Seasalt and Serpentine

October Art Catch-Up

Melanie Chadwick — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 15:29:11 GMT

Dear Reader,

Welcome to another art catch-up. As I said in September’s edition I hope to send these out each month with what I’ve been sketching, illustrating and working on throughout the month.

Wildflowers spotted

Lots of berries and seeds- Cuckoo Pint, Stinking Iris, Rose hips, Bittersweet, Deadly Nightshade, Rowan, Honeysuckle

Sketching on location

I’ve enjoyed the October weather, apart from the storm we had it feels like I’ve been able to sketch outside regularly throughout the month. However there is definitely a chill in the air now we’ve moved into November. Here I am with Sunny at the beach at Porthoustock on the 30th October.

Here are most of the sketches I’ve done over the month outdoors. Favourites include Kennack Sands and the pumpkins at Trengwaiton Gardens.

I also drew some mini panels over a double page spread using just 3 colours these were especially fun to do inspired by by Trebah September sketches.

Illustrating Contentin

I’ve been working on some black and white interior book illustrations for a book based on the French peninusula of Contentin written by Sarah Parkhouse. She takes the seven days of the week, each with a different colour focus, each with a little vignette into typical French life on the Cotentin peninsula and then imagines an artist who might have painted that scene.

I have been drawing the chapter headings to introduce the theme visually alongside Sarah’s colourful descriptions. I’ve also been drawing artist tools which will be dotted throughout the book.

I’m now working on the cover and look forward to sharing that with you in December.

2027 Sketchbook Calendar

My self-published calendar is now ready and awaiting your orders! It has over 100 sketches included and will have palettes and prompts for each month to encourage you in your creative pursuits. Below is a sketchbook tour and I give you a peek at my sample calendar.

Pre-order your calendar here. The calendars are at the printers as I type and I hope to start shipping mid November.

If you’re based in the EU you can purchase them from my folksy shop.

Community Draw-alongs

I re-started our community draw-along sessions in October kicking off with the theme of pumpkin patch! It was a very fun session, thanks to everyone who joined and I enjoyed being able to sketch along with those who came. The one for November will be on the theme of Mushrooms- I hope you can make it- it will be an hour of sketching with timed prompts and photo refs provided by me!

Upcoming Zoom dates for our Community

Mighty Mushrooms Draw-along Monday 9th November 6-7pm GMT
Swatch, Sketch and Share Session Thursday 19th November 2.15pm GMT

You can upgrade to paid to support my work at anytime and access the growing library of posts.

Finally on a personal note we celebrated Sunny’s first birthday on the 5th October and spent the day at Paradise Park. We enjoyed discovering a range of birds (including bright pink ones), going on the slide and being the only passengers on the train. Tony and I can’t quite believe where the year has gone, it’s been quite a journey but are so thankful for all that it has brought and the gift that Sunny is to us… she is indeed a precious pearl.

And that’s all for this month’s catch up! Thanks so much for reading, your support is really much appreciated.

Hope you’re staying well,

Mel’s Musings 02/11/26

Melanie Chadwick — Mon, 02 Nov 2026 20:31:52 GMT

Even though my nose has been running and my body aching for much of the day thankfully….

Mighty Mushroom Draw-along

Melanie Chadwick — Mon, 02 Nov 2026 12:28:58 GMT

Hello sketchers,

Join me Monday 9th for our November draw-along where we’ll be drawing inspiration from mushrooms!

Our drawing references will come from mushrooms I’ve snapped in the woods. I don’t know the names of them but we’ll have fun sketching them I hope…

In our session we’ll start off with some quick warm-ups which will include our usual staple of continuous line, contour, negative space, blind and less dominant hand. This will last for roughly 15 minutes. We’ll than have a couple of 3 minute sketches and then we’ll slow things right down and look at just 2 mushroom images spending the rest of the time sketching these.

I hope this will give you time to study and capture these beautiful organic specimens.

We’ll then stop to share what we’ve drawn along with any tips we can share and found useful in capturing these beauties.

It will also be an opportunity to take some time out to draw together and chat, sharing materials we’re enjoying using and discover the fun of drawing mushrooms together!

Join us live

Here are the details if you’d like to join in the drawing date:

Upgrade to paid on my substack for the month (you’ll also get access to all my paid posts for the month)
Tune in on Monday 9th th 6-7pm BST on Zoom via the LUMA link below
The link is below and you’ll be able to access it once paid-you’ll also find the replay below too
Bring along a range of drawing and painting mediums you like to use
Bring a sketchbook or two or a stack of paper

Seasalt and Serpentine

October Art Catch-Up

Dear Reader,

Wildflowers spotted

Sketching on location

Illustrating Contentin

2027 Sketchbook Calendar

Community Draw-alongs

Upcoming Zoom dates for our Community

Mel’s Musings 02/11/26

Mighty Mushroom Draw-along

Hello sketchers,

Join us live

Mel’s Musings 01/11/26

Mel’s Musings 31/10/26

Mel’s Musings 30/10/26

Mel’s Musings 29/10/26

Golden Leaves

Mel’s Musings 28/10/26

Mel’s Musings 27/10/26

Mel’s Musings 26/10/26

Mel’s Musings 25/10/26

Mel’s Musings 24/10/26

Mel’s Musings 23/10/26

Mel’s Musings 22/10/26

Mel’s Musings 21/10/26

Mel’s Musings 20/10/26

October Swatch, Sketch and Share Session Replay

Hello sketchers!

Why not use the time to…

Mel’s Musings 19/10/26

Mel’s Musings 18/10/26