Quinto, the 5th traveling sketchbook

It took a while to get over thinking that it's weird I name my sketchbooks. Yes, I know, it is still odd. But my sketchbooks are more than just this holder for drawings and ticket stubs. Over the years of traveling, my sketchbooks have become my travel companions, often my only travel companion. 

Giving them a name not only makes it easier to differentiate when I made certain sketches or went places, but it also reflects a bit more of what they mean to me. They're not just stacks of paper held together with vinyl and thread. They're pieces of my adventures. They're my icebreaker with locals or other fellow tourists. They're my journal for new Italian words and a calendar for keeping track of where I'm going. They're even my umbrella or cushion if the need should arise. They're the only souvenir that I can't wait to show off to everyone when I come home!

So, without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to Quinto, my 5th traveling sketchbook! 

I haven't even sketched in Quinto, and he's already my favorite sketchbook to date. I was originally planning on making the sketchbook for the summer grey. But when I was at JoAnn's a couple weeks ago, I found this gorgeous mustard yellow bolt of vinyl on clearance and I had to have it! It's so smooth and luscious, I freakin' LOVE this cover. 

The inside is just as special. I was going to use linen like I usually do and at the last minute, I found some leftover chambray fabric that I saved from the bottom of the super long dress I hemmed last summer. I even left the buttons on the edge! 

These are pretty much all the supplies I take along for my travels too. I try to pare it down as much as possible to keep down the weight and bulk. My go-to supplies are: 

• Winsor & Newton travel watercolors
• Kaweco fountain pens (with ink cartridges in black, purple and sepia)
• Kaweco mechanical pencil
• Erasers
• Clips to keep pages open to dry, or for photos
• Kuretake Zig pens in brush tips and fine point
• Faber Castell pen, S tip for painting on top of linework
• Pentel waterbrush, in fine point (I have a fat tip I'll probably bring along too)
• and an Elmer's "Photo Stik". It's archival so I don't have to worry about my pages yellowing over the years. 

You can read more about my favorite pens and where to get them in this recent blog post. 

I hope you'll follow along with my and Quinto's adventures this summer! I'll be posting photos of the sketching progress on Instagram under the hashtag #Quintothetravelingsketchbook. 

And if you'd like to stay in touch further, you can sign up for my newsletter! I'll be posting more details of my travels, as well as opportunities to win some hand painted postcards from Italy! 

You can read about my past traveling sketchbooks here: Terzo, the 3rd and Quarto, the 4th

So....summer?

Um...where did summer go? It seems just like yesterday and I was cleaning up my classroom and saying farewell to all my students for the summer. And now we are just weeks away from textbooks, notes and new classes! CRAZY!

I still feel like I'm in catch-up mode after such a crazy and busy summer. I'll have to do another post about teaching this summer with Arts Outreach, we did a lot of fun projects that I can't wait to share! 

Here's some of my favorite photos from our family trip to Utah this past week. Still forever one of my favorite places on this continent...

1. The roads out in Utah are pretty incredible. Miles of desert and hills and rock formations and fields with NO ONE around. 

2. I brought all my travel gear with me to watercolor and get some work done while we were there (no such thing as a real vacation anymore I guess...)

3. There were SO MANY wildflowers this summer! This was just a small sample of all of them. 

4. Our grandpa has a few horses on this ranch and they're very friendly and photogenic. 

5. My sister snapped this photo of me while I was sketching on the edge of Horseshoe Bend in Arizona. SO happy to be able to cross that spot off the sketching bucket list, it's an amazing view. 

6. This is my little watercolor of Horseshoe Bend. I was pretty terrified the wind was going to pick it up and carry it all the way to the bottom of the canyon! 

7. Before we hiked out to Horseshoe Bend, we visited Lower Antelope Canyon. INCREDIBLE! I've been wanting to go back here ever since I first visited the upper canyon a few years ago. Lower Antelope Canyon was SO MUCH BETTER! Much longer and fewer tourists. 

8. This was my backpack I snagged during a road trip to Texas a few years ago with all my travel gear. 

In other news, I'm working on a brand new newsletter with some special downloads! Sign up here and get in on it!  

Quarto the traveling sketchbook

It may have taken just over a month but I finally have Quarto photographed, scanned, uploaded, and in the process of printing! I actually photographed Quarto on one of my first mornings back in California and just got around to editing them tonight...oops. 

