I sometimes post my travel pages from my journal on Instagram and Pinterest or even include them in my articles, and I get questions about how I create these travel journal pages. So in this article, I am going to share with you how to recreate my travel pages from my journal, so let’s get started.
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Some of my travel journal pages are for reference
I love recreating pages from my travels because it helps me keep the memories alive in my mind. I forget things pretty easily, and I have a hard time recalling details of trips because, I kid you not, I do tens of things daily whenever I am in a new place.
But, as you can see in the pictures above, I journal differently depending on my mood and the amount of time I have, as well as my will to sketch or draw vs. using collages to mark points of reference.
How to recreate my sketching travel pages from my journal?
To recreate the travel journal page with sketches, you will need:
- A journal or sketchbook with thick drawing pages (you may want to add watercolor illustrations or something, so the paper should be appropriate for that)
- A thicker Sharpie (king size or a bit thinner depending on how big your page is)
- A mechanical pencil for the base sketches or to plan where elements would go (I love and use Pentel GraphGear 1000 Automatic Drafting Pencil (0.9mm))
- A fine pen with fast-drying ink (I love and use the Fabercastell fine pen 1511 document)
Let’s get right to the page. I often use two pages to get enough space to add destinations and landmarks I visited, food I tried, memories, interesting things I saw, etc. But feel free to use more or less.
Start with the city or country name in the middle of the page. You can add how many days you stayed, or you can add the purpose of your travel, such as “Honeymoon in Tulum”, “Family time in Thailand”, or “Business trip to Morocco”, etc. Another example for your title could also be “Hiking the Great Sugarloaf Mountains” or “September in Italy,” or you can even replace the name of the country or city with something that refers back to it, such as “C’est la vie” for France, for example. In my case, I count my stays by days because whenever I am traveling, I completely lose the sense of time, and I have no idea if it was a month in Rome or one day.
How to reference the landmarks and places visited realistically?
Your next step is going to be the fun part. You will need to recall the things you did on your trip, or if you are creating your journal in real life, you will have to find the best part of the landmark or the most influential element of it to capture.
I knew I wouldn’t be able to sketch Trevi Fountain on the spot because it was extremely crowded and hot when I visited in July. All I could see in a comfortable sitting position with my 5’1 was the other people’s heads. So what I did was walk far from it to the entrance of the square until the only thing I could see was the top, and so I sketched that in a jiffy just to keep the wholesomeness of that moment alive. As you can see from my journal page, you can instantly recognize the Trevi fountain, although I only painted a little part of it. So it really doesn’t matter how much detail you add or how perfect your drawing is; just capture what stands out to you.
If you are creating your journal page at home, feel free to use references or trace over a photo you took. It’s your journal; do whatever works for you.
What food did you get while traveling?
It could be a sandwich you made at home for your road trip; it could be something very standard; or it could be local food that you’ve been dying to try. How did it taste? Was it disappointing? Or did it work to meet your expectations?
I always add the food I have to my journal because, in my opinion, it is a very important cultural aspect of experiencing a city or country. But if you feel like skipping that, who am I to judge?
Add comments to your travel page
I often add comments that would help me relive the experience again. Sometimes it is how the weather was, sometimes it is the people I spent time with, whether an experience was good or bad, my first impression of a country the moment I landed in it, and so on. Any comment that would help put you in the mental state of your traveling experience again would be a great addition.
How to recreate my collage travel pages from my journal?
For this one, it is pretty simple. You can print out the pictures you took during your travel, or you can use business cards from the restaurants you visit, maps from your hotel, pictures online that remind you of your travel and activities, and so on.
There’s also no set plan to follow. Do it the way that you find to be the most fun and aesthetically pleasing to you.
You can, of course, add your comments to the page, draw and write on top of the pictures you chose to glue to your journal, and get it to be as personalized as you want it to be.
Conclusion
In this article, I answer How to recreate my travel pages from my journal? However, the purpose of having or creating a travel page in your journal is for you to recall your trip and enjoy looking back on it. So make sure you do it your way and enjoy creating <3
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