I’ve been enjoying a three month trip across France. No it’s not a mega holiday I’ve been stringing together a series of Workaway gigs to volunteer at a collection of 18th century properties: and old flour mill, a chateau, and a bed a breakfast. We traded accommodation and three meals a day for five hours of volunteering.
We’ve been doing a collection of DIY, painting, sewing, and social media for ten weeks, and only left because we knew the country was going on lockdown because of the spread of the Corona virus. If you want to learn a bit more about our Workaway adventures or see which French cities we visited, you can read about them on my personal travel blog Roving Jay.
My Travel Sketch Kit
Each time I travel I always take a little zipped bag with a few pens and a small sketchbook with the intention of keeping a travel journal mainly pictures but with a few bits of text to put it in context.
About the Seawhite Sketch Book:
- A6 Travel Journal
- 128 pages
- 130gsm Cartridge Paper
- Elastic retaining band
- Inner pocket inside back cover
- Purchase on Amazon
About the Micron 005 Pen:
- I actually took about 6 pens traveling with me. They were a collection of colours and all of them were thicker nibs 01, and I only took one 005 nib (which is finer) with me, and by the end of my trip I was only using this finer nib. I just bought some replacement pens and have ordered 005 and 003.
- The 003 creates a 0.15mm line and is the finest line this pen company creates.
- The 005 creates a 0.2mm line and is my favourite line size.
- The 01 creates a .25mm line, and can be used to create slight heavier and darker lines to create depth.
The sketchbook I took with me on this trip was one I started for our Spain trip last year, but I only managed two draw a computer of pictures during our three weeks away. So on this trip I took the same book with me hoping that I get more creative with being away for three months. I’d love to get to the competency level where I can sit in a café and do a quick sketch of people. I’m not that proficient yet so I have to take a sneaky photograph and use it to do the sketch. The only way to get better is practice. We’ve spent a week holed up on an island off the coast of France for a week, which was an ideal opportunity to look back at my photos from our trip and pick out a few choice scenes to sketch.
The last time I did any amount of prolific sketching which when we did three months of work away in Cambodia. Then I used a daily sketch prompt to motivate my drawing habit and tied it into the travel images I will see you in around me in Cambodia Vietnam and Thailand
When I publish my first travel guide at the bottom finish your travel guide who is intended to streamline my sketching skills so that the next time I published an updated version I could include my own hand sketches in it. I’m now on version 405 and I still don’t have my sketches in.
When I wrote my turbulent mind poetic memoir about my mothers Alzheimer’s I fully intended to create small quick sketches to illustrate each poem, but again that never happened and I ended up higher illustrator through people per hour to create like 37 small sketches.
There’s all sorts of writing sketch prompts on Facebook and Instagram and all sorts of apps that can inspire and help you maintain a daily sketch of it but when you’re focuses on writing it’s difficult to split your time to all the areas that you need to focus on. And for people like me, who have multiple blogs sketching his way down the list after all the writing and freelance assignment I need to deliver each month.
Sketches from my France Travel Journal

I’ve been sketching in my journal and then writing the context of the image around it. So that when I look back on the images I can remember where they’re from and what was happening at the time that I drew it.
I’ve been sketching for years, and each time I go away I try to get into the sketching habit, and this trip has been a turning point for me. I’m sketching more, and my skills are increasing.
Do you keep a travel journey? Tell me about it and link to some of your pages.
Your travel journal doesn't just have to be a place to write about your travels, you can jazz up your pages with doodles and sketches to make it more interesting. #traveljournal Click To Tweet
I have been wanting one for sure, but I am not nearly as artistic as one should be to keep one. I tried keeping a journal for a while when I was younger, but it was half-filled with some words and doodles by the time I finally quit. Love your illustrations 🙂
I’ve tried keeping one for years, but kept failing, but this time I was determined to keep it going throughout the trip, and I did really well.
How inspiring .. thanks for sharing your sketches. I do a little bit of sketching too, but I’m too shy or insecure to post them anywhere…. 🙁
That’s how I feel, even now. And I know I could do with a lot more practice, but by publishing my pics, it helps to push me to improve.
As someone who would love to travel in the future, I would love a unique way to record my adventures. This is such an amazing way to keep all of your memories together whilst having fun at the same time. Thank you for this!
Keeping a travel journal with our without images is a unique travel reminder, and something fun to look back on, years from now.