Capturing a Moment When Traveling: Landscape Drawing

I've found that taking a few minutes while traveling to sit down and sketch is a great way to (1) reflect on what you are experiencing and (2) slowly think through a single moment, visually, instead of just taking a quick picture and running off to the next site.

Throughout my childhood, we'd go on family trips to national parks across the country. When I started to become more interested in drawing, I'd bring a sketchbook and some graphite pencils. While my mom and sister went on hikes, I'd hang back with my dad, find a view I liked, and do some sketching. These two drawings (pictured on the left) are from our trip to Grand Teton National Park in 2011 (please excuse the roughness, I was 13 at the time). My sister would sometimes complain about me doing this, saying it was an excuse for me not to hike with them or that I wasn't really "experiencing" the places we went to. But to me, I was experiencing these places in an entirely different way, more personal to myself. By taking the time to stop and focus on one view, you tend to notice details you might not see otherwise. Delightful details like the way the mountains reflect lightly on the lake and moments such as a fish jumping out of the water. You are capturing a moment into one image when drawing this way, an experience more real than just grabbing your phone and taking a quick picture.

On another family trip to Ireland in 2017 I made a point to bring more art materials than just pencil. I easily fit some color pencils, paint pens, and ink pens in a pencil case and made sure I had it close for whenever the thought to sketch came. This drawing (pictured to the right), was done by some cliffs on a windy day. I remember it being a bit cold so I told myself I'd only spend 10 minutes on it (though I think I ended up sketching longer than that). I also told myself I was gonna do a "scribble" sketch, using my brush-nibbed pen and drawing in quick motions, then just as quickly adding in color with color pencils. The final result is a clear reflection of the moment: a sort of rushed drawing because I wanted to sketch so bad but was too cold to stand in one place for too long.

From March to May of 2019, I took a landscape drawing class while studying abroad in a village in Provence, France. My professor was a bit eccentric in the way he taught this class, often going the existential route.

At first I thought it was a bit much, but following his instruction, I realized his approach wasn't as crazy as I thought it was. The main (most reasonable) point he kept making: when you sketch, you are capturing a moment in time. I know I've been restating this same idea this entire post so far, but I never really thought about it that way until then and it changed my perspective. I looked back on those sketches from family trips and realized how true that is.

To the left is a sketchbook page from my last day in Paris. It had been quite the hectic week, as my professors tried to condense class excursions in between touring the more popular Paris sites. I was supposed to move on from the Musee d'Orsay to head to the Palais de Tokyo with my Landscape Drawing class, but I thought I'd get more sketching done here. I took my time, enjoying the 19th to 20th century paintings and sketching some of the statues, then made it to the balcony with a view overlooking the Seine. What a peaceful moment from a week that was mostly chaos! I ended up being the last student to leave the museum so I had no choice but to walk back to the hotel on my own. I'll always remember that walk, as it inspired this drawing I did for the "sum up your Paris experience" assignment:

That's another good lesson I got from that class: the idea to give your drawings a narrative or a feeling to convey. "Serendipitous Paris": I titled this drawing. Peace and Calm on a zig-zagging walk alone at the end of the day. That's what I feel when I look at this.

This next drawing was done at the end of my France studying abroad experience:

I used a lot of gloomy shades and grays in this drawing of the view from my bedroom window. All throughout the class, my professor had us write down a "thesis" before drawing. A short paragraph, describing what mood/story you were setting out to convey. I wrote, "I want to draw a scene representing the idea of renewal," though that is not the feeling that ended up coming out. Instead, I think this image shows more of a bittersweet feeling, as I was about to leave this incredible experience. Real emotions can subconsciously come out when your drawing, which I'd like to think can enrich a travel experience. I know it enriched mine. These two drawings from that class are my favorite souvenirs from France! They, along with my other travel drawings, both hold and are a memory I can look at and treasure.