Emily Moncuit | The Creative Compass | Immersive Drawing Retreats

Make the Book.
Then Fill It With Edinburgh.

A Creative Compass weekend retreat for sketchbook artists in one of the most drawable cities in Britain
Edinburgh. A Victorian and Historic Drawing Weekend.
Friday 25th to Sunday 27th June 2027

5 spots left!

A Weekend You Couldn't Arrange on Your Own

There is visiting Edinburgh, and there is drawing it.
Most people walk the Royal Mile, photograph the Castle and go home.
This weekend is designed for something slower and far more personal.

Over three days we will make our own sketchbooks by hand with a professional bookbinder, carry them out into the city, and fill them with Edinburgh seen from places most visitors never think to stand.

Then, on Sunday, we step out of the stone city and into its Victorian gardens.

Every part of the weekend has been chosen because it is something you would not experience simply by booking a trip yourself: rooms that rarely open their doors, views that take local knowledge to find, and the quiet pleasure of drawing in a book you made that same morning.


Come home with a book that holds the whole weekend, made by your own hands.

The Creative Compass Method

Every retreat is built on the same four directions, so that what you learn in Edinburgh travels with you wherever you draw next.

  • Observe.
    Slowing down long enough to really see a place.
  • Interpret & Simplify.
    Turning a busy city into shapes, light and decisions.
  • Express Your Style.
    Letting your own marks lead, not a reference photo.
  • Reflect and then...Repeat! 
    Returning to a subject and taking it further.
By Sunday afternoon you will have used all four, on location, in a sketchbook you bound yourself.
Write your awesome label here.

You Don’t Need More Tutorials.

You need time on location, with guidance beside you, in a place that asks something of you. A weekend like this compresses months of drawing alone into three days of practice, feedback and confidence.


• Drawing in public without the self-consciousness

• Simplifying a complicated city view into a page that works

•  Moving from architecture to botanical detail and back again

• Making decisions on the page, quickly and with intent

• Filling a sketchbook that feels like yours from the first page to the last

Confidence comes from repeated practice with the right guidance. That is what this weekend is for.

The Weekend

Edinburgh as Your Studio

Friday late afternoon to evening
Welcome Dinner and Bound and Drawn: the City
We begin together making the sketchbooks we will be drawing in over the weekend with a professional book binder. Followed by a tour of our venue and then dinner in a private room in the heart of the city at Riddle's Court. A chance to meet the group, settle in, and hear what the weekend holds, with a first glimpse of the papers and materials you will be working from on the weekend. You will choose your papers and covers, fold, pierce and sew, and leave with a book designed for drawing: one that lies flat, takes watercolour, and travels well.
Saturday

By Saturday morning our sketchbooks will have dried and we will be focusing on the historic Victorian setting of the heart of the city during the morning. 

After lunch together, the afternoon is a walking route through a series of remarkable viewpoints, all close together, each looking at Edinburgh from a different angle. Framed views down hidden closes, wide panoramas from above the rooftops, the Castle rising above the old streets. It is Edinburgh from a unique perspective, and a lesson in how much a single change of position transforms a drawing.

Sunday
The Victorian Garden
On Sunday we leave the stone city for one of Edinburgh's great Victorian gardens. A guided tour introduces the history of the place before we settle into a day of teaching and slow botanical drawing: how the Victorian botanical artists built a page, studies under glass, and a full spread of a single plant at the height of its June flowering.

After Sunday lunch, we close with a final drawing that brings the two days together, and a sketchbook circle where every book is laid out side by side. We finish at 5pm.

Townscape on Saturday. Botanicals on Sunday. One book, made by you.


Hi, I’m Emily...

I have sketched every day since 2019, and my travel sketchbooks are where my own practice lives. What I teach is trust on the page: the belief that you can sit down anywhere and make a drawing that is honest and yours.

In my experience, what holds most people back is not a lack of ability. It is hesitation. I have guided hundreds of artists through challenges, courses and retreats, and I have seen again and again that the right space, with the right support, is what turns a hopeful drawer into a confident one.

Give yourself the space, and the drawing follows.

Why Such a Small Group?

Only ten places. Places are limited to a small group of no more than ten artists. That is deliberate.

• You are seen, and your work gets real attention

• There is time for the deeper questions

• Your own voice is encouraged, not lost in the crowd

• We can go places a larger group simply could not


By the End of the Weekend, You Will...

• Have bound your own sketchbook by hand, and know how to make another

• Approach a busy city scene calmly, knowing where to begin

• Understand how viewpoint changes everything in a drawing

• Have tried the methods of the Victorian botanical artists

• Have filled a book with drawings of Edinburgh you are proud of

• Leave with a clear sense of your own style and what to practise next


From 

“I wish I could draw like that…”

And start saying:

“This is how I draw.”

Pre & Post Retreat Support

Your transformation does not begin on arrival — and it does not end on departure. Included:

Guidance before the weekend on what to bring and how to prepare
Mindset and sketchbook preparation, so you arrive ready to draw
Post-retreat integration, to keep the momentum going at home
Continued refinement through the Creative Compass

What's Included

Your Complete Experience.

  • Friday welcome dinner in a private room
  • A private bookbinding workshop with a professional bookbinder, with all materials, to make your own sketchbook
  • A guided afternoon of drawing from Edinburgh's most remarkable viewpoints
  • A guided tour and a full day of botanical drawing tuition on Sunday
  • All food on Saturday, and Sunday lunch
  • Entry to the venues we visit
  • Three days of teaching and individual feedback from Emily

Accommodation and travel to Edinburgh are arranged by you.
We will share recommendations for places to stay close to the city centre.

Your Place

£1,500

per guest
A carefully curated, small-group weekend of making, drawing and teaching in Edinburgh.

A one-off price for the whole weekend.
Accommodation is not included.

A payment plan is available, with flexible staged payments. Details are shared when you sign up.