I'm currently printing designs so a shop update is in the very near future (finally)! I also have a couple designs already uploaded to the Society6 shop. In the meantime, take a peek at the final sketches! These are some of my favorites and the whole sketchbook is on my website. 

Quarto the traveling sketchbook: update IV

How did two months just pass by so quickly?! In just over a week, I'll be making the reverse hellish trip back to California. Which is daunting. I'm excited to see everyone back home but this place is always so hard to leave. The food, the people, the sites...things you just can't get back home. 

One thing that I started doing this summer was taking photos of Quarto with the actual location I just sketched. I LOVE this series of photos! It's one thing to have a sketch to remember the place, but the combination of the sketch and the exact spot at that exact moment I sketched it is something really unique for me. Sometimes I can get the whole scene, other times it's just a little bit of the place. Either way I really love the double documentation of a place. 

1. My friend Susie and I climbed up the Campanile in Florence. Originally she wanted to do the Duomo but the line wrapping halfway around the back of the dome changed our minds. In the end, the bell tower had better views of the Duomo and some shady spots to sketch and read! 
2. The most perfect little mint Vespa! I sketched it first and then watercolored a postcard of it. Once I get home, these little postcards are going straight to the Notional Notions Etsy shop! I haven't been this excited for a shop update in a long time! 
3. The Anfiteatro here in Lucca. I've been working on this sketch for most of the summer. Which meant getting a gelato every time to claim my same vantage point...what a shame.
4. Piazza San Frediano was never really on my list of places to sketch but I'm so glad that I got pushed to (via some suggestions on Instagram). Such a pretty space.

5. One day I want to own a vintage Fiat 500. It's the cutest car (sorry VW Bug...)
6. I took a day trip to Siena last week, just in time to see it set up for the Palio race this weekend. I love this space, and it was fun to see it set up for the traditional horse race. Seeing the actual track set up makes imagining the horse race seem all the more dangerous. 
7. A visit to Siena isn't complete without visiting my favorite restaurant, Osteria Nonna Gina. Stuffed gnocchi in a secret sauce, fried zucchini blossoms, fresh focaccia, Chianti and a bit of Amaretto for a digestivo...love! 
8. I first sketched the Siena Duomo as a student but I never finished that sketch. It was nice to finally sit down and document the whole crazy beast. The next hard bit was finding my favorite part of the inlaid sidewalks around it to photograph Quarto with. 

Hopefully I'll be able to do another Quarto update before I leave. If not, the next time you see Quarto (if not on Instagram) will be once she's all scanned up and printed for the next Sketchy Notions shop update! 

Did you miss the other updates? Update I  | Update II | Update III

Quarto the traveling sketchbook: update II

Happy 4th of July! This past week has been pretty crazy. I headed back to Castiglion Fiorentino for just a couple days. I woke up just after 4 am Tuesday to take the 6:09 train in order to have a full day there. My friend Heather, who was in the same summer study abroad session as me, was waiting at the station on her way to Florence. Such perfect timing! 

I made the trek up the hill and headed straight to Santa Chiara to say hello. None of the ladies in the kitchen knew I was coming and it was so much fun to surprise all of them. I was able to eat lunch with all of them and spent the day cruising around town finding old friends. 

The UT Austin and Houston students also had their final exhibit that night at the center. It was a fantastic show! It's fun to see sketchbooks from current students and think back to the first sketches I made in that town 5 years ago. 

After dinner there was a band in the courtyard. It's the last week in Italy for all these students and it was great to see them having so much fun in this special space. Afterwards we went out to watch the USA vs Belgium soccer game. It was a very full day...

Wednesday my friend Veronica took me up into the Val di Chio to visit her friend and see her horses! I even got to ride one bareback for a bit. I caught up with a lot of friends that night too. 

Thursday my printmaking friend Rick and I went to Florence and sketched the Bargello and visited all our favorite art shops; Zecchis, Casa della Stilografica and the Fabriano shop. Afterwards, I caught the train back to Lucca and went home to fry up some stuffed zucchini blossoms! Oofah!  It was a pretty surreal couple of days but absolutely perfect. I was able to get a lot of sketches done too, and I've started collaging in Quarto. Here's a peek at the progress so far...

