An Illustrated Journey

There are two aspects of travel drawing: one that’s passive and the other active. With the passive, you draw wherever you end up, whether it’s waiting on a plane or for a friend in a cafe. Then there are the places and events you actively seek out to draw. I started off drawing in those in-between passive moments, like at meetings, on the train or waiting for appointments. More and more I now like to plan where to draw and turn it into an adventure of finding new places to see and hopefully get some type of narrative into my drawings.

I always prefer sketching in public places and love to be seen, asked and criticized.

perhaps the result of searching for the opposite of my day-to-day surroundings as freelance illustrator working always in the studio.

As a result, they may be too personal to appeal to anyone else. My hope in showing them is to inspire others to create their own illustrated journeys.

Drawing from life while on a trip is always a dicey proposition. I am a bit self-conscious when I draw in front of other people, so I don’t like drawing anywhere people can easily see what I’m doing. I have to be very creative about when and where I draw in public spaces in order to feel comfortable.

I bought a tube of white gouache and loved playing in dual tone.

Drawing slows me down.

Make sure you work in your book every day until it becomes a habit that you look forward to. There will come a day when you don’t even have to think about it and your authentic voice will emerge on the page before you.

Not only does the careful observation of a place help me as a designer, but I also love the fact that I can look back on a drawing and remember every last detail of the moments in which I was constructing it.

There’s something about drawing that makes a person approachable, and I love that.