last i wrote i was experiencing travel journal anxiety. the accordion book i made was lovely, but not for me. so i solved that problem by deeding it to my sister for HER bavarian travel journal. this is the leather cover i made for it from some scraps i had. i also acquired 2 vintage german ski badges on ebay very inexpensively.
no, i needed something larger with more freedom to draw, write, collage, and paint on the pages. i immediately thought of the stillman & birn softcover sketchbooks, so i ordered 2 – each of a different size containing different paper. the alpha and zeta editions. surely one would work, but no, alas they did not. the alpha was the wrong size and the paper too thin, and the zeta was just the right size (8×10), but the paper too smooth. at this stage in my travel journal life, i have clear preferences to which i am a slave.
thus it was that i ordered a 3rd s&b. this time an 8×10 softcover containing 28 heavyweight, ivory, cold-press pages. when it arrived i knew it was just right and this bear was v.v. pleased.
but what to do with the other 2 softcover sketchbooks? what indeed?
the large one is my new illustrated journal. how is an illustrated journal different from a sketchbook you may ask? i’ve asked myself the same question.
my sketchbooks occasionally have notes or random, usually irreverent thoughts. whereas my private daily writing journal is usually just writing. the thing is, sometimes i include rough sketches of the cats or a diagram or something i’m puzzling out. i’ve noticed that when i read back over my journals the pages with the scribbly drawings are my favs.
for now, on the days i just want to write i use my trusty writing journal, and the days i want to have a picture to go along with the writing i use my new illustrated journal.
these pages are not really intended for public consumption, but i show them now as i think aloud about the process.
we’ll see, how they evolve over the next 56 pages. i suppose in order to be a true illustrated journal the images i’ve drawn would relate directly to the writing. there i go, thinking too much.
perhaps in time, this will make more sense to me and i’ll be able to write more coherently about it.
what’s up with the cars?
the smaller s&b sketchbook not slated for my travel journal is my new car sketching journal. it lives in my car along with a tiny watercolor palette and water brush. but, that’s not of course why there are cars on the page above.
almost daily in the last couple of weeks, i pull over and get in some practice drawing from life.
we’re renting a car in germany and i hope to have many car sketching experiences while i’m there.
here in LA when i pull over to draw, i’ve been noticing all the cars. i’ve been including them in all their quirky strangeness, which led me to launch myself into a self-study course focusing on cars.
huh? whaaa?
full street scenes with sidewalks, cars, houses, trees, electric poles, are confounding. apparently, i like confounding myself.
this practice may or may not all pay off in germany, but either way i absolutely LOVE sitting in my car trying to draw what i see. i am immersed in the moment and have such a feeling of elation when i’m in the process.
as soon as i finish this post i’m heading out the door to go find a street scene!
oh, and in case you’re wondering what happened to the 2nd bavarian ski patch from ebay i mentioned above…
i present my 8×10 bavarian travel journal slash sketchbook.
ready for action!
in the coming days i’ll show you how i’m adding dates, some collage, maps, etc., to the pages before i leave.
the countdown to summer has begun. i’ve been swamped at school trying to get everything packed up, wrapped up, and my 31 students culminated and on their way to middle school.
thankfully, this holiday weekend has given me a chance to zip out a dispatch to you. i hope you’re peachy keen. i’m imagining you off on wonderful adventures on the orient express. sailing away on your little boats to faraway ports. packing your caravans for a month-long, boreal rainforest trek to british columbia. drinking pots of tea, strapping on your rollerskates and rolling down your driveways, strolling along windswept cliffs by the sea.
ahead lies summer and a long glittering passage to a new (but brief) chapter of life. here’s hoping we all make the most of it and one of us finds the pause button to make it last longer.
please say you will.
Hey there Missy Miss Moss of the mostest! I loved this posting so very much. Your sketching is really glorious and splendid and I’m quite smitten with your collection of cars aka street sketches. They are poiye-fect!!!! uttered with much glee and elation, in my opinion. I’m personally still basking in the throes of my recent trip west visiting your fair city and Palm Springs. Im guessing at the time of this comment I’m going to believe school is done and that summer has spread it’s wings out for you and that you are enjoying your freedom. xoxo
Love the cars. You have such a creative soul.
