Sarah Coomer
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sarahcoomer.bsky.social
Sarah Coomer
@sarahcoomer.bsky.social
2.7K followers 280 following 1.2K posts
Edinburgh-based artist/illustrator. Folio Society Book Illustration Award 2022 Shortlist. Heraldic artist for the Lyon Court. Rep’d by Paul Moreton at @belllomaxmoreton.bsky.social Linktree: https://linktr.ee/sarahcoomer
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sarahcoomer.bsky.social
Guardian of the gate
A black and white photo of a Tortoiseshell cat stood up on iron railings between a hedge and a wooden gate. She is surveying the neighbourhood beadily.
November 27, 2025 at 9:49 PM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
Glorified phone doodle (ie I drew it while I was on the phone)
A pencil drawing of winter trees against a setting sun. Long shadows are cast over grass and fallen leaves towards the viewer. The sun shines through the branches.
November 27, 2025 at 4:46 PM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
Neighbours… another Applecross sketch
A pencil sketch of two stone cottages set at an angle against a background of big floofy clouds. There’s a dry stone wall in the foreground and some scrubby shrubs and ferns to the left.
November 20, 2025 at 8:37 AM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
Seasonal marketing post! Print stocks replenished, creepy Christmas cards now available individually (though not THAT many, so don't hang about if you really want a horrible Marley card) and Advent calendars still available (inc free Borley Xmas card!) sarahcoomershop.etsy.com
Six spooky Christmas cards arranged clumsily on distressed black wooden floorboards Four prints of illustrations based on supernatural stories arranged haphazardly on a wooden floor A spooky Advent calendar based on a vintage postcard of Borley Rectory, placed for the purposes of poorly lit marketing photography on wooden floorboards.
November 16, 2025 at 3:14 PM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
Spooky advent calendars still very much for sale... featuring many faves of TV, film and literature. Free Christmas at Borley card with every calendar. Lots of prints and cards also available. Reposts much appreciated. Thanks folks. sarahcoomershop.etsy.com/listing/1801...
A spooky advent calendar featuring a Christmassy Borley Rectory complete with ghostly nun and Harry Price, in the style of a vintage postcard A window of the spooky advent calendar, featuring an illustration based on the TV film The Stone Tape. A window of the spooky advent calendar, featuring an illustration of a scene from the TV adpatation of Lost Hearts by M R James A window of the spooky advent calendar featuring an illustration based on the BBC's The League of Gentlemen Christmas Special
November 13, 2025 at 2:22 PM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
Autumnal Inch Park weirdness #walkies
A clump of tall brown-capped thin-stemmed mushrooms in amongst fallen autumn leaves Some more tall brown-capped thin-stemmed mushrooms in amongst fallen autumn leaves. Weirdly blurred trees in the background. The sky is very blue and the sun is shining. A funny little den made of sticks cable-tied together in a small wood next to a stream. It's completely open to the elements, and in the corner are two tree trunk 'stools', one of which has a very dirty soft bodied, plastic headed baby doll lying across it. The sun is shining and the sun glints off the water of the stream. A sign very amateurishly tied up in woodland in a public park. At the top is a yellow triangle containing an exclamation mark, and a red circle with a little man crossed out. There's a yellow bar across the middle which reads 'Danger Confined space' in white lettering and a red bar at the bottom reads 'Authorised personnel only' in white lettering.
November 10, 2025 at 1:13 PM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
Another pencil crayon study. This was quite tricky and it’s not really finished, but I’m really enjoying using real pencils.
A pencil crayon drawing of a rocky path through some small trees with white trunks. It’s Autumn in the Scottish Highlands and the ferns at the sides of the path are orangy brown, and the trees have already lost their leaves.
November 9, 2025 at 10:04 PM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
Doing some sorting out of things upstairs… just found this postcard that Prunella Scales wrote to me when I was working for a theatre company in the early 2000s. I never met her but it was such a lovely gesture, and it made the day of the lowly admin monkey I was. RIP Prunella S.
A postcard featuring an antique hand embroidered banner with an ornate floral wreath encompassing the masks of comedy and tragedy. The words ‘ACTRESSES FRANCHISE LEAGUE’ are sewn at the bottom. A handwritten postcard to Sarah Firth (ie me) Administration and Tour Coordinator of the English Touring Theatre from Prunella Scales which reads ‘Thank you very much for sending me the copy of ‘The York Realist’ - what a brilliant play, we had a wonderful evening, and I read it through in one go as soon as it emerged from the envelope! Love and best wishes to all at ETT, Prunella S.’
November 8, 2025 at 12:46 PM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
I’m trying to do more traditional art. Here’s a little study of the Applecross house in pencil crayon. I was trying to see if I could recreate the light shining from the window. I think it’s worked quite well, though the cottage is a bit wonky and the chimney was weirdly disastrous.
