Quinto the traveling sketchbook update

I fully intended to be a more active blogger this summer. But seeing as it's July 23rd and this is my 2nd post since I arrived a month ago, that didn't go as planned.

Another thing that hasn't gone exactly as expected is Quinto. I still have soooo many pages left to fill and so little time to do so. I may have added too many pages without taking into account that I would essentially lose a week of sketching during the Bellissima Art Retreat. We shall see what I have to show for this summer come August 2nd. 

Here's a little peek at what I've been working on. Some pieces of Assisi, Perugia, Castiglion Fiorentino, Lucca and Florence. There's more photos on Instagram under the hashtag #QuintotheTravelingSketchbook

last bits & pieces of Italia

The time has come to leave Italy. I actually left nearly a full day ago now. Currently hanging in New York on another lengthy layover. Then a couple more flights tomorrow and I'll be back home in California! 

Hard to believe that it is technically still the day that I left, and yet so much time has passed...yet not according to my watch. Boh. Westbound travel is always mind-boggling, how you kinda sorta time travel a bit...wibbly wobbly timey whimey...

Back to Italy! My last night in Rome was incredible! The lovely and talented Gina Gomez gave me a list of things to do and places to eat for the perfect last night. And it was rather perfect. I checked in then cruised over to the Colosseum to sketch. Then wandered through my favorite corner of Rome to the Pantheon to sketch some more. I then cruised to Piazza Navona for another sketch and an Aperitivo! 

After my last Spritz, I went to check out the dinner spot. Unfortunately it was closed, and so was my back-up! Italy in August, it's to be expected. Luckily I found a small tasty spot around the corner. I finished up the night getting gelato from Gelateria del Teatro and enjoying it on the Ponte San'Angelo. Fiori di Lavanda e Pesca Bianca con Albicocca. Lavender with white peach and apricot. YUM. A lovely finish to a lovely, damn near perfect summer. 

Here's some of my favorite photos from my last days in Italy! I'll be scanning like a fiend this weekend to get ready for a shop update, hopefully the 2nd week of September. Stay tuned!  

1. My friend Simonetta drove me out to the Ponte della Maddalena (aka the Devil's Bridge). Definitely a good one to cross of the sketching bucket list! 

2. We then drove back up these tiny little road tucked into the mountains north of Lucca. I would move into this decrepit little house in a heart beat. 

3. Barga quickly became one of my new favorite towns in Italy. Winding streets with incredible views...

4. One last photo of Siena! I love how the Duomo just peeks up above all the terracotta streets. 

5. The streets of Lucca were SO quiet on Ferragosto, it was lovely! 

6. The other night in Lucca was Notte Bianca. My talented friend Vanessa Peters and I took advantage of it and took to the streets to play some music and sketch. 

7. Wandering through the streets of Rome and I found my favorite photo of the summer. A Fiat 500 and a cat. Quickest way to my heart. 

8. Sketching one of my favorite spaces in the world, the Pantheon in Rome! Perfect way to end a summer. 

Quarto the traveling sketchbook: update III

I'm down to my last month in Italy. It's always scary how fast the time goes by here. The pages in Quarto are filling up fast too, I have just about 3 signatures left to fill. Then comes all the work of scanning and preparing for a new collection of travel postcards for the Fall! 

Here's a peek at the progress. You can also check out the other updates too: Update I, Update II

1. Hands from the Bargello Museum in Florence. Practicing writing in Italian and playing with my new Fabriano washi tape and found feathers. 
2. Postcard stash, lyrics and a new favorite Italian quote. And the back stairs at Santa Chiara in Castiglion Fiorentino. 
3. A couple moody spots around Lucca. 
4. The most perfect teal Vespa in all of Lucca! This street had the most irresistible shadows...

5. Inside my favorite restaurant in Cortona! And a quiet little archway in Lucca on one of the busiest streets in town. 
6. The walls. Oh the walls...
7. We made a quick day trip to Viareggio and had a gorgeous beach day! 
8. Yesterday we went off to Florence for the day too. We took the bus up to San Miniato, which has the best view of the entire city. 

Also, did you enter my postcard giveaway? Go see if you won! 

bits & pieces + an Italy giveaway! (closed)!

I really can't believe I have already been here a full month! Time is flying by and so are the pages in my sketchbook. Oofah...I'm scared to see how fast this next month and a half will go by too. Especially since I have some friends coming to visit. New adventures up the coast are coming! 

I also just remember that the 1 year birthday of Sketchy Notions is this week on the 19th. Pretty crazy that it has already been a year since I filed for a business license, started the trademarking adventures and turned my little hobby into a real, functioning business. A lot has happened in one year. In celebration of this, I'm going to giveaway one of my little watercolored postcard! You can find out more details at the end of this post after a peek at life in Italy during the past few weeks...

