Travel sketchbook: Japan edition

Mixed media drawings, collage journaling, and stamp collecting

Buckle in, it’s time for a tour of my sketchbook from my Japan travels! I procrastinated this post as I wanted to fill more sketchbook pages, but that hasn’t been happening…which is alright, because there’s already plenty here to show you.

Psst: This email may get cut off in your inbox! You can click the title to check out the full post in web browser.

I used a square sketchbook by Global Art Hand Book for my travels. It measures 5.5”x5.5”, making it slightly bigger than the Royal Talens square version. I don’t think paint layers as nicely in this notebook compared to the Royal Talens, but it has a back pocket which I very much needed on this trip to hold all my collected paper.

Stickers collected from the trip, plus a sticker of us left over from our wedding since it was our honeymoon :)

I started off with some visual journaling at the airport. At the beginning of every trip I am EAGER TO DRAW EVERYTHING!…then the enthusiasm wanes as I morph into my full vacation mode potato self.

Food is one of the best things to draw while traveling. It’s colorful, it’s informative, it doesn’t move, and it’s right there in front of you. The one tricky bit is to have patience before you eat (or you can take a photo and draw it later).

We went to two museums in Tokyo—the Ueno Royal Museum where we got to see a ton of chigiri-e artworks, and the National Art Center of Tokyo where there was a large Matisse exhibit dedicated to his paper cutouts and Vence Chapel work in Nice, France. Both exhibits were very inspiring and well-organized.