I am redoing my whole garden and heaven only knows what possessed me. it will be wonderful when it’s done if I survive the process.
I want this all done so I can sit back and enjoy. I want to paint the summer away.
Glad to catch up with you; I’m recently back from Scotland (again!) and it never disappoints. Love, love that country – I hope you may add it to your excursions one day.
I brought the Stillman and Burne Zeta on the trip, because I tend to do a lot of writing so the smooth paper is a preference. I did find the paper a little thinner than I’d been anticipating though – still on the hunt for the perfect thing. Where I need to get more confident is the actual ‘coloring in’ the drawings I did! I like pen and inky things, but I tend to lack confidence and thus blow it (at least according to me) when I add the watercolor. As soon as the Latest Update to my life is done, I’ll be endeavoring to practice ‘just adding color’ like nobody is watching!
Which brings me to Latest Update: I’m moving house (about 20 miles up the road) to a condo in a quaint little Old Florida town nearby. As I’ve not moved in 22 years, this purging and packing business is exhausting. I’m donating nine boxes of random art supplies to a local friend who is a high school art teacher. It means admitting to myself that I’m not making things I was all jazzed about making 8 – 10 years ago, but I know that her students will greatly benefit from it. As a friend of mine said yesterday, “You didn’t give up on fulfilling your commitment to make things, your life just got really re-prioritized.” And, instead of wanting to make every mixed media project featured in the magazines, my focus narrowed to travel sketching – I think I’m really ok with that!
Hugs to you and the cats!
your scotland trips sound divine. i want to go to there! good luck on the move. a pain in the tuchus but so nice once your settled in!
Great idea to car sketch and love your cars. I can just imagine the slant-headed people who drive them.
I forgot this: my friend was in Switzerland a few years ago. She was just coming from a hike and she really had to pee. She actually asked total strangers if she could use their bathroom. They were very kind and let her use the loo!
Hi Mary Ann–I loved your latest dispatch. Your sketches are amazing and really good. You are a very good artist with a style that is unique. I wish you and sis a great vacay in Germany.
As for us, Dave is still not 100%. We’re planning to do a bunch of day trips to “interesting” villages in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. I’m staying at my mom’s for a few days on June 23rd while my brother is in Miami for a few days. I visit her once a week and stay over a couple of nights. She’s 92!
I might visit my friends in Dallas during Thanksgiving. It’s too hot in the summer!
xoxo
Deb
I love how you prepare for your trips thoughtfully. It never occurred to me to create a scrapbook journal ahead of a trip. What a great way to learn about the country you will be visiting and make what you see more meaningful.
The poem you posted in the reply section is inspiring.
I went lo tech with my most recent trip journal using rubber bands to bind my pages to the spine and it worked well for me.
barbara! so good to hear from you. i am eager to return home and go look at your adventures in the cotswalds over on your blog!
Yes, I too would love to know which version of the Song& B books you ended up with as your travel journal. Have been wanting to try them! I’m in London right now, using my TTV inspired journal. It’s been hot and muggy here. Hoping for cooler British weather!
DELTA 28 pg. ivory softcover Stillman & Birn
hot and muggy in london. drat! who would’ve thunk it? still i bet you’re enjoying it v.v.v.much!
It’s all wonderful, all of it!
Bavaria is VERY beautiful. Lucky you.
waving to you. carol and i were just discussing you and budleigh. also i was just thinking how mawnan porth looks like the wild beaches of northern california that i love.
Hooray for this new post! Which has answered my same journal-anxiety question! But which series of S&B is it??? I don’t see one with only 28 pages… INQUIRING MINDS GOTTA KNOW 😉
Ahhh, I think it must Delta. Must get one immediately!
yes yes yes! the 8×10 28 pg ivory DELTA. perfect amt. of pages for 2 weeks worth of writing and pictures!
