Idle Minutes

The “Little Chief”, a guide boat on the St. Mary’s Lake in Glacier National Park.

The great thing about keeping a travel journal is that you can make a boo-boo (see if you can find it) and it really doesn’t matter much.  In fact, it adds to the character of the journal entry if you take things lightly and simply capture the moment rather than being too concerned with “creating art”.

In this case, being tired and sleepy from a long day of driving and exploring caused the boo-boo.  Which, if you think about it, was a legitimate part of the moment as well.  So, I’m actually glad it got captured.

A tip, for those interested in trying to sketch a travel journal for the first time:  You can sketch lightly in pencil while experiencing “the moment”.  Then ink and watercolor it later, in the hotel room or campground; even after you return home if need be.  If you view all sketches as something that must be completed in one sitting, you’ll likely end up with just a few sketches.

So, whatever your style of sketching, be it watercolor, pen, pencil, combination of all…give yourself some freedom in regard to completing the sketch.  There is no shame in finishing up later.  In a pinch, I even take digital photos with a pocketable Canon point and shoot camera and use them for reference if need be. 

The key is to get as much of the moment down in the time permitted using your sketching skills.  If you have the time to complete a sketch in one sitting, by all means do so.  If not, get what you can with your sketching tools and shoot a digi-pic or two for reference later; when you find some idle minutes. 

You will find that whatever you do at the moment of sketching, will be a pleasantly spontaneous experience that shows in the drawing-even if pressed for time and “sloppy”.  And that is what will make the sketches (and boo-boos) so charming and memorable for you later. So don’t become a slave to “perfecting” the sketch later.  Just “complete” it; boo-boos and all, by adding a bit more information as you see fit.

The Little Chief is a good example of how to capture as much as you can even if you can’t complete it while “in the moment”.  On the two page spread above, the inked mountains, text, and a light pencil quick sketch of the boat were all I could manage on site that evening.  That was all done while riding in the boat and trying to listen to the Ranger do her presentation as well.  There was simply no time for me to ink the Little Chief accurately and watercolor it “on site”.  So, as we left for the hotel, I shot a series of digi-pics of it to reference later.  The next day I found an  few “idle minutes” and finished it up, using the viewing screen on the back of the camera.  Thus completing the sketch and the journal entry.

Working in your travel sketch journal this way will allow you to get down a surprising amount of material and still keep it spontaneous.

I utter all of this in retrospect unfortunately.  Early in the trip, I fell victim to being to worrisome about completing sketches in one sitting.  As a result, I passed by a lot of good material knowing I wouldn’t be able to complete a sketch in the time allotted.  A day or so later, I realized I had better take another plan of attack because I wasn’t getting much sketching done. The above thinking gave me the freedom to get more material into the journal for the remainder of the trip.  Next trip, I’ll know what to do.