A pencil crayon drawing of the gable end of a whitewashed cottage at dusk. The light from a square window and half glazed door is cast onto the scrubby grass.
November 6, 2025 at 5:22 PM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
Also saw these fellas.
Two great seals peeking out from a grey slightly choppy sea. There are some rocks in the background.
November 5, 2025 at 8:18 PM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
Autumnal Applecross
A wet path over brown heathery moorland. There’s a boggy pond to the left and beyond the Inner Sound (the bit of sea between the mainland and Skye and Raasay) is the island of Raasay. The October late afternoon sky is cloudy and tinged with orange. The whitewashed gable end of a cottage at dusk. The kitchen light is on, shining through the square window and half glazed door, illuminating the tufty grass outside. A white frisbee decorated with colourful concentric circles on a barnacled rock, almost lying in a rock pool full of black and brown seaweed
November 5, 2025 at 8:18 PM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
Spooky seasonal greetings to you all
A black and white illustration of a slightly hoky haunted type house / castle, loosely in the Scots baronial style with a few Dutch gables chucked in for good measure. There's a ghost coming out of one of the chimneys. Pine forest in the foreground. A sea with a ship-bothering Kraken in the background. Big moon behind house. A black and white illustration of a Victorian woman in high mourning. She walks towards us on a snow-peppered path through a dark graveyard, flanked by tall trees. There are two wrought iron grave markers in the foreground. A black and white illustration of a studio shot from the TV play Ghostwatch. Sarah Greene's face is beamed across 16 TV screens, talking to the studio-based host, Parky, and his guest, a paranormal expert / psychologist (or something). Pipes the ghost can just be seen behind Sarah, to her right, lurking in a doorway. A black and white illustration of a spartan looking bedroom with a single iron framed bed. There's a sash window with a raggy curtain hanging down, and a picture on the wall to the left. To the right of the window is an oval mirror which shows the reflection of a white hooded figure. There is no one in the room.
October 31, 2025 at 9:41 AM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
A closer look at the cover and slip case for A Christmas Carol I illustrated for the Folio Society… The slipcase was based on the kind of late Georgian wallpaper I thought Scrooge might have never bothered to replace in his drawing room, where he encounters Marley’s ghost.
An illustration of a snowy nighttime Dickensian London skyline. Many windows are lit up. To the right in the foreground is a tall figure of a man with his back to us in a long black coat and top hat. He holds a black cane in his left gloved hand and a red scarf he wears blows in the wind. An illustration of a Georgian wallpaper like design featuring small gilt framed paintings interspersed with mistletoe. The background is green. Each picture is different, and all illustrate themes or scenes in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. A Folio Society edition of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, designed and illustrated by me. A hard backed book featuring a man in a long dark coat, emerging from a green slipcase decorated with small gilt frames vignettes.
October 30, 2025 at 7:11 PM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
Those pesky double endpapers in full...
A snowy Dickensian London night-time scene... there's snow on the ground and on the roofs, light in the windows, and smoke coming out of the chimneys. Some men huddle round a brazier. They sky is greenish with a full moon. St Paul's Cathedral peeps out from behind the roofs. A snowy Dickensian London day. It's Christmas morning and the streets are crowded with folks meeting and greeting and shopping etc. Pigeons fly in the morning sky which is tinged with pink. Carol singers crowd round the brazier. A lad draws a turkey on a sled and shows it to a reformed and jolly Scrooge.
October 25, 2025 at 9:23 AM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
The big thing I did this year and haven't been able to say much about up until now is that I was SOMEHOW asked to illustrate the new Folio Society edition of A Christmas Carol, introduced by Simon Callow. Bit of a dream job. www.foliosociety.com/uk/a-christm...
Limited edition of the Folio Society's A Christmas Carol, illustrated by me. It's bound in red leather with embossed gold wreath and lettering, and the box is lined by and illustration of a snowy night time Dickensian city scene. Surrounded by stuff on my desk (pens, glasses, glue etc). The standard edition of the Folio Society's A Christmas Carol illustrated by me. The book itself featured a view of Scrooge in a long black coat with a top hat and red scarf from the back, surveying the snowy London skyline. The slip case is green and has vignettes of relevent scenes and motifs in the style of Georgian wallpaper. One of the vignettes is a circular cut out, so when the book is in the slipcase you can see Scrooge's head through it. Surrounded by the loads of rubbish I have on my desk. An illustration from the first stave of A Christmas Carol. Scrogge is sat by his fire eating his gruel when across his large but shabby drawing room, Marley's ghost appears. An illustration of the fourth stave, featuring Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas yet to come (who is a Victorian widow in high mourning, completely draped and almost invisible in black net and bombazine). They are in a graveyard, which is based largely on St Cuthbert's Kirkyard in Edinburgh. She points to his grave, and he looks at it in horror. There is a smaller gravestone to his right, capped with snow which features a skull in bas relief and the words 'MOMENTO MORI' in a motto scroll over the top. The moon shines from an Atkinson Grimshaw-esque greenish winter sky, illuminating the dome of St Paul's Cathedral.