Hi Mary Ann
Maybe you will have a chance to come by Switzerland. You are alway welcome here, i am not f from Bern. Love your journals
and hope you have a great trip!!!
Have a safe one to you and your sister.
Lucy
thanks lucy! one day i hope to get to switzerland, but i don’t think on this trip. we will be driving into austria then back out again on a road through the alps. can’t wait!
Which machine and needle do you use to see the leather cover?
just a regular needle with regular thread on my ultra cheap brother sewing machine from walmart
What a fun “dispatch!” All your journals are wonderful. My 13 year old daughter reads your posts too…her grandma just bought her a sketch book. I noticed that she was looking at your blog for inspiration. We’re gong camping at Point Reyes and I’ll bet she can find some good scenes to sketch/watercolor while we’re there.
oh jamie this pleases me v.v.v. much! please tell her she will always like the pictures she makes much much more as time passes.
See, you are an urban sketcher, even if you don’t know it. 😉 By the way, when I’m not using my own self-made sketchbooks, S&B is my favorite. Love the papers and especially the softcovers.
– Tina
i love the way they lay flat and also how you can bend them completely back!
So good to hear from you. I was concerned that you had been over run with responsibilities of the closing school year. Thank you for sharing about Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage. We absolutely loved our morning tour last Thursday. Can’t wait to hear and see the sister adventures in the Alps!
such a lovely place to stroll…
Your Garmisch patch brought back memories… Mom & Dad went skiing there when Mom was 7.5 months pregnant with me! I was born in Bitburg.
I’ll have to look for one of my own!
Happy and safe travels this summer ~
oh i love that story bobbie! i bought them from The Patch Peddler” on ebay. garmisch is about 10 minutes away from the village we’re staying in. was your dad in the air force?
No far away trips planned, but I am zipping up to Carp tomorrow for a few days, watercolors and sketchbooks at hand. I want to try car sketching as well as get more comfortable with plein aire. I tend to gather things and then sketch at home. Will be a good break since I’ve been immersed in weaving. Really love those Bavarian ski patches.
do enjoy carp and the sunset seekers and car sketching and EVERYTHING
I am spending the summer in my new garden as I nuture it to life. It brings me great joy to dig my hands in the earth and find my way to a great design.
Will be looking forward to your posts from Bavaria. Have a wonderful trip.
My best to you and your sister.
Rosemary
reminds me of a poem by marge piercy i read so often i memorized 20 or more years ago…
Under a sky the color of pea soup
she is looking at her work growing away there
actively, thickly like grapevines or pole beans
as things grow in the real world, slowly enough.
If you tend them properly, if you mulch, if you water,
if you provide birds that eat insects a home and winter food,
if the sun shines and you pick off caterpillars,
if the praying mantis comes and the ladybugs and the bees,
then the plants flourish, but at their own internal clock.
Connections are made slowly, sometimes they grow underground.
You cannot tell always by looking what is happening.
More than half the tree is spread out in the soil under your feet.
Penetrate quietly as the earthworm that blows no trumpet.
Fight persistently as the creeper that brings down the tree.
Spread like the squash plant that overruns the garden.
Gnaw in the dark and use the sun to make sugar.
Weave real connections, create real nodes, build real houses.
Live a life you can endure: Make love that is loving.
Keep tangling and interweaving and taking more in,
a thicket and bramble wilderness to the outside but to us
interconnected with rabbit runs and burrows and lairs.
Live as if you liked yourself, and it may happen:
reach out, keep reaching out, keep bringing in.
This is how we are going to live for a long time: not always,
for every gardener knows that after the digging, after the planting,
after the long season of tending and growth, the harvest comes.
this is my new favorite poem and I too shall memorize it! thanks for sharing,,,you da bomb baby! Live life as if you liked yourself!
I used to work on my art journal in the car, usually with NPR on, and I loved the feeling of solitude with a view I could change at any time. Hmmmmmm. I’ve got a new little A 6 journal coming soon and I think that will be a great usage of it! Thank you for the reminder.
“with a view i could change at any time.” 👍