Illustrating Wilson's Tales of the Borders: Workshops, Exhibition, and Reflections

When I received the grant funding for this project back in September, I set myself quite a challenge. A series of original ink illustrations. A set of community workshops. A self-guided walking trail. And an exhibition. Looking back now, with Illustrating Wilson's Tales open at Berwick Library as of today, it's hard to believe how much has been packed into the last six months — and how much I've learned along the way.

Taking the Tales into the community

One of the elements of this project I was most nervous about was the workshops. I've been running workshops for years — in a previous life, on communications, marketing, and fundraising in the charity sector — and more recently, nature sketching sessions for people who want to reconnect with drawing. But running illustration workshops, taking participants through a full creative process from story to finished artwork, felt like a significant step up.

I ran three sessions in total, each with a different group: one for families with children aged 7–12, one for adults, and one for the Berwick and Borders Carers group — a session specifically for carers to enjoy something creative for themselves, without their cared-for person in attendance. Around 25 local people took part across the three workshops.

Illustrating a Border Tale

In each session, we listened to the story of Launcelot Errington and his Nephew Mark — a tale rooted in real historical events and set around Lindisfarne and Berwick — and then participants chose which moment, scene, or element they wanted to illustrate.

I took everyone through thumbnail sketches to develop their composition, character design (including an easy guide to drawing people in proportion), and line and wash techniques to apply to their finished pieces if they so wished.

I always try to run workshops that feel fun and relaxed, with plenty of handout sheets for people who prefer to read instructions rather than take them in aurally. What I love most is watching the shift in people who arrive saying "I'm not very good at art" and leave with something they're genuinely proud of. That happened in every single session.

One of my favourite moments — consistent across all three groups, from the families to the adults to the carers — was when we reached the watercolour stage. Every time, without fail, the room fell completely silent. People just got lost in it. It’s a lovely thing to witness!

The feedback from participants was really telling. One described how the workshop gave them a renewed sense of achievement and restored their confidence in making art. Another said they'd learned something new about local history. A third reflected on the pleasure of pushing themselves to produce a picture entirely from imagination. So many people feel that art isn’t for them - that they aren’t creative in that way, or that they’re not ‘good enough’. I love it when people come away from my workshops feeling the opposite - remembering that art can be fun, and that the joy is in the process and not the end result.

Curating the exhibition

Illustrating Wilson's Tales opened this morning at Berwick-upon-Tweed Library and runs until 25th April — free to attend during library opening hours. The exhibition is spread across three sections: an introduction to the project alongside my nine original ink illustrations; the framed artwork created by workshop participants, along with examples of their rough work and sketches; and a display of original and revival editions of Wilson's Tales from the collection of the Wilson's Tales Project.

This was the first time I'd ever curated an exhibition, or exhibited my own work publicly, and I wasn't entirely sure how I'd find it. As it turned out, it was the part of the project I enjoyed most. Writing and designing the interpretation panels, finding the words to explain the project to someone encountering it for the first time, was probably my favourite task of the whole grant period. And the final physical push of deciding how to group and display everything was also very enjoyable.

Seeing it all together for the first time felt a bit like watching a story resolve itself. Everything that had existed separately — the research, the experiments, the finished illustrations, the workshop artwork, the historical context — suddenly read as a coherent whole. Almost like a book you can walk through.

Visitors can also pick up a free copy of the Walking with Wilson self-guided trail leaflet at the exhibition — a project I genuinely loved working on, complete with an illustrated map highlighting key sites around Berwick connected to Wilson's life and some of his Tales. Designing illustrated maps is very much in my comfort zone, but researching Wilson’s history for this part of the project felt like a lovely bonus.

Looking back

This project has been a real learning experience — and at times, a real struggle. Working on my own illustrations alongside paid commissions meant that this work often had to take a backseat, and sustaining momentum on a self-initiated project over many months is a different kind of discipline to client work. I was also pushing my practice in two directions at once: working with liquid ink washes combined with linework was relatively new territory for me, and illustrating the human figure was something I'd barely attempted before.

But I love learning new things, and I can say honestly that my illustration skills are in a different place now to where they were when this project began.

I'm more confident drawing people. I have a much better feel for what ink can do when you stop trying to control it. And I've discovered that I actually love the curatorial side of bringing a project like this to a public audience. Something I wouldn't have known without the opportunity this grant gave me.

John Mackay Wilson was born in Berwick in 1804 and deserves to be far better known in his hometown. I hope this exhibition is a small step towards that, and that it encourages people, whether local or visiting, to look at Berwick and the Borders with fresh eyes.

Illustrating Wilson's Tales is at Berwick-upon-Tweed Library until Saturday 25 April. Free admission, open during library opening hours. This project has been made possible with funding through Create Berwick, supported by the North East Combined Authority and Northumberland County Council.