1. Girasole! Sunflowers! Feels like home when I see a giant field of sunflowers...

2. Sketching back in my favorite Tuscan town, Castiglion Fiorentino! 

3. I have an obsession with bikes, flower boxes and vintage Vespas...if you follow me on Instagram, you've already seen multiple examples of this obsession...

4. It has been raining off and on (mostly on to the point of thunder storms) for the past couple weeks. Which is actually lovely! Much cooler temperatures and less tourists...YAY!!!

5. A prime example of my Vespa obsession...

6. Found some Queen Anne's Lace growing alongside the walls the other day! 
7. The most perfect and lonely window. 
8. Yellow versus pink. A block divided...
9. Watching for rainbows outside of my window...
10. The prize! I just painted this little postcard and I'd love for it to find a lovely new home. I'll probably mail it from the states so I can include some other little Italy goodies and not risk it never reaching its new home!  Read below for details on how to enter...

You can enter by doing ANY or ALL of the following, just leave a comment after telling me you did it with an email to reach you at! Each form of entry must have a separate comment in order to be counted for multiple entries!

1. Comment telling me somewhere you want to travel one day! 
2. Follow my blog
3. Follow along on Instagram
4. Like on Facebook
5. Follow on Twitter
6. Heart my Etsy Shop

Already follow along on bloglovin', twitter etc? Awesome, just leave a comment telling me you do! You can do any or all of these to enter. Giveaway will be open until Saturday July 26th!  

The giveaway is CLOSED! The Random Number Generator picked: #2! Congratulations Susie!!!

Thank you so much to everyone who entered! I'm thinking about holding another giveaway when I launch my new collection so stay tuned! 

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

bits & pieces of Lucca

I may be a little obsessed with this town...just a teeny bit. The past couple mornings I've been waking up early to get on my bike and take a cruise around town. It's one thing to see this town while having to wade through crowds of tourists. But it becomes a completely different town when there's no one but a handful of locals awake and about. Riding down via Fillungo (one of the busiest streets in town) alone and not having to ring my bell 12 times just to go 2 blocks? Every day, per favore! 

These are some photos I've found around Lucca during the past 2 weeks. If you follow along on Instagram you've already seen this batch. I really love this batch of photos, and I have some family in the the states (Ciao Madre Dolce!) that don't use Instagram and still want to be kept up to date. 

1. This bike. I almost made off with it. It's just...the perfect bike! 

2. My favorite car, the Fiat 500. This photo caused quite a stir this week...Anthropologie liked it on Instagram and my account went crazy for about 48 hours. It resulted in about 100+ new followers...hello all!

3. Remember these guys? I photographed this same group of men two years ago in this same exact spot...nice to know that some things never change. 

4. One of the loveliest streets in town, it leads down to the antique store neighborhood. 

5. Another great street in town! This ivy has eaten almost two blocks worth of wall...

6. This is photo is actually just next to number 4, turn to the right and you see this sweet little courtyard. 

7. These walls...with this light...I can't handle it.

8. I wanted to pet these little snuggled kitties so much but that grey one gave me the biggest death glare then went back to sleep. I think he was still peeking at me when I made this photo... 

I'm due for another Quarto update but that probably won't happen until after I come back from Castiglion Fiorentino later this week. I can't wait to see everyone back in that town and to sketch my favorite streets again. 

Quarto the traveling sketchbook: update I

This first week of traveling and sketching with Quarto has been really productive! I'm already through a signature and a half! I don't think I was even this productive with Terzo two years ago...

This batch of sketches is mostly from Lucca but there's a couple that I made in New York and Santa Barbara during the trek over. I also made a quick visit to Pisa today. It hit me yesterday that in all the time I've spent over here, I had yet to sketch the famed tower! So I hopped on a train this morning and waded through the masses of tourists to sketch the tower at last. 

1. First sketch to break in Quarto at the Santa Barbara Airport.

2. I met my friend Amanda in New York and went on a Chelsea spree in the Chelsea neighborhood! We also walked along the High Line and had some bagels from Murrays.

3. Testing out my new calligraphy brush pen on Via Santa Croce in Lucca.

4. Watercoloring up on the walls of Lucca, again at last! 

5. Piazza San Martino in Lucca.

6. Slowly working on sketching all the rooftops I can from the terrace on the top floor...

7. Also working on mapping the city at last! And a sketch from the busier portion of Via Santa Croce in the center of town.

8. Tourists of Lucca and the facade of Cattedrale San Martino.

9. Pisa! The Tower took a while to draw but I'm glad that I finally have a sketch of it. Then I couldn't resist having some fun sketching everyone in their various poses trying to hold/kick/pinch/hug/push the tower! 

10. Another watercolor of the walls...this is one of my favorite sections on the wall, it has the lushest trees and the best moody lighting...

I'm so curious to see what this fat beast will look like once I'm through with it in a few weeks. The transformation of Terzo was pretty crazy, just a modest black sketchbook that swelled until it was fat and happy and full of Italy. So excited to see what I find these next couple months. 

Until the next update you can follow along with my everyday photos on Instagram!