Well, 2025 finally finished. That was exhausting, even more than expected. I expect 2026 will be more so. So far it is, but the new year doesn’t really begin until the decorations come down, or the new sketchbook is started. I tried hard to close out my current sketchbook by December 31st, but in the end I had a few pages left, I should easily finish that by December 6th. As for the amount of sketching I did in 2025, let’s just say it was more than more-than-ever. Perhaps there is a correlation between burying myself in my sketchbooks and the state of the world, yes I think there is. 2025 was a very bust year for my sketchbooks though, as you can see from above – the annual sketch list for 2025 this time split into two columns. It’s not a very scientific way of tracking my sketches (and I can really see how the rows started getting slightly bigger or smaller at points, when I thought they were all the same size, having used the same grid for more than a decade). However if you look at the chart below, where I show my annual sketching output since 2013 (again, not going back to do the years before then, that was just when I started to keep track like this), you can see that 2025 makes every other year pale in comparison. Even the massive years of 2019 and 2024 were left behind by 2025. There’s no way 2026 will be as big. For one thing, I have not even blog posted the second half of the sketches yet. Hey, I’ve been busy, and not had the headspace to write. I will get around to it, but the sketches have not stopped.

Here’s a summary of my art accomplishments in 2025 (this feels a little bit like I’m doing an evaluation at work): (a) Loads of sketching, (b) More sketching, and (c) Even more sketching. Looking back at last year’s summary of 2024, there were interviews and articles, and I don’t remember doing anything much like that in 2025. I did have a couple of drawings shown at the Pence Gallery’s annual Art Auction again. I did a lot of travelling – Washington DC, New York City, Pasadena, Portland, a month-long trip away to Europe which included London, Oxford, Berlin and Poland, plus a few trips down to San Francisco. The biggest art even was attending the annual Urban Sketching Symposium in Poznan, Poland, my first one since Amsterdam in 2019. I still need to write about all of that. I also had a brief show of my Burnt Oak sketches at a special event for the centenary of Burnt Oak tube station last March, though I couldn’t attend in person. It would be nice to do another for the centenary of the Watling Estate in 2026 but I don’t know I’ll be able to set that up; I have lots of ideas, but not lots of time. In Fall I led a weekly session of urban sketching on campus for first year students which was a new experience for me. I also started organizing monthly sketchcrawls again, reinvigorated by my time at the symposium in Poland. I did make one of my most ambitious advent calendars yet, the latest of many I have made for my teenager. One of the highlights was the last-minute trip to fly to Pasadena to watch Oasis at the Rose Bowl, that was unforgettable. And of course, as a Spurs fan, watching us win the Europa League from the comfort of my own couch, after 17 years Tottenham finally win a trophy, but it was a year of atrophy. I did a lot of reading this year, a lot of Agatha Christie and a ton of Terry Pratchett – 2025 was ten years since he died so . Also, I did second ever 10k race, and got a personal best time (after my watch stopped working 10 seconds into the run), 10 minutes faster than in 2023. My ambition this year – run a half marathon. We will see…

These are the sketchbooks I used in 2025, not including a few larger individual pieces:

• SKETCHBOOK 59 – Landscape Hahnemühle A5 #2 – September 2025 to present – Davis, Corvallis (OR), Portland (OR)
• SKETCHBOOK 58 – Portrait Hahnemühle A5 #1 – August 2025 to September 2025 – Oxford, London, Gdańsk, Poznań, San Francisco, Pasadena, Davis
• SKETCHBOOK 57 – Landscape Watercolour Moleskine #29 – August 2025 – London, Gdańsk, Poznań (Poland), Berlin (Germany).
• SKETCHBOOK 56 – Landscape Hahnemühle A5 #1 – May 2025 to August 2025 – Davis, San Francisco, London, Oxford (UK).
• SKETCHBOOK 55 – Landscape Watercolour Moleskine #28 – March 2025 to May 2025 – Davis, San Francisco, Washington DC, New York
• SKETCHBOOK 54 – Landscape Watercolour Moleskine #27 – December 2024 to March 2025 – Davis, Sacramento, San Francisco
• Small Seawhite Landscape Sketchbook – February 2025 to July 2025 – Davis, San Francisco, Washington DC, New York, various airports; mostly travel and quick people sketches. 
• Small Brown Stillman & Birn Sketchbook – August to October 2025 – London, Gdańsk, Poznań, San Francisco, Pasadena, Davis, Portland; mostly quick people sketches.
• Small Grey Stillman & Birn Sketchbook – October 2025 to present – Davis

2026 is going to be busy but I’m still tired from 2025, so perhaps trying not to be too ambitious, but still a bit ambitious would be good. Will I ever work on that book? My resolution is to really try to write more, which has been hard in a world where words are flying around like shrapnel. I want to travel, but also to rest, and read more, a lot more. I will turn a big significant age this year. Ok 2026, let’s get on with it.