ink stained hands - issue #1

February 2026

It’s time for a refresh!!

Grab a cuppa, it’s a bit of a long one…

It’s a bit too late to say Happy New Year, and my intention was to kick this off in January but hey ho… here we are!!

At the beginning of 2026 I decided to properly get serious and set some goals and resolutions. As well as all the good intentions, I also did that choosing a word of the year thing.. (except it’s two words) -

My good intentions in 2026 start right here with my (abandoned again) Substack.

By the end of 2026 I was absolutely EXHAUSTED with Social Media. Places that started out as platforms for human connection have morphed into hotbeds of horror. Instagram and FB are now just full of noise, hate, bad news, AI slop and constant ads for something called Wall Pilates or Tai Chi Walking!! (WTH? ... your algorithm may vary!) I couldn’t find the stuff I like anymore but I still manage to waste precious time doomscrolling. I cling on to Insta because I still post graphic recording and illustration work on there, but TBH I’m so insconsistent with it it’s hardly worth it.

I have to use LinkedIn because that’s where my potential clients are, but there’s so much shouting into the void - myself included, and increasingly more AI generated posts that make my eyes itch.

So my resolution for 2026 is to take a step back from most of my social media accounts - I’m looking at you META - I abandoned X a long time ago and thankfully never got into TikTok. I’ll still be posting on LinkedIn but my main focus for connection will be my newsletter and here on Substack. I’m running a bit of an A/B test while I figure out whether to continue with an intermittent newsletter that I send out to clients and about 400 subs that I’ve built up over a few years… or properly getting stuck into Substack. I feel like I have a bit more freedom to let it all hang out here so let’s see what gives.

Some of this motivation has come from joining the SOCIAL MEDIA ESCAPE CLUB which I highly recommend. Seth Werkheiser and the other escapees have given me the inspiration to start slowly unravelling the knots that have me tied to that handheld little slab of sadness and start a revolution in my own little corner of the internet

I’ve had various attempts at writing newsletters in the past and I get a reasonable open rate but I’ve been very inconsistent and and the format has been way too ‘ra ra salesy’ which I hate.

I had a good think about what makes me continue to open the few newsletters I’m signed up to and realised it wasn’t the ‘look at me, look at what I do’ ones, it’s the ones with genuinely interesting content and a sense of being talked to as part of a wider friendly community. Same with the stuff I read here in Substack. So then I had a good reflection about what I want my newsletter to be about, and this was my conclusion…

I’d rather just share the more playful side of my work, the tinkering, the unexpected ideas, the things that inspire or tickle my curiosity that then find their way into my work one way or another… and hopefully inspire people to bring some creative tinkering into their day too. I also want to build that sense of community… a little creative tribe!

So I’m relaunching my newsletter & getting into my groove here on Substack. This will be my creative missive from me to you; curious people who value connection, creativity and the joy of a hand drawn thought.

I chose the name ‘Ink Stained Hands’ because I’m at my happiest if I have ink all over my hands. It usually means that rest of the world has gone quiet and I’m in flow. That’s the state I’m looking for when I’m live illustrating in a room full of people, and also when I’m just playing with lines in a sketchbook.

I will be sharing

Short notes and musings, some from my work as a graphic recorder/live illustrator and also the things that inspire me, hoping that you also find a wee bit of inspiration in all of this.

Typically you’ll get:

🖋 Snippets from my own work (the behind the scenes process and bits that I’m allowed to share... ahhh NDAs!!).
🧠 Thoughts on creativity, connectivity, listening, and visual thinking
🎨 Inspiration for you to pick up a pen, doodle and get into flow (no judgment - it’s a great place to start percolating new ideas for bringing visuals and visual storytelling into your life/work).
🦄 Something whimsical or creative that has inspired me or made me smile recently. (my favourite bit)

* there may be longer or shorter gaps…

Ink Stained Hands will be about creativity and human connection, with lots of emphasis on the human bit.. and the connection bit… which leads me to…

My invitation to you to take a Creative Pause with me…

You may remember in a newsletter before the summer last year I shared with you a brilliant TED Talk by Amie McNee where she tells us about the power of the Creative Act. How creativity brings connection, it’s good for our mental health, it gives us purpose.. it’s a form of resistance.. amongst many other things, and I said that I wanted to create a space to bring people together, well…..

I promised and I’m finally delivering!!

It’s taken me a little longer than I expected but FINALLY I’M DOING THIS!! That idea I had before the summer, to connect people and do creative stuff together. IT’S FINALLY HAPPENING!!

I’m creating a space to connect and get creative together.

The idea is still in Beta, but think of this as your permission slip to take an hour and get creative. You might want to draw, paint, collage, write, knit, crochet.. whatever.. or maybe you just want to hang with a different bunch of people who also need a creative pause. We will meet on Zoom and hopefully we can make this a regular occurrence. I’ll bring some images to inspire us, or maybe you’ll bring your own… it’s all good.

Sometimes it you need a little push in the right direction… maybe you haven’t picked up a pencil since your schooldays… but you always loved art classes. Or your knitting/crochet needles are collecting dust. We aren’t going to be creating masterpieces (or maybe we are, who knows?), it’s about enjoying the simple act of creating something - just for you, and sharing some of the journey with like minded creative, curious people.

Let’s do this!!

Our first Creative Pause will be on:

Wednesday 4th February at 20:00 CET / 19:00 GMT

Yes I appreciate it’s short notice - I set this up a while ago on my newsletter and website, then promptly forgot to promote it here on Substack…

Hit the button below and it will take you to the Luma sign up page with details of the session.

If it all goes well I’ll set another one up very soon.

I look forward to creating with you soon!!

And with that I bring the official Substack issue #1 of Ink Stained Hands to a close. All being well it wont be another six months before I write the next one!

And don’t be shy, drop me a line and tell me what you’d like to see here too!

Ciao for now!!

---