Travel Journals

Welcome back to my little home on the internet!

Summer is over and with it my scheduled hiatus. I have not yet determined what my blog posting schedule will be, but I am here for now and I am glad you are too!

Over the summer I was lucky enough to take two vacations with my family.

Whenever we go on vacation, I try to keep a journal of our adventures. It is so much fun to go back and read about the trip, and it is easier to remember the details when you have a framework to start in.

The first time I kept a journal was on a trip to Disney World that we took when my kids were very young. I knew that they were young enough that they probably wouldn't remember the trip on their own, so I wrote a brief summary about each day to capture and preserve the memories.

palm tree sketch from Hawaii

©2010 Stacy L. Rowan

Now that the kids are older, in addition to words, I try and sprinkle in a few sketches. The act of sketching more firmly cements the details in my mind and helps me soak up the vacation mood.

Someday I hope to create enough sketches on trips to be able to accurately refer to my travel journals as travel sketchbooks.

banyan tree sketch from Hawaii

©2010 Stacy L. Rowan

There are many artists in the world who keep wonderful travel sketchbooks. I love looking at the sketches and feeling the essence of a place - especially if it is a location that I may not visit in my lifetime.

If you are interested in learning about travel sketching or in viewing other artists' travel sketchbooks, the best place to start is with Katherine Tyrrell's Travel Sketching Squidoo lens.

As always, Katherine has compiled a wealth of information on the subject and neatly organized it for our benefit. She has included information on how to sketch and sketching tools, as well as links to artists who share their travel sketches in books or online.

My only warning about this site is not to pop in for a "quick" look. There is so much good and interesting information there, you won't be able to be quick.

shark & barracuda sketches from Florida

©2012 Stacy L. Rowan

If you are more interested in viewing images then learning about the craft, here are links to some artists whose travel sketches I enjoy.

Nina Johansson - look for the "Categories" drop down menu in the right hand sidebar of her blog and select "travel" to view her travel sketches. Or click this link.

Lynn Chapman - In December of 2011, Lynn took a trip to Kerala in Southern India. Her descriptions and sketches from that trip are wonderful. Try typing "Kerala" in the search bar at the top left hand side of her blog or click here.

Laura Murphy Frankstone is a prolific traveler and sketcher. You can see a collection of her travel sketches here.

Liz Steel is another prolific sketcher who is also well traveled. To see sketches from some of the places she and her friend Borromini have been, click the location tabs at the top of her blog.

I would love to hear from you if you have a favorite artist who shares sketches from their travels - leave a comment below. Viewing travel journals is a wonderful way to see the world without ever leaving your couch!

Days 57 and 58

It might have only been February, but I was reminiscing about warm sunny days and dreaming of summer when I'd see more. That's why I chose to sketch this conch shell. Well that and because I hadn't sketched it yet. Fewer and fewer items in my house are falling into the "haven't sketched yet" category.

conch shell sketch

sepia pen in cahier pocket sketch book

copyright 2010 Stacy L. Rowan

Day 58 was the day of the earthquake in Chile. While I watched the news about the earthquake and the resulting tsunami threat for Hawaii, I sketched this model of an outrigger canoe that my husband and I had purchased on our first trip to the islands 14 years ago.

outrigger canoe sketch

pencil in cahier sketch book

copyright 2010 Stacy L. Rowan

Days 52 and 53

Day 52 was another travel day so I set up a little still life on my airplane table and completed my sketch on the plane.

sketch of still life with flower lei and book

pencil in cahier pocket sketch book

copyright 2010 Stacy L. Rowan

And then we were back home, back to regular life and back to peanut butter and jelly for lunch.

lunch sketch (peanut butter & jelly sandwich and blueberries)

sepia ink in cahier pocket sketch book

copyright 2010 Stacy L. Rowan

Day 51 - Molokai

We decided to spend our last full day in Hawaii relaxing by the pool. I turned my lounge chair around so I could enjoy the view across the water to the island of Molokai. It was such a beautiful view I couldn't resist breaking out my small watercolor set and sketching what I saw.

sketch of Molokai, Hawaii

watercolor in Moleskine sketch book

copyright 2010 Stacy L. Rowan

Day 50 - Banyan Tree

I've been putting off posting the rest of my Hawaii sketches. I've been reliving the vacation by creating the posts and writing about what we did each day. When the last sketch is posted I will have to face that the trip is over.

But at the same time, my new daily sketches are piling up waiting to be posted, so I guess I better stop delaying before I get too far behind to ever catch up.

Day 50 was an awesome fun filled day. In the morning we drove into Lahaina to take a whale watching cruise with the Pacific Whale Foundation.

While waiting to board the boat I sat in the square and sketched a part of the banyan tree. Banyan trees have aerial roots that look like trunks. So this tree looks like it is multiple trees whose canopies grew together.

banyan tree sketch

sepia pen in cahier pocket sketch book

copyright 2010 Stacy L. Rowan

This sketch would look better if I had added color, but I didn't have any colored media with me at the time, so I decided to show it to you the way it was originally done. I may still go back and add color at some time.

The whale watching cruise was excellent. We saw so many whales and at times were so close to them the captian had to shut off the boat engines. We saw fin slaps and head slaps, and competition groups. We even saw one whale breach although I didn't manage to catch that with my camera. Everyone in the family had a fabulous time.

That same evening we went back to Lahaina to see the Old Lahaina Luau - another great pick.  Prior to dinner and the show guests could walk around to different stations. Each station was staffed with an employee who provided information about life in ancient Hawaii and their culture. It was very interesting. And the show that followed was really good with traditional dances and beautiful dancers.

