susan asked a good question in the comments on the last post HERE and i thought i’d answer it here for everyone.
Now that you are doing so much sketching, how do you fit that into your travel journals? Do you make them in a way that allows you to sketch right into the journal or are you sketching on loose sheets and then attaching them later, etc.? Can you elaborate for me please?
sometimes i sketched “live” into this book. like in the photo above, i just drew what was in front of me. everything else was done from photos that i had taken early in the day. i had my little macbook air with me so i uploaded my photos each night and then drew from those photos. in the last post i had some loose pages i took with me in my bag, sketched on them, then taped them in when i got home. in addition to this larger travel journal, i also took a pocket sized moleskine. i’ll share all the sketches from that soon. some, but not all, of those i shared HERE on my instagram as i was doing them.
still poking around. grateful to have these days all stacked up ahead of me and no school year to plan. unlike several teacher friends who are already back in their classrooms. but i do have more travels to plan and you better believe i’m ON IT. making the most of this sabbatical to see more of the world.
how i loved those smoke signals on the last post. everyone in their summer worlds dreaming, planning, piddling, reading, painting, loafing traveling, living. it’s august and we’re all still here. faces turned towards the sun.
Hi, Mary Ann–Don’t know if you will see this as it’s an older post, but I was wondering about the lines in your journal that you write on. Do you just draw them in with a marker, or do you have a rubber stamp of journaling lines? I’m sort of looking for such a stamp because my handwriting goes off on tangents!
Love, love, love your journals. I have taken two of your classes and am thinking of taking the Venice class, because I am going to London in a couple of months (YAY!) and really want to do a journal incorporating writing, ephemera/collage and sketching. Do you think the class would be right for me? I have only bound one book so far (in your class) and it was a little awkward, but I’m willing to try again!
Best, Sandra
Thank you so much for sharing your travel book. I love to follow you through Sweden and Stockholm in words and drawings. I like your free style.
So much to look at in your Swedish travel journal!
Oh those amazing Hollyhocks!! Gorgeous.
Hi Mary Ann–I love your sketching and your Sweden travel journal!
How I love this journal – something of everything, and so alive with the rich stuff of experiences and impressions!
I’m wallowing in summer rain today, complete with thunder and baggy clouds. The hayfield has been cut and baled, chipmunks and squirrels are sitting on the windowsill and front porch. Finished reading David Arnold’s Mosquitoland and surprised myself, and Hold On by Sally Mann since one of my impersonations is being a photographer. Alas, working on a writing/editing project with a looming deadline. But there’s time for Mary Ann.
Your travel journals are still the best. I love browsing through them. The one from Sweden lures me in to make another one for myself. I moved to the States now, and have not made a book in over a year. Seeing your wonderful pages and writing and photo’s and cutupmaps tickle my fanny. I need to baptise my new American sewing machine sooner or later! Thanks for sharing your books with us.
I’m headed to Italy via Iceland last week of October. will return home mid-January. If there is a spare room where I’m staying I’ll send an invite – really. Just got the tickets yesterday.
There must be something very liberating about traveling alone. A true sense of accomplishment. I don’t have much experience with traveling outside of the US. I do remember feeling lost in a Japanese train station and no one would stop to answer my questions. Eventually, I found two travelers who noticed me standing bewildered in the middle of a city square. They were very helpful. The answers are usually simple. It’s just those moments when fear takes over for no reason at all. I need to try this. Traveling alone to Europe or some other foreign land. I was thinking short trips. Taking it slow. It will make me stronger and more confident.
Can’t wait to hear what’s up next in the travelogue. Where of where will she wander?
Where, oh where, will you go on your next adventure? I can’t wait to hear. Though I am still processing all your wondrous journal pages from Stockholm. This journal seems especially lush and rich and the textures your text creates on the page somehow enhances the sketches in a very special way. And I LOVE your maps! Being an old geography student, maps always thrill me, especially hand drawn ones.
I am in Sunriver, Oregon on our biennial family adventure. All 15 of us, from we oldsters, hubby and me, all down the line to the youngest grand, who is just 3. I look around at cousins playing, riding bikes and scooters, mommys and daddy’s chatting, reading, tickling some child foolish enough to come within reach and I am so filled with quiet happiness I feel like I might pop. I am so gifted, so blessed and, as you said, the August sun shines down on us all. Perfectly.