1. The infamous stairs that I spent many hours hauling crates of vegetables and water up during my internship. They're quite pretty when you're not struggling to carry stuff up them. Also I started easing my way back into collaging...
2. This is the sketch I started on after I made that Instagram photo I mentioned last post...
3. From my trip to Florence last week. I was able to visit Santa Croce and sketch it again! 
4. I've been playing around with different sketching techniques...color blocking and just quick lines then color. Pretty fun.
5. I've been trying to read La Testa degli Italiani...in Italian...these are my notes of words to look up, along with a watercolor from here in Lucca. 

6. Quick watercolor of the Anfiteatro in Lucca and some lists...
7. I woke up early one day and biked over to Piazza San Michele here in Lucca. The perfect spot for a cappuccino and a sketch before the tourists wake up!
8. Working on some new food related postcards. And the Loggia in Castiglion Fiorentino! 
9. The view from the courtyard at Santa Chiara in Castiglion Fiorentino. And the sweetest little chicken I met in the Val di Chio! 
10. Sketches from my horse adventure in Petreto in the Val di Chio. My favorite sculpture from the Bargello in Florence. 

The rest of the progress: Quarto update I

sketching abroad with Quarto

I've been asked quite a few times recently what my go to art supplies and travel art supplies are. With my upcoming trip, a lovely recent purchase, and the fact I just finished binding my next sketchbook, I wanted to share what tools will be accompanying me to Italy this summer! Along with a peek inside Quarto!!!

Oh this is a beast, far more beastly than Terzo. Quarto is covered with some wine colored faux leather, inside she's lined with linen fabric. I wanted to have the cover be a little more interesting so a blanket stitch goes around all the edges. The name "quarto" is embroidered on the cover as well. Quarto means "fourth" in Italian, since this is my fourth sketchbook I've brought to Italy. 

Inside of Quarto there are 8 signatures with 5 folios of paper each, including butcher paper, two types of graph paper, drawing paper, some other assorted scraps I had lying around and a ton of watercolor paper. In total, Quarto has 80 pages front and back (a lot more compared to Terzo's 56)! She's a big, beautiful beast and I can't wait to fill her! I've been carrying her around with me ever since I finished binding her. 

Besides this big beast, I'll be bringing my favorite drawing and watercolor materials along as well...

From left to right across the middle: 1. My Bird Trouble pouch from the talented Alexz   2. My vintage fountain pen I got from the Antique Fair in Arezzo  3. A Kuretake water brush one of my friends brought me back from Japan  4. My newest supply, a  Cocoiro Letter Pen with a calligraphy brush insert  5. My favorite Kaweco Sport fountain pen  6. A Fine point Kaweco Sport fountain pen  7. Lots of Fountain pen refills in black, blue black, sepia and eggplant. 

Also pictured: generic eraser, an archival grade glue stick, and mechanical pencil. 

I get most of my supplies from Jet Pens, it's such a fun and dangerous site since I want to try and buy everything! For my most recent order, I went on there intending just to buy ink refills then ended up with the Cocoiro pen and refills to get to $25 for free shipping...evil!

These are my well used and loved travel watercolor sets, both of which are Windsor Newton. The top one if the first watercolor set I had for my first trip to Italy back in 2009. I never clean either set, since I usually use the same color combinations for shadows a lot. 

I have a few other assorted pens I'll bring along but this is pretty much my basic travel art kit! Do you have any art supplies that you have to have when traveling? 

Venice Beach sketches

I spent a couple days last week down in the odd but awesome Venice Beach. I LOVE Venice Beach. I've loved it since I was little. Yes, it is filthy. Yes, it is crowded. Yes, the parking is terrible. BUT! It's at the beach, it's surrounded by good food, it's eclectic in every way, everyone (I swear, EVERYONE) has succulents in their front yards, and there are canals. The canals are my favorite part of Venice. I could spend all day cruising up and down them sketching and shopping for my dream house. One day...

1. Every time I visit Venice, I always try to sketch at Cafe Collage. It's right on the corner by the famous Venice sign. Plus they have pretty tasty coffee. 

2. I was lucky enough to be there on a Friday for the Venice Farmer's Market. I got my tasty pastry and cruised the canals for an early morning sketch. 

3. I sketched this my first night back in town at the Canal Club. 

4. A quick sketch of the coastline from the Venice Pier

5. Watercoloring the canals, right around the corner from my dream house! 

6. A little souvenir from the beach, inside and out

7. One of my favorite restaurants down there is C & O Trattoria. We used to always go there when I was little. Tasty Italian food in a very entertaining space. 

And a couple photos too...

Have you been to Venice Beach before? Do you like it or hate it?