Travel journal

^{7 minutes read- grab an ice cream or a cold drink and join me;)}
Most of us take days off for a vacation in the summer. I understand not everybody is that lucky but luckily, the majority is:). Most of us spend at least part of those days somewhere else – at least here in Europe, that’s almost a mandate. Actually, I don’t know if I know anybody who doesn’t. That doesn’t mean we necessarily travel to exotic places (although some do) but we usually at least move towns for a week or two – as a rule of thumbs souther, closer to the sea or to the mountains with lakes – the Alps in our case;).

This lake is from my bullet journal not my travel journal but it just seemed appropriate – a lake in the Alps where many people spend their holidays…

Our politics, cultural climate and the fact that a suitable body of water is relatively close no matter where you live all contribute, I think. In our little country we even have a law that mandates us to take at least two week-long vacation – isn’t that awesome?:) I am not so familiar with America’s holiday habits (or laws for that matter) but as far as I can tell, you guys travel to see family a lot because you often live miles apart (unlike here, where 30% of people live in the same house with their parents in adulthood and much more when they are young adults! Maybe that’s why they can afford vacation :D.)

Vacations – my favourite time – I don’t care that much if I have to work while I’m here – I am just happy to be here – no need to explain I guess 🙂

I do hope you get to experience a little bit of novelty or just a break from your daily routine – however, you like it – in the mountains, in the forest, wandering the scenes of old towns, laying on wonderful beaches or bungee jumping – whatever you love. When you do, make sure to document it somehow – photos and videos are very practical but sometimes they can take away from the magic of the moment when you grab your phone or camera at that special moment when you’re all in the flow. It can feel like you’ve disturbed something beautiful. Or you simply don’t remember to grab for electronics when you’re enjoying good company doing something you love:) That happens to me a lot! That is why I don’t have that many pictures of the things we enjoy the most.

We spend our summers on the little island with very expensive food (and limited selection) – so we drag it along… This is not a comic exaggeration – this is exactly how my alpha man came from the boat… So I drew him all loaded in my travel journal later that day – because in the moment he came, I definitely wanted to help him, not take a picture of him;).

Luckily, there’s a workaround – like you are probably already used to here: there is always a but – but there is always a solution as well;). You don’t have to touch your electronic devices to preserve your memories and record your days. Let me introduce you to the almighty travel journal. That is a sketchbook or an art journal (usually small, for practical reasons) where you draw and write about your travels and holidays. Pretty cool, right?

A page from my last year’s travel journal about a little trip (by foot) we take every year on this little island – at that time with our guests – one of them is an ornithologist (can you guess which one he is in the picture? :D)

Unlike photos that have to be taken in real-time, an art journal page can emerge later that day or even after the vacation if your memories are fresh enough. Reference photos sometimes help – if you took any;). Some of us are not so sure about the construction of ferries, lighthouses etc… 😉 But to tell you the truth, I almost never take them – that’s why I prefer to draw when everything is still fresh or as I go when I can look at some things in real life. But if you want realism, references are your friends, it’s easier to draw from a photo. On the rare occasion, I did so, it shows that the proportions are more accurate – but I’m not sure those are my favourite sketches, though.
The less perfect are usually livelier and more meaningful – because when you think about what you will draw down then you really think about your day and extract the most meaningful event. And that’s one of the reasons that travel journals preserve memories better than photos – they filter out the unnecessary clutter and focus on the important details – those that were meaningful to you.

You don’t have to finish the whole page in one sitting – sketch once, then add ink when you get another 10 minutes and colour when you get to it.

I realize it can be a bit hard to find time to do the whole page at once – so I tend to sketch a few key moments, scribble down a word or two that I don’t want to forget and do the inking, writing and colouring another time if needed. You don’t have to do it all at once! Yes, it can happen that you never get to finish them or that they will wait for a long time for their chance to shine – I still have some pages in my last year’s journal that need to be coloured and many in this year’s that lack inking, text and colour! That’s ok! I am not Picasso (and I’m sure he had some unfinished stuff, too;). I do this to record our memories, not to sell. I don’t need to finish everything. Even the bare sketches envoke memories in me (they wouldn’t in others – I sketch very loosely, nobody knows what I’ve scribbled;). But some pages will get finished and it’s worth it for those;).

