Coostie Design Studio

Coostie Design Studio Illustrator and designer, inspired by nature and the North. Commissions taken for original illustration, art or design for your home or business.

Range of eco-friendly art prints and gifts also available. See my website for more.

Shh - I'm sleeping...Just a little hazel dormouse for you today that I painted last week in ink and watercolour. I'm goi...
10/06/2026

Shh - I'm sleeping...

Just a little hazel dormouse for you today that I painted last week in ink and watercolour. I'm going to mount this piece and bring it with me to Art at Paxton next Tuesday 16th June if anyone would like to give him a home?

I'll also have my usual range of original artwork inspired by nature and the North, as well as art prints and fine art cards.

See you there?

People often ask me why there's a Rook in my British Songbirds collection. 🐦‍⬛Fair question. Rooks don't exactly serenad...
09/06/2026

People often ask me why there's a Rook in my British Songbirds collection. 🐦‍⬛

Fair question. Rooks don't exactly serenade you from the hedgerow.

But 'songbird' doesn't mean what most people think it means. Songbirds — or passerines — are any bird with a highly developed voice box capable of producing a very wide range of sounds and not all of them tuneful. Rooks more than qualify!

And honestly, once you start looking at rooks properly, they're an absolutely fascinating bird.

Their collective noun is a parliament — because groups of rooks have been observed standing in a ring around one or two birds who appear to debate, or hold court. They can be extraordinarily noisy. They talk over each other. They're occasionally completely unruly.

(If you've ever watched PMQs, you'll recognise the behaviour immediately.)

Parliaments can include hundreds of birds and some rookeries — where they roost and breed — have been in continuous use for more than a hundred years: the same trees, the same colony, generation after generation.

My British Songbirds collection features sixteen birds in pen and ink and watercolour with habitat and conservation status information, available as an A3 or A4 print and tea towel. You can also mix-and-match a set of four note cards or wooden coasters featuring individual birds. Link in bio or drop in to Puddles on West Street to shop some of the range.🖤

𝕡 𝕦 𝕕 𝕕 𝕝 𝕖 𝕤

The question I get asked most often before one of my workshops: "Do I need to be able to draw?"And I always want to answ...
08/06/2026

The question I get asked most often before one of my workshops: "Do I need to be able to draw?"

And I always want to answer: what does 'being able to draw' even mean?

If it means producing something that looks exactly like the thing in front of you, then no, you don't need that. That's not what we're doing.

Green Sketching is about slowing down and paying attention. About noticing the way light falls on a leaf, or the particular shape of a seed head. The drawing is just the tool we use to look more carefully and the sketch itself is almost beside the point.

I've had people come to workshops who haven't picked up a pencil since school. I've had people who are convinced they 'can't draw' produce work that surprises them completely.

If you're curious about the natural world and you'd like to spend a few hours outside with a sketchbook — that's all you need.

My next *Introduction to Green Sketching workshop* is in Berwick on Friday 19th June. All materials provided. No experience needed. £35pp.

Full details and booking link in bio. 🌿

Happy World Environment Day! 🌍I've been thinking today about why I draw wildlife. I think that probably it is because dr...
05/06/2026

Happy World Environment Day! 🌍

I've been thinking today about why I draw wildlife. I think that probably it is because drawing something carefully makes you pay attention to it in a way that nothing else quite does.

When I sit with a reference image of a whale and try to get the exact angle of fins and tail, the way the colour changes indicate the muscles beneath the skin — I notice things I'd never see in a passing glance. I start to understand the creature a little better and want to know more about where it lives, what it eats, what problems it is facing...

Whilst — sadly — drawing wildlife doesn't save it, I do think that anything that makes us look more carefully at the natural world has to be worth something.

What creature would you most like to be able to draw? 🦦

Medieval Berwick is gradually coming to life on my drawing board. 🖤I'm working on a series of illustrated panels for the...
04/06/2026

Medieval Berwick is gradually coming to life on my drawing board. 🖤

I'm working on a series of illustrated panels for the Medieval Timeline Wall at the new Living Barracks Museum here in Berwick — a commission with that traces the town's history from its days as Scotland's most prosperous trading port through centuries of conquest, reconquest and general turbulence.

