I’d love to create another calendar tea towel for 2026, but I need your help to decide what the theme should be! I’ve narrowed my ideas down to five themes and given a sense of the sorts of illustrations that might be included, but can you help me by voting for your favourite?

As we kick-off another new financial year, I thought it would be helpful to reintroduce Coostie Illustration and Design, with a little bit of information about what I do and how you can work with me.

I'm Ali and I love illustrating British wildlife, bringing a wide range of flora and fauna to life through my drawings and paintings, where I aim to capture the spirit and form of birds, plants and animals in watercolour, pen-and-ink, or coloured pencil.

Green Sketching is a simple, pressure-free way to slow down, connect with nature, and rediscover your creativity. You don’t need to have any artistic skills, or be a nature buff able to recite the names of birds and plants. Here’s why I think you should give one of my workshops a try…

In celebration of World Whale Day (16th February 2025) I’ve created this watercolour illustration of three types of whale that can be seen off the coastline of Northumberland (as well as around the UK more widely). Here’s a little behind-the-scenes look at how I created the illustration.

The RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch is fast-approaching (24th - 26th January 2025) and I thought I’d take this moment to share with you why I love taking part in this citizen science project to observe and record the birds that visit my garden, what I do to prepare and how the activity inspires my art.

I'm really pleased to be able to announce that earlier this year I applied to Create Berwick for funding to support the development of some new workshops and I was awarded a grant! With thanks to Create Berwick's funders - the North East Combined Authority and Northumberland County Council.

My creative practice is fuelled by my love of the natural world, with much of my self-led illustration and design inspired by nature-based subjects. I really wanted to be able to support others to explore their creativity and help them to reconnect with nature to improve their wellbeing.

Thanks to this funding, I'm now a certified 'Green Sketching Ambassador' and I thought I'd just share a little about what exactly Green Sketching is and why everyone should give it a try.

When I started teaching myself to draw and paint as part of my mid-life career change, I seemed to unconsciously gravitate towards wildlife and nature subjects followed by a gradual focus on illustrating birds - specifically British birds - in all their variety.

I’ve worked hard to identify suppliers that share my values around environmental responsibility; all of the companies I work with are based in the UK and take sustainability seriously. I’ve tried to keep to a small range of either beautiful or functional (or both!) items like mugs, tea towels, coasters, cards and prints.

Old trees always seem eternal, like sentinels to history that stand in the landscape. It can be awe-inspiring to stand beneath the canopy of a tree that is hundreds of years old and consider who planted it and how different the world was then.

Regularly spotting so many coastal birds is the inspiration behind my newest collection, celebrating seven species that can often be seen here. The collection features detailed watercolour and pen illustrations of Arctic Terns, Brent Geese, Cormorants, Eider Duck, Oystercatcher, Purple Sandpiper and Puffins.

I’m still enjoying participating in this challenge and have been lucky with some of the prompts that they featured the types of illustrations/motifs I’m naturally drawn to (like food and things in nature). Quite a few of the illustrations for patterns in this quarter have made their way on to Art Prints and Cards in my shop, which is a great way to get additional benefit from participating in the challenge!

With coast and countryside literally on the doorstep, Berwick-upon-Tweed makes an ideal base for exploring a wide range of natural habitats and - as a car-free family - we’ve made the most of the excellent rail and bus connections to get out and about a bit further afield.

You can tell I'm a fan of the Bloody Cranesbill, as I included it in my logo - I wanted to demonstrate that a lot of my work is inspired by the natural environment of Northumberland and that I tend to draw detailed pen illustrations - and this flower answers that admirably.

I love to illustrate simple steps that people can take to live a more environmentally-friendly and sustainable life and incorporate this into my repeat pattern design.

’ve written previously about why I decided to participate in the #52patternsayear challenge to create a seamless repeat pattern every week for a year. If you’ve read my first post about the experience, you’ll know that I had a somewhat mixed success rate in terms of being able to create my weekly patterns - but I’m pleased to be able to say that I haven’t missed a week in my second quarter of the challenge!

Did you know that that infamous breakfast dish - the kipper - is a smoked herring? But why did I choose a herring as the inspiration for my latest artwork?

When it comes to learning new things, do you prefer to develop your skills using books, or by taking a class?

I decided to commit to the process: 1 seamless pattern (and associated artwork), created from scratch each week and shared with the Instagram challenge hashtag for a whole year!