Here’s a simple idea about what to sketch: food ate, what you did, who you talked to… More on that to come;)

If challenges motivate you, you can join world watercolour month or just give yourself the challenge to finish a page every day, every other day, every week,…
But what to draw and write about? I’ll show you a flip-through of my last year’s travel journal tomorrow and give you a list of ideas on Sunday not to make this post too long, I’m wordy enough as it is;)

Art journal or sketchbook?

What is an art journal and what is a sketchbook? Are they the same? And what is a junk journal? What about sketch journal? Travel journal? Visual journal? Sketch diary? It can be somewhat confusing at times to see the examples and flip throughs of all these as they can look similar – what’s the difference – and does it matter in the end?

I love the sticker on post’s mailbox saying: “More love letters, please!”

To be honest, I don’t think it matters how you call the thing you make art in – as long as you use it:). But if someone is interested (as I was), here is what I’ve found on the subject i.e. my interpretation of what I’ve read/watched:

Travel to our magical island…

BOTH, art journal and sketchbook are little books filled with art. They can be bough (usually sold as sketchbooks) or hand made from blank papers or from trash paper (that one is called junk journal and is usually not used for sketching as the background is often busy so we need to cover it up somehow). It can be even made from flyers (and I’ll teach you that in the future:). They can both be small or large – although art journals are usually bigger. There are some differences, however – let’s look at those now:

Sewing a dress for my girl and referendum for waters combined…

ART JOURNAL is more of a loose term and it’s more focused on self expression and more often used by crafter’s community so drawing skills are not at the forefront of creating an art journal page. In majority of cases there are different media used so it usually looks more like finished mixed media pieces – single or double page. It often includes stamping and stencilling. The usual technique is to layer the background first with some colour, pattern, stencils, stamps, etc… and than bring in a focal point (a painted subject, collaged image or stamped, coloured and cut-out image or even sticker glued on). Then some techniques are used to tie the background and foreground together – like treatment of the edges, adding ground for the object to stand on, shading, more stencilling, splattering etc…
Colour is usually a very important element and pattern or texture is more often included than not. Often a quote (stamped or written) is added and art journals don’t shy from use of stickers, shiny paint, glitter etc… It feels like a playful approach and since many times other people’s art is used in form of stamps and stickers… it can feel less intimidating to produce something nice. Julie Blazer and Kerry have some amazing resources and you can find a ton of good videos on YouTube: Vicky, Dylan, Susanne, Dina, Lindsey and many more…

A day at the seaside – holidays… very relaxed, very cute… everything I love about life:)

Sometimes more writing is included and when it focuses on your day, thoughts and emotions, it is often called a visual journal, a visual diary or a sketch journal. I love this kind of art journal/sketchbook since there is something special about recording your moments in a visual way – we remember them better and they get a different feel. My examples on this page are all in this range.

Preparing for the holidays…

SKETCHBOOK on the other hand is more for exploring ideas and honing skills – not so much the finished pieces of art. It is the term used by art students and artists and it’s a bit more geared towards developing skills (you can find gesture drawings and studies of one part of the body there, it’s full of studies, there can be many drawings on one page and the background is not always finished). Line is very important but colour is optional. Many times people have different sketchbook they all use at once and keep one for each subject matter: one for gesture drawings, one for birds, one for face studies, etc…
Sketchbooks are also used for roughing out ideas – so media used are usually more sparse – often just pencil and/or ink, many times coloured with colour pencils or watercolour (that method is especially popular with urban sketchers and in travel journals because watercolours and fine liners are very small and light to carry around).

My favourite teacup and editing software:) And lunch, cookies, sports… a normal day…

TRAVEL JOURNAL is a sketchbook with art, inspired by your travels as the name suggests. It is not always done on location, however. Many artists just sketch while traveling and then they complete the pages in the hotel or even at home. It is most often done in ink (fine liners) and watercolour although that is purely for practical reasons and it can be done in any medium you like (Ian Fennelly uses markers and watercolour combined with amazing results and Following the rabbit hole has some amazing videos on the topic).

Drive to the seaside and sketching at the beach (yes, I love ice-cream)…

I’d like to finish with the line from Kerry Woodhouse: “You can call it an art journal, or a sketchbook or a visual diary. Heck, you can call it Gertrude. It really doesn’t matter. Just make sure you take it out and make some marks in it. Often.”

A trip to grandpa…