…). But it’s also a lab that’s … Read More

Making an effort

“How does Lydia do this!”… It’s always a delight when a client enjoys the work from a live sketching commission, here, an assignment for long-time client Ideas Foundation covering the Disrupt Space exhibition at The Department Store, Brixton. And this time, my client Heather’s comment set off a stock-take of … Read More

In my natural habitat

Questions and answers… As the launch of writers’ project 26 Habitats gets nearer, Philip Parker has caught up with me for a Q&A for 26 about the illustrations bringing a visual element to the project. Though there’s knowledge and method behind all of my work, I approach every project differently. … Read More

Dispatches in Sublime magazine

What can a garden teach us? In times of restriction, what can a garden teach us? Born in the stillness of lockdown, my illustration project Dispatches from a Small World has been documenting the growing season in over 200 sketches. In a feature for sustainable lifestyle magazine Sublime, I write … Read More

Wearing the t-shirt

How personal projects help clients… In a flurry of activity very much of these times, my lockdown illustration project turned blog Dispatches from a Small World has sprouted a Teemill shop. It’s launched with two collections of illustrations, printed on demand on organic cotton t-shirts. So far, so peripheral. Or … Read More

26Habitats – sketches for centenas

26 is a not-for-profit organisation for writers and anyone who believes in the power of words. Which includes me – words are part of my creative work and my ideas process. Its creative projects bring together multiple writers to focus on a particular theme. Following its hugely successful 26Wild project … Read More

Reportage sketching, nosiness and chipolata fingers

A blogpost about a blogpost… Photographer, collaborator and Trampery compadre JC Candanedo blogs. Properly. Articles, interviews with people, that sort of thing. So I was delighted when he asked me if I’d join him in conversation for a blogpost. Answering questions often answers questions because I have to unpick my … Read More

Dispatches from a Small World

The lockdown project lives… A prolific filer of sketchbooks, time was when I would draw my commute to and from my desk space. But at the start of the first lockdown, local parks full of ‘keep moving’ signs, I couldn’t even draw on my daily exercise walk. So I decided … Read More

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