Preparing for something memorable

I'm going to Ireland in two and a half weeks. Until I land in Dublin, my international experience will have been limited to 24 hours in Niagara Falls, the Canadian half. And, I guess, lots of strolls past embassies when I lived in DC. And the UN in New York. But basically, this is my first REAL international experience. I'm incredibly excited. So I've decided I'm going to try, one more time, to keep some semblance of a journal while I'm there.

Now, journals and sketchbooks and I have a checkered past. I always have great intentions and awful follow-through. So I decided to make my own journal, in the hopes that I could make what I need. I ended up with two:




One with lots of different kinds of pages, lined and unlined, different colors, etc. This will be for anything and everything. Thoughts, sketches, notes, directions. Whatever I want. Whatever I do with it will be what I intended, because I also think I need permission to fail, to be mundane, to write poorly, to clutter it up. It'll be what it'll be, and it'll be fantastic.



And one that I'm modeling off something my Mom came up with for one of our family vacations when I was younger. She used a tablet of sample paper (somehow we always had paper samples lying around the house) and labeled each sheet with a letter of the alphabet. The whole trip we recorded things we saw, heard, ate, whatever on the appropriate alphabet page. Sometimes with explanations and/or illustrations, but sometimes just a word or two. It was a low-key, simple way to document a trip--and I recall it being awesome.

So I'm going to try it for Ireland. Wish me luck!

And if you've been to Dublin and want to share stories, tips, good eateries (esp. cheap and/or vegetarian!), best things to see and do, etc.-- don't hold back! Drop me some comments.

Illustration Friday: INTRICATE

Anyone remember Maniac Magee? I don't remember much, but I remember there being an impossible knot that needed untangling. And I remember loving it. It may be time for a re-read...

Illustration Friday: BREEZY

Listening to the Reds-Yankees spring training game on the radio right now. It sure is breezy in Sarasota, Florida, and every breeze is blowing toward the outfield. Eight home runs so far between the two teams!

I'm playing with oil pastels today because someone guessed in an earlier comment that I was already using them. I usually use dry pastels, but I did use a lot of oil pastels back in high school, so I thought they'd be fun to revisit. Pros: Oil pastels are easier on dry, winter skin. They don't come in pencil form, so they force me to loosen up. They work much better on the "pastel paper" I just bought for fun than do my dry pastels. Cons: They don't come in pencil form, so I have much much less control over my artwork. I can't build up as many layers of color, nor can I smear them with my fingers to blend.

Still, a fun experiment!