Why I Love The Travel Sketchbook
Now that the Netherlands is back in a ‘light lockdown’ as they call it, I even feel more thankful than I already did about the trip I was able to take to Greece with The Blue Walk about a month ago.
As I look back at the pages of the sketchbooks (yes more than 1!) I filled, I travel right back there. If you’d like to travel with me, you can watch the sketchbook tour I posted on YouTube a few weeks ago.
Your sketchbook is the best travel companion. Drawing is a great way to document a trip.
When traveling, there are so many impressions, experiences and emotions. By sitting down to draw, you take it all in, and by being in the moment, you’ll capture great memories. So much more than you ever could by just taking a photograph.
Drawing can make you happy and mindful.
As your paper soaks up the ink, you clear your head and forget about time. It slows you down and you notice the details of a place. For me personally, my sketchbook habit is the best way to center myself; it’s a kind of active meditation.
When you draw, all your senses open up. Along with the ink from your pen, the paper soaks it all up. Even when you think you’re not great at drawing. It’s not about the result of the drawing, it’s about taking the time to be where you are. When you look back at your travel sketchbook pages, you will be reminded again: you’ll feel the breeze on your skin again that you felt at the moment of sketching. You remember the sounds that were around you, the temperature… even the smells will come back to you.
It’s the big and the little things that are absorbed in your travel sketchbook. There’s no need to make ah-ma-zing paintings of the landmarks you visit or the sunset views. You can use your sketchbook as a way to relax and ease into the place where you are.
Maybe you sketch the glass of wine in front of you while you are waiting for your meal at a restaurant with a beautiful view. It might feel a bit overwhelming to try and capture that whole view on your page, but with that quick sketch of the glass, you are capturing the moment and the vibe. You might scribble a few notes next to your drawing about the place, the adventures you had that day, the kind waitress that brought the chilled wine.
Later when you are back home and back into the groove of daily life, and you look back at the page, everything will come back to mind, including the stunning view that wasn’t even depicted on the page. It’s in there.
You don’t need to be an accomplished watercolor artist or a seasoned sketcher to document your trip in a travel sketchbook. Small doodles and sketches add up to build the story of your adventures. It’s a bit like keeping a diary or a travel journal, but instead of writing you’re drawing.
It can even already start before you reach your destination. It’s the best way to kill time in airports, train stations, bus stations, on trains, boats and planes. There is always something to draw. Waiting time could feel like wasted time, but with a sketchbook at hand, your time is spent well.
On a trip you can choose to go from one tourist landmark to the next, taking quick selfies along the way. It’ll be a fun photographic report to share with your friends and on social media. But with these quick pictures, are you really capturing valuable moments and memories? What if you decided to see fewer places and spend a little more time in one location instead?
When you draw, you need to really look, and when you are looking, you start to see much more. You’ll see so much more that way than if you’d taken the hop-on-hop-off bus. Allow yourself to experience the vibe of a place, and soaking it up by capturing it in your sketchbook.
It’s also a great way to meet locals and maybe even make some friends. People who may be curious and excited to see an artist at work - have a chat with them. You might be surprised by things you’ll learn, insider tips you’ll get, or even invitations you might receive.
For me, keeping travel sketchbooks on vacation has changed my life. All of the above has contributed to that, but also a change of mindset I guess. I would often buy sketchbooks for vacations, in which I would report on the trip in writing and drawings, and I would also glue in receipts and entry tickets – little souvenirs that all contributed to capturing memories and emotions. I would often only half-fill those travel sketchbooks, because the vacation wasn’t long enough to fill the whole book. After coming home from a vacation like that, I thought, “Why don’t I just keep going? I also have receipts and tickets here in Amsterdam. I experience things that I can draw.” And as it turned out, keeping a sketchbook is rather addictive. It is exciting to move slowly but surely through the book, to look back at everything you’ve drawn, and see how you’ve developed.
You don’t need much to do it. Pack a sketchbook and one or two pens. You could add a handful of colored pencils or maybe a small travel watercolor box. Combined with a waterbrush (which is a plastic brush that holds water in the handle), you’re all set.
And if you find you don’t have something with you that you need, that’s a good excuse to look for a nice store with drawing materials. Sometimes visiting that kind of store is even more fun than visiting a tourist site, and you’ll get a great souvenir that you can start using right away.
I am so lucky to be able to combine travel and work. I am already looking forward to the next trip on which I will travel and teach. Working on some great plans right now to go to the German forest with a group next spring (more about that soon!) as we speak. And in September next year, I’ll be teaching for a week in the French Riviera! It’ll be a wonderful trip, hosted by the amazing hosts of The Blue Walk, Suzy and Jeannette. Can’t wait!
If you’re interesting to join, that would be awesome. All info about my France trip is here. Don’t wait too long because the group is filling up quickly!
In the meantime, I’ll flip through my sketchbook pages and enjoy the memories that radiate from them.
