Many of you will know that over the holidays, I was able to travel to South Africa to visit family. Since this was to be a time to re-connect, relax and not a serious sketching holiday, using the Travelers Notebook (from Bookbinders in Gympie Road, Brisbane and online) was the ideal sketchbook to use. Generally the paper format can be awkward for sketching since the pages are quite long and quite narrow. However, I found that it was this very feature that enabled me to do many sketches while out with family and friends.
My rather chunky-looking TN at the end of the holiday
The black leather cover stands up to rigorous treatment and, in fact, improves with wear. The Notebook is also fairly unobtrusive so it was easy to open and write or sketch without taking up a lot of space at a cafe table.
I used two types of inserts - one with sketchbook paper and another with blank Midori paper. The latter is lovely for use with ink and I was pleased that the Sketchbook paper worked successfully with watercolour. I almost completed two sketchbook inserts and the same amount with the blank notepaper.
Time for coffee and cake
Sketching in the shade of Causarina pine trees
The blank notepaper became my travel diary where I could capture my thoughts at the end of each day. Before I left I splashed out and bought a HP Sprocket printer. I was then able to add photos of special places and people on the occasions where a sketch wasn’t possible. It is a small and light unit, working via Bluetooth with the iPhone.
Combining travel diary entries with photographs
Occasionally the connection would be erratic but switching on and off solved that issue. The colour can be a little flat and dull so boosting the saturation before printing gives a good result.
Garden Castle, Drakensberg Mountains, South Africa
I have made a video flip-through of the whole book which you can see here:
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