Story Street is a monthly newsletter from children’s author & illustrator Jane Porter. Read on for ramblings about my life as a picture book maker, community artist, comic diarist and growing-in-confidence fiddle player. Story Street is a guaranteed AI-free zone.
This last month has seen me splashing about in the mud showing children how to be citizen scientists, playing my fiddle on the beach, and bundling up and posting many, many delightful mini-comics, otherwise known as zines.
I’ve also had a very special experience on a tiny Scottish island. I’m sworn to secrecy about the location (I’ll tell you if you really want to know) but the week there made me decide to do something I thought I would NEVER, EVER do. Read on to find out what, then keep going because there are some beautiful (and useful) vintage colour mixing charts coming up and you don’t want to miss those.
The delightful bundles I’ve been dropping into postboxes were made by students on my online comics class. Each term we do a postal zine swap, and it never fails to enchant me. If you like the sound of it, enrolments are now open for the autumn term starting on Wednesday 23rd September - AND for the brand new Comics Coaching Club!
“I can’t tell you the absolute joy and creative adrenaline comics class is bringing me!” Jackie, Northumberland
“Just wanted to say how much I am enjoying the course - so great to see other people’s ideas and artwork - and having your input has been invaluable.” Kathryn, Cumbria
“I’ve so enjoyed the classes and am very grateful that I’ve found your approach to encouraging and supporting people to be more creative.” Diana, Hertfordshire
You can find out all the details about how to enrol by clicking the button below:
…you can now also enrol for my brand-new Comics Coaching Club. This involves ten x monthly sessions, running from September 2026 to June 2027 to help you complete (or make significant progress with) a bigger project. If you have a half-finished graphic novel (I know I do), or a just-started memoir, this could be the very thing to help you take the next steps. Click the button below for all the info.
I’ve been learning the fiddle for nine years now. I’ve still got a LOT to learn, but it’s taken me to some wonderful places - most recently a Scottish island with FORESTS of wildflowers everywhere, at an inspirational fiddle retreat run by Mairi Campbell. I’ve found the courage to stand up and play in front of people, I’ve met lots of new friends, and I’ve learned about different regional styles of fiddle music - and tried very hard to relax my bowing arm.
But all along I’ve been playing by ear, as I can’t read music and have a phobia of ‘THE DOTS’. However to my astonishment, last week I found myself resolving to learn not only how to read them, but how to write them too. During the week we had a little concert just for each other, and I played the tune I composed a couple of summers ago on a rowing trip in Ireland (you’ll find it here if you’d like to play it).
One of the many brilliant things about the trip (which included the most delicious cooking and singing by Ada Francis) was the other people, who were all inspiring in completely different ways. Carol from the Isle of Arran is a very talented composer and arranger, and I can’t tell you how proud I was when the following week she sent me a 5-part arrangement of my tune and said it’s going to be played regularly on Arran!
I left feeling moved to attempt to write more tunes, and I even found myself standing in a 2000-year-old-broch (iron age circular fort) humming fragments of a tune to my phone (and some sheep) inspired by this unusual sight in the island churchyard:
That splendid bird also inspired me to write a poem. I hope you enjoy it. I do think the peacock was trying to tell us something...
As if that wasn’t enough colour to thrill you, now take a look at this delightful and also very useful paint chart, purchased at Cameron Robertson’s pop up shop in Berwick upon Tweed. Cameron was selling some TREASURES. This ‘Reeves Chart Guide to Colour Mixing’ originally cost sixpence and was made for schools - what lucky schools. I didn’t discover the secrets of colour mixing until loooong after I’d left school. Just the colour names alone are a treat - isn’t gamboge a beautiful word?
June began with a school visit, and ended with some time on the beach. There was a drawing picnic (part of an illustrators’ weekender packed with gardens, strawberries, bagpipes, a storytime for the utterly charming Salty Dog and Pals with Helen Stephens and Katie Chappell, and naturally, some sketching too):
And then there were some tunes for the solstice with a new friend from the fiddle week. (Yes, I did have to hoover some sand out of those cases afterwards, but it was worth it…)
I hope your July won’t be too overheated. Wish me luck with the dots, and see you next month. Thankyou to everyone who joined in with the discussion after my Story Street Special on the picture book industry last week. If you missed it, you can catch up here:
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