Tired Feet, Full Sketchbook

For my very first trip overseas, I did something wild: I bought an expensive sketchbook.

I’ve always preferred inexpensive art supplies, as I don’t feel guilty for using them up quickly.1 But now that I’m a person who takes transatlantic flights, I thought, maybe it’s time to shift my mindset.

So here it is: a Leuchtturm 1917 in brilliant banana yellow.2

My wife Kayla and I took an overnight flight from Denver and arrived, bleary-eyed, to a bright afternoon in Rome.

I started drawing timidly. With black pen only. Fueled by tiny cups of coffee.

My second morning in Rome I made the mistake of drinking four shots of espresso, trying to equal my daily coffee dose and account for a lack of sleep.3

Rome was as beautiful as advertised.

The towering pines.

The majestic churches.

The cars the size of an espresso mug.

And so many masterpieces of art.

From the High Renaissance…

To the, um, modern.

I’d been summoned to Rome to attend the Ritratti di Poesia, a daylong poetry festival. I did my best “famous American poet” impersonation onstage. The host, Vincenzo Mascolo, was warm and welcoming, as were the rest of festival team.

They featured some of my work from my books POETRY COMICS and THE ART OF LIVING in a gallery space at the event.

Most of the poets read in Italian. I drew the presenters since I couldn’t understand their words.

Afterward I caught sunset in the windows of St. Peter’s.

The next day Kayla and I trekked from our hotel to Villa Borghese park. After putting on my famous American poet face the previous night, I apparently forgot how to smile for a selfie. Thanks to Kayla for taking photos while my head was buried in my drawings!

I was still cautious about ruining my designer sketchbook with haphazard drawings.

Then, a breakthrough: I put away my black pen I took out my colored markers. And I scribbled a tree.

Soon I was capturing every tree I saw.

And every overly friendly seagull.

We stopped in a museum to see a famous painting by Giorgio de Chirico, a famous Italian artist and the subject of one of my comics in my book THINKING ABOUT THINKING.

The painting was gone—off to an exhibition in Milan. Oh, well.

The combination of my technicolor Tombow markers and the bright Roman skies kept feeling right. After seeing Mass and a Michelangelo sculpture at San Pietro in Vincoli, I tried to capture the morning light.

The next day we took a train to Bologna for the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. I drew the whole time, except when we passed through the mountain tunnels.

Overcast, drizzly Bologna was in stark contrast with sunny Rome. The architecture was darker, more imposing.

The watchtowers leaned dangerously.

It felt like I’d wandered into a de Chirico painting, minus the dramatic lighting.

I switched back to black and white in my sketchbook, ordered a single cappuccino, and watched cyclists and pedestrians move across a rainy plaza.

At the Bologna Children’s Book Fair I soaked up illustration inspiration.4

The next book in the Poetry Comics series, FLIGHTS OF IMAGINATION, was featured prominently in the Chronicle Books booth.

And I found the entire Incidental Comics series and my picture book BLUE FLOATS AWAY (written by Travis Jonker) in the Abrams Books booth.

When we returned to Rome, I was determined to fill my sketchbook. I started with the view from our AirBnB.

That evening we went for a walk. “We’re at the Colosseum!” I texted my family.

My brother Jonah texted back: “That’s where they filmed Gladiator 2. Sad to see it in such bad shape now.”

Thanks, Jonah.

I returned to draw the famous stadium the next day.

I kept my drawings safely within my yellow pages.

Rome is full of tourists with backpacks and locals with stylish clothes and miniscule cars, but the real residents of the city are the seagulls.

I want to make a picture book starring the gulls of Rome, if only to justify taking a trip back to Italy soon.

The rest of the trip was a literal marathon of walking and drawing.

Almost hit 36,000!

Okay, enough words for now. Here are some more drawings. By this time I had no reservations about using up the pages. And I’d also learned to limit my daily espresso doses.

The only thing that deterred my sketching was an afternoon rainstorm.

I sat under the awning outside Santa Maria in Trastevere and drew the puddles and raindrops.

The storm cleared and we walked the empty botanical gardens. For the first time in all week, we were alone in the quiet.

One last sketch before heading home…

Sketchbook complete!

Farewell, friendly seagulls.

Farewell, Rome.

My feet are tired and my sketchbook is full.