October 25, 2025 at 8:06 AM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
If you want time to pass REALLY QUICKLY go to a collage workshop…. Went to this Hallowe’en themed one today, run by Edinburgh Collage Club who are not here I don’t think but are on instagram. It was v good.
A spooky collage featuring winter trees, a night sky with moon and bats, and lots of creepy figures and a skeleton hand. There are papery flames in the foreground (it was supposed to be grass but looks much more like flames. Well, stylised papery flames anyway.)
October 18, 2025 at 6:36 PM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
I have a small fleet of Graeme's UFOs, as seen here, badly photographed, and I love 'em.
Four square white-framed black and white prints of UFOs created by the medium of photographic collage (or something)
October 17, 2025 at 1:35 PM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
Borley Rectory Christmas cards now available from my shop! Also I'll bung one in with any advent calendar bought this week. sarahcoomershop.etsy.com
Three Christmas cards featuring a black and white illustration of Borley Rectory in the snow, inc ghostly nun and Harry Price An advent calendar featuring a black and white illustration of Borley Rectory in the snow, inc ghostly nun and Harry Price
October 13, 2025 at 9:04 AM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
Is there a better way to spend Thursday evening than life drawing in an ex-anatomy lecture theatre next to a pub?
A charcoal drawing of a curled up nude woman A quick charcoal sketch of a nude woman kneeling with her weight on her hands A charcoal sketch of a nude woman on peering over her shoulder Three charcoal sketches of a nude woman
October 10, 2025 at 5:30 PM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
It's that time of year again... spooky advent calendars illustrated by me back in the Etsy shop! Borely Rectory Christmas cards with the same design available very soon if you want one / some of those as well. sarahcoomershop.etsy.com/listing/1801...
An advent calendar based on an imaginary vintage greetings card of Borley Rectory at Christmas, complete with ghostly nun and Harry Price An advent calendar window depicting two vampiric choirboys and Mark Gatiss with fangs in front of a gothic arched window. An advent calendar window featuring an illustration of Krampus An advent calendar window featuring an illustration of two ghostly youths peering out of a window
October 5, 2025 at 9:58 AM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
Early autumn Applecross round up
A very dramatic white cloud over the sea towards Skye, lit up by the setting sun. A view of an inlet in the Scottish Highlands fringed with dull orange vegetation. The sky is murky and smeared with rain and the sky is almost a bruised yellow in places. There’s a small dark green tree in the foreground to the left A view of an inlet. The tide is partially out, revealing orangey yellow seaweed. There are dark grey rocks in the foreground. The sky is dull and grey, which is reflected in the flat sea An old sheep’s skull perched on top of the spagnum moss roof of a log store. In the background are two cottages, of which the nearest has a bright red door. There is a dry stone wall beyond the cottages and a hillside in the distance. The sky is cloudy, threatening rain.
September 2, 2025 at 9:26 PM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
Fantastical doodlings #illustration
A black and white illustration in the style of an old photograph. Three griffins (yeah, griffins) fly through a fantastical landscape in front of a huge moon.
August 28, 2025 at 7:39 AM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
Noble houndz #internationaldogday
Two black dogs, a small tufty one on the left, whose bright yellow lead crosses the picture from his harness to the wrist of his person (me) taking the picture, and a larger collie cross in profile on the right, both looking noble and dignified. In the background is a sloping rock plateau thing, the sea with a few islands and a distant hillside. The sky is blue and the sun is shining.
August 26, 2025 at 7:18 PM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
This week’s washing up view
A view from a square window of a ruined byte , some rocks, the sea and a distant mountain. The evening sky is clear and pale blue fading to pale orange on the horizon.
August 16, 2025 at 7:48 PM
sarahcoomer.bsky.social
The Wreck of the Isa, Culduie
A misty view of a tidal flat, with the tide out. On the left is the hull of a wrecked fishing boat. Right of centre are a cluster of four Scots pine trees above a small rock face. There are the roofs of houses visible beyond, and the big hill in the background is disappearing into mist. A close up of an eroded boat hull, scraps of anti foul paint still visible but mainly wood grain, quite orange in colour. There's a rope coming down from the deck of the boat on the right. On the right is the hull of a wrecked fishing boat, with a few ropes and struts hanging down. In the background, on a grassy / heathery bank are four Scots pine trees. It's misty. A closed up of a thick rope and a wooden strut an the side of the hull of a wrecked boat, which is just visible on the right. Out of focus in the background to the left are four Scots pine trees. The hill in the distance is obscured by mist.
July 27, 2025 at 8:00 AM