Days 48 and 49

Day 48 was our first full day in Maui. We decided after breakfast to use the day to drive the Road to Hana. I had visions of stopping at numerous waterfalls and watching the kids splash in the pools while I sketched happily away.

It didn't quite work out that way. The waterfalls were much less impressive than the first time I did this tour (about 14 years ago), possibly because of a drought or because the water is being diverted for farming. Whatever the reason, the kids were only in the water once and it was more standing than swimming.

Sketching while riding along this twisty road seemed like a recipe for motion sickness, so I didn't even try. After many hours of riding, we stopped for a late dinner.

One of the lessons I've learned with this Sketch365 project is that if I don't have a small nugget of interest in a subject and I try to sketch it, the sketch will be garbage. When a sketch feels like garbage to me, I don't want to share it here and inevitably I do another sketch so I do have something to share.

Day 48 I was too tired to do a garbage sketch and there was not one single thing worthy in the restaurant to sketch. So I decided to wait and sketch when we got back to the hotel.

And here is where I keep my word about being honest...
When I got back to the hotel I TOTALLY forgot about my sketch. I went to bed without sketching on Day 48.

The next day I woke up early because I was having a nightmare. As soon as I woke up I realized I had forgotten my sketch. I won't kid you, it was a big disappointment. But there was no going back, I had to go forward.

Both of the sketches below were completed on Day 49. I did two to make up for the one I missed on Day 48. It was the best I could do.

penguin sketch

sepia pen in Cahier pocket sketch book

copyright 2010 Stacy L. Rowan

I know penguins are the last subject someone would imagine from a trip to Hawaii, which is why I had to sketch one. This penguin lives in the lobby at the Hyatt Regency Maui along with his friends.

Just a few steps away from the penguins, I found a seat and sat down to sketch this hibiscus flower. There are some beautiful flowers around the Hyatt grounds.

hibiscus sketch

sepia ink in cahier pocket sketch book

copyright 2010 Stacy L. Rowan

Days 46 and 47

We started out Day 46 by visiting Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historic Park. The park encompasses royal grounds and a place of refuge where ancient hawaiians could go to escape death if they had broken a Kapu (broken one of their laws).  This park is beautiful, peaceful and full of history. Definitely worth the visit.

photo of temple at Pu'uhonua o Honaunau

copyright 2010 Stacy L. Rowan

Again we saw turtles, this time in the shallow water.

photo of Hawaiian honu (turtle)

copyright 2010 Stacy L. Rowan

Later, we returned to the snorkeling beach. While there I sketched part of a beautiful lei that my wonderful husband bought for me.

The lei was made from strips of palm fronds which were twisted together. Spaced equally around the lei were plumeria flowers. The best thing about this lei was that when the flowers wilted they could be removed and replaced with fresh ones.

The Hawaiian woman who made the lei told my husband that she learned the art of lei making from her grandmother and she was using materials from trees planted by her grandfather.

sketch of flower lei

sepia pen in cahier pocket sketch book

copyright 2010 Stacy L. Rowan

The next day we moved from the island of Hawaii to the island of Maui. I did my sketch while waiting to board our plane in Hawaii. The Keahole Airport near Kona is my favorite airport. It's an open air airport. All the gates look like huts with thatched roofs. This palm tree was right in the middle of the gate area.

palm tree sketch

sepia pen in cahier pocket sketch book

copyright 2010 Stacy L. Rowan

One of the things I noticed in Hawaii was all of the different types of palm trees. I wish I had been able to sketch more of them.

Day 45 - Beach Views

We decided for our third day in Hawaii to give the kids their first experience with snorkeling. Kahalu'u Beach was recommended as a good snorkeling beach for families.

After we showed up we walked around to check out the beach. We found a turtle sunning on the rocks at the edge of the water. I stood behind a chest high wall to sketch him. It wasn't the most comfortable sketching spot, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to sketch this guy.

turtle sketches

sepia pen in cahier pocket sketch book

copyright 2010 Stacy L. Rowan

Later in the day I did this sketch of the life guard stand and it's surroundings. It ended up being one of my favorite sketches from the trip
.

sketch Kahalu'u Beach Hawaii

sepia pen in cahier pocket sketch book

copyright 2010 Stacy L. Rowan

Day 44 - Light Appetizers

Our second full day on the island of Hawai'i found us making the drive to Volcanoes National Park. There is so much to see and learn in the park. We were lucky to see "an ash laden plume rising from a new crater within Halema'uma'u at the summit of Kilauea." While it is not the lava flow that many people envision when imagining a volcano, it is an active eruption. The scientists and park rangers were pretty excited about this development and their excitement was contageous. The kids said that we must go back if the lava lake ever rises to a level that it can be seen from the top of the crater.

Since I was caught up in the day's sightseeing, I didn't tackle my sketch until we were at dinner. We ate at a Mexican restaurant in the town of Kona. While we were there I sketched our bowl of salsa and empty chip basket. I also added in a sketch of one of the wall sconces.

dinner sketches

sepia pen in pocket cahier sketch book

copyright 2010 Stacy L. Rowan

Day 43 - Palm Tree

Could there be a more predictable sketch for my first day in Hawaii than that of a palm tree? I couldn't help myself as I sat on the lanai watching night turn to day.

palm tree sketch

sepia pen in pocket cahier sketch book

copyright 2010 Stacy Rowan

After my sketching was done, we had a fabulous breakfast along the water then went to find Captain Cook's monument which we saw from the shore of Kealakekua Bay. Further exploring led us to the Painted Church. On our way back to town we bought some delicious macadamia nuts and coffee. Overall it was a fun and interesting first day.