In this post, we will explore what travel sketching is, why it\u2019s awesome and how you can get started documenting your travels too, whether it\u2019s travelling around your local area, your own country or across the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What if you put your fears and concerns aside, get a sketchbook and a pen and start documenting your travels?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Can you imagine having a library of sketchbooks build up for you to look back on? Can you imagine how great your sketching skills will become if you sketch continuously? Can you imagine showing your friends and family sketches of your travels? And how much better than photographs they are\u2026!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By reading this post I hope it will encourage you to either get started with travel sketching and just trying without fixating on the result. Or if you have tried travel sketching before I hope this post encourages you to keep doing it and to share your sketches with the rest of the world too (if you want to).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s nothing like showing your sketch to someone and seeing their face light up with recognition and delight at a familiar scene through the medium of your pen, paint and mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s easy to feel overwhelmed about taking up an activity such as travel sketching but we all have to start somewhere. I remember the first trip I truly committed to sketching every single day, everywhere I went.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No one ever said anything bad about my sketches or the fact I was sketching, in fact, over 3 months and 6 different countries meeting people from all walks of life I only ever had positive encounters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not saying no one is judging, we are human beings, everyone judges but its exceptionally rare someone will come and be rude or negative to your face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Committing to travel sketching and filling my first book with an adventure was a real turning point in my life. It\u2019s where my obsession with sketching, illustration and travel really took hold. Over the following years, I have sketched more and more. Other people began to notice. As such, I have been approached by many people to paint buildings or places close to their heart, I have been asked to illustrate books, fabric patterns and all manner of other things. All from just doing something I really wanted to do and getting over the fact that I was not going to be good at it at first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I still wonder if I am any good now, I\u2019m not sure any of us really get past that thought. But learning to acknowledge that thought is there and just doing it anyway because its fun and you love it…that\u2019s the key.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A travel sketchbook is a place in which to record your adventures through the medium of drawing, painting or both. You can use one sketchbook for each of your trips or have one book for all travels until it\u2019s full and then start another one.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A travel sketchbook is like a photo album (does anyone remember those)?? It used to be so exciting getting your roll of film processed after a trip, receiving the physical glossy photos and then arranging them inside a faux leather album that looks like an old book to put on the shelf and pull out to show people or just to look back on happy memories. Well, a travel sketchbook is like that but 1000 times more fulfilling to make!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The type of sketchbook you will need depends on what medium you intend to use. If you want to use \u201cdry media\u201d such as pencil, colour pencils, ink etc then a standard sketchbook will be fine. If you want to use \u201cwet media\u201d such as watercolour pencils or watercolour paint, it is best to get a watercolour sketchbook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have a post here on my advice as to which watercolour sketchbooks to consider<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n My first travel sketchbook <\/strong>was given to me by work colleagues, it was so beautiful I knew I wanted to use it for my trip even though it didn\u2019t have watercolour paper in it and I wanted to use watercolour paint. Luckily, I was only using light washes of watercolour paint and the paper was thick drawing paper, so it worked out well enough. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to use alcohol markers, such as Copics or Promarkers for example, make sure you get a mixed media sketchbook with thick pages. Even then you will want to test whether the marker bleeds through the page. If so, make sure you have a scrap piece of paper to put between pages and be aware you will only be able to sketch on every other page on both sides of the paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to use markers but don\u2019t like the sound of only being able to use every other page or want to avoid the issue of the ink bleeding through the page, check out water-based markers such as the Faber-Castell Pitt pens<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don Colley<\/strong> uses these pens to amazing effect and he points out that they don\u2019t smell or bleed through the page as alcohol-based markers do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n