Welcome to Drawn to Nature!
I'm Ali and I'd like to invite you to grow your connections with nature through reading my thoughtful essays and following my ideas for creative play.
I'm a self-taught illustrator and designer based in North Northumberland in the UK. My creative practice is fuelled by my love of the natural world - left to my own devices, I will almost always choose to capture nature-based subjects.
I personally feel a great benefit from sketching the natural environment - whether that is working outdoors sketching in my garden or the wider natural landscape around Berwick-upon-Tweed where I live - or inside in my studio, drawing from reference photos collected on my walks.
I would love to be able to support you to explore your own creativity and help you to reconnect with nature.
The Drawn to Nature community
If you don’t consider yourself an artist (or if you are ‘just’ a dabbler) - this publication is for you. I’m a self-taught artist and a recovering perfectionist and I’d love to show you how drawing and painting the natural world can be easy and relaxing and give you a sense of accomplishment, regardless of your level of skill.
If you’d like to get closer to nature in a more conscious and considered way, then this publication is also for you. Allowing yourself time to just sit in nature - whatever that looks like where you are, from a park bench to a small garden, woodland or something wilder - is always grounding and a pathway to mindfulness in all of its forms.
If you consider yourself to be a curious person, always wanting to learn new things, then this publication is definitely for you, too! I’m very much a magpie, with multiple interests and hobbies, but I find that they all in some way lean on my interest in the natural world and that observing different habitats - whether that is through an artistic, scientific, geographic, or literal lens - means that I always find something new and fascinating to explore.
What to expect from Drawn to Nature
I started this publication because I wanted somewhere that I could bring together my observations of the natural world, from my garden to the countryside, in a variety of formats. I’ll be sharing how I connect with nature through creativity, whether that is through drawing/painting in my sketchbook, taking photographs or writing about nature, as well as a monthly diary of things I’ve observed and recorded.
And I’ll regularly share ideas for simple ways that you can engage with, observe and record nature too, wherever you are.
If you subscribe, each month you’ll get:
At least one piece of nature writing, focused on a particular theme/idea/topic or some of the flora or fauna I’ve been researching
A nature diary-style collection of my illustrations and observations from the month
Something to do - a prompt, recipe, art tutorial, experiment or similar that will help to bring you closer to nature, even if you only have limited time.
I’m leaving all of my content FREE for the time being and not pay-walling any of my posts.
If you’re really enjoying my publication and you’d like to support my writing, I’d be very grateful if you’d upgrade to a paid subscription for as long as you’re able.
More about me
You can find out more about this publication on the About page and about my creative business on the Coostie Illustration page.