You’re probably traveling this summer or fall. It’s a good time to do it!
Here’s my tip: When you go somewhere, take a sketchbook with you and draw what you experience! Even if it’s just a doodle, you’ll remember your travels more vividly if you’re drawing instead of looking at your phone.
If so, let me know in the comments what you like to draw the most.
When someone paints something, they spend time on it. Yes, that sounds pretty obvious - but what I’m really saying is that they get to know the ins and outs of something.
They improve their observation skills.
I’ve always loved to travel and I liked to draw but I didn’t know about this whole travel or urban sketching thing until I happened upon a video during the pandemic by Taria Dawson, who has released a book in the meantime about Urban Sketching. She had a virtual book of sketches she had done around the world and particularly South Africa, which was appealing to me since I’ve been there so many times.
She currently runs some sketching workshops around the world and is living in South Africa. I would love to go on one of those so feel free to subscribe to this newsletter so I can save up and go!
I also found out later that there is a whole internet culture about sketchbooks that I didn’t know existed. I have since become a sketchbook evangelist.
Sketchers see the way that in a portrait, the lip curls up. They observe. They sit. They ponder. They work fast! They see in the landscape painting the way the shadows get longer as the sun goes lower. All things that you might notice but don’t spend time with.
When it comes to travel sketching, one doesn’t have the luxury of time but even sketching something will make you remember it far longer than taking a simple photo.
NO!
Sure, the Mona Lisa is famous but nobody knows what she really looked like. Urban sketching is more about capturing the moment. It’s sketching, not finished-piecing.
If you’re interested in doing this, the best thing to do is practice at home, using photographs as material. I recommend using your own photos, or Unsplash or some other royalty free, copyright free website like Pixabay.
If you’re not into sketching to begin with, it can sound daunting. Some basic drawing videos on Youtube may help boost your confidence, or you could take a drawing class with an art teacher.
You need a sketchbook.
Get a cheapish, not very large one like this watercolor paper Moleskine (less than 20 bucks to start to play with so that you don’t feel like you’re “wasting” money”) or this Hahnemühle one (my preference) but not too cheap or you’ll get disheartened, quickly.
Purchase a nice pen.
I think the pen really matters so I’d recommend the Sailor Fude De Mannen calligraphy pen. Note that this will give you nice thick or thin lines but you’ll have to get used to it and remember to start on the left, not the right when you are drawing. Or else, you’ll smudge it and end up having ink on your hands. You can start with a pencil if you like, but know that you should graduate to a pen sooner than later.
Add permanent ink to your pen so that you can add watercolor paint to your sketch without the black ink leaking everywhere. Alternatively, you can also use permanent ink pens like Microns. I like using fountain pens so I just add permanent ink to them.
Get a travel watercolor set
This is for the color that you’ll be adding in after you use the permanent ink. You’ll need water so you can either BYO-water or you can use water pens. You can make your own set (buy some basic Daniel Smith watercolor paints) or you can get a pre-made one like Windsor and Newton sells. The paint brushes matter up to a point.
You can see more of my process here:
The idea behind sketching is to quickly capture the feeling or moment. You’re doing it fast, probably doing a sloppy job at first, and then you’re refining it. Later on, you can use permanent ink in a pen and watercolor to complete the picture. You will get better with practice!
When I went with my husband to Europe in 2023, I brought a sketchbook to try to capture some of the moments we experienced. I also had my camera, of course, and that helped me in times when I ran out of time and had to go back to finish the sketch.
You can see the whole sketchbook tour here to get an idea of what I’m talking about!
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