The project team have gone with my 'Medieval-inspired' concept and I had a great chat with the museum designers about exactly how the back-lit Timeline Wall will work and the subsequent requirement for more texture and shading to reduce areas of white space, which will otherwise be blindingly bright. It's a genuinely interesting puzzle, balancing the historical illustration style with the technical constraints and you can see how very much can change from rough concept sketch to developed artwork!

I've been re-working my initial panel to this tightened brief and then just six more panels to go...

A quick update on my Drawn to Nature at Hepple Wilds full-day workshop, which was due to run this Friday 5th June. 🌿We h...
03/06/2026

A quick update on my Drawn to Nature at Hepple Wilds full-day workshop, which was due to run this Friday 5th June. 🌿

We haven't had enough bookings for it to go ahead, so we've made the decision to postpone it to 16th October, when the Hepple landscape will have its own particular magic, and we'll have had more time to give the workshop the attention it deserves in terms of planning and promotion.

Hepple Whitefield is a privately owned estate in Northumberland National Park where 4,000 acres are being carefully and ambitiously rewilded — peat bogs restored, wetlands created, Exmoor ponies and Longhorn cattle introduced, fences removed, and a whole ecosystem slowly encouraged back to health from the ground up.

It's a genuinely special place to spend a day drawing, and I want to do it justice!

Thou shalt have a fishy, on a little dishy, thou shalt have a fishy, when the boat comes in. 🐟My Fishy Dishy range was i...
03/06/2026

Thou shalt have a fishy, on a little dishy, thou shalt have a fishy, when the boat comes in. 🐟

My Fishy Dishy range was inspired by the North East folk song "Dance to your Daddy" and features herring illustrations, hand-drawn in pen-and-ink in dark grey, on a soft blue-grey background. Available as a tea towel, A3/A4 prints, square card, fridge magnet and wooden coasters.

Abbi at Puddles in Berwick has had some of these items in her new sea-themed window for the last week now and has just placed a reorder, so they're clearly catching people's eyes! If you've been past the shop and spotted them — or if you've been tempted online and not quite got round to it — the full range is in the shop now. Link in bio. 🐠

(Puddles is at 18 West Street, Berwick-upon-Tweed, by the way — well worth a visit if you're in town.)

A question I get asked a lot: "Do I need to be able to draw to come to one of your workshops?"The answer is no — and I r...
01/06/2026

A question I get asked a lot: "Do I need to be able to draw to come to one of your workshops?"

The answer is no — and I really mean that, not just as a reassuring thing to say to get people to book.

Green Sketching isn't about making beautiful pictures. It's about slowing down, going outside, and noticing what's around you through the act of drawing. The sketches are almost beside the point — it's the looking that matters.

I’ve written a behind-the-scenes blog post about what actually happens at one of my Introduction to Green Sketching workshops — the exercises, the atmosphere, and some words from people who've been along. The link is in my bio if you'd like a proper look before deciding. Or just drop me a DM with any questions you have.

The next one is in Berwick on Thursday 19th June — a relaxed few hours outdoors, all materials provided, no experience needed. Spaces still available. 🌿

Castle Parks Berwick Berwick Style & Culture Magazine Visit Berwick-upon-Tweed

I've just published a new blog post and it's a bit of a personal one. It's about imposter syndrome, long and winding car...
28/05/2026

I've just published a new blog post and it's a bit of a personal one.

It's about imposter syndrome, long and winding career paths, and how nearly 20 years working in history, heritage and communications turned out to be surprisingly good training for becoming an illustrator.

It's also about a Georgian maid costume and why I still believe that drawing is a skill, not a talent — and what that means for anyone who thinks they can't draw.

Link in bio if you fancy a read.

What do herring, charcoal drawing and Medieval Berwick have in common?They all featured in my May newsletter, along with...
27/05/2026

What do herring, charcoal drawing and Medieval Berwick have in common?

They all featured in my May newsletter, along with three outdoor sketching workshops in very unpredictable weather, new workshops coming up (including a full-day on a 4,000-acre rewilding estate), and some thoughts on what it actually feels like to be the student rather than the teacher for a change.

Every month I send a behind-the-scenes letter to my subscribers — seasonal stories from life and work in Northumberland, what I'm making and why, upcoming workshops and markets and a few things I think you might like. It's free, it's short, and people seem to like it.

If that sounds like your kind of thing, the sign-up link is https://www.coostie.co.uk/mailing-list

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Berwick

Website

https://drawntonature.substack.com/

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