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Illustrated vacation diary
Debora04 August 20246 min read

Why, and how, you should make your own illustrated travelogue

I bet you, too, take a million photographs when you go on vacation, which you then look at again as soon as you return home from vacation, and after two weeks they are already forgotten. And they will stay that way forever, until you probably decide to delete some of them to free up space on your phone. 

If you think about it, they were born with the intention of stopping a moment in your memory, but in fact they go into oblivion because there are too many of them, and they are diluted in the multitude of photographs that surround us every day. 

A great pity.

There is, however, a system to imprint those moments in memory: turn them into drawings. 

 

What is an illustrated travelogue

An Illustrated Travelogue is nothing more than a concentrate of memories, thoughts, drawings, notes, quotes. Everything that can lead you to stop a moment on a sheet of paper.

Creating a small publication to put on our home bookshelf will help us create an object that we can go back to, flip through, so that we can relive those moments. It can also be easily shared with friends by having them flip through it at a dinner party together, for example. 

 

Why you should make an illustrated travelogue 

The benefits of doing an Illustrated Vacation Diary are many, and I list just a few of them here: 

  • Lasting memory: since the memory must be processed by the brain before passing the information to the hand and proceeding with the drawing, this memory will be more firmly imprinted in the mind. In addition to experiencing it, it has also been processed, analyzed. How can I draw it? With what framing? How can I emphasize the important part of that memory? By making these arguments, the thought becomes even more deeply fixed. 
  • Not only what is seen: with a photograph, the only thing taken is the image (extremely faithful, but it is limited to what our eyes saw). In an Illustrated Holiday Journal, on the other hand, we can depict scenes, add writing that emphasizes thoughts, or dialogue. Concepts can be drawn, such as movements on a map, or displacements. 
  • Creative expression: it is not necessary to "know how to draw well," precisely because we are not faithfully representing what our eyes see. But it can be a symbolic, conceptual representation. 
  • Relaxation and mindfulness: the act of drawing is a relaxing, meditative activity. Thinking back to the moments you have experienced, choosing the ones you want to fix on paper and keep in your memory, these are already activities that bring order to your mind and make you feel better. 

 

Tools, materials needed and techniques

Obviously everyone does what they think best, and how they want, but I can certainly give you some advice from my experience. 

Basically you need to choose the technique you want to use, and then adapt accordingly. If I decide to create the illustrated journal in traditional technique, I will make sure I have a nice little notebook to fill. The trick is to get a notebook that is not too valuable (to avoid the performance anxiety of "ruining" a beautiful object) but also not too cheap, because drawing should be a pleasure. A notebook that is practical to carry, but also not too small to avoid struggling to draw: it must be the right compromise. 

The tool for filling the notebook is also important: I personally prefer to use a black gel pen, with which I will create the drawings and use hatches to fill in the areas I want to color. However, you can also take colored pencils, or watercolors, to add touches of color to the scenes and emphasize certain elements more. 

In a traditional Diary, it will also be possible to add special inserts, which can be photographs, clippings, dried flowers or other small items. These will all be great additions that will take us directly to that lived moment. 

If, on the other hand, I prefer to create a digital journal, then I will take my iPad with me with Apple Pencil, and with the help of Procreate I will make my drawings. In case of trips to the beach, or eventful trips, I personally place the iPad in an airtight plastic bag (like those for the freezer), so that while I am not using it, it cannot be ruined by moisture, salt, dust, or anything else. 

The map of travel across Corsica


How to do it? What to include in the illustrated travelogue? 

There are certain elements that I love about the illustrated travelogue, and that over the years I have grown to love and tend to do again and again: 

  • the travel map: if a vacation is itinerant, I love having the overview of the travel. A map, even if only stylized, depicting the main points that help us orient ourselves (mountains, cities, or the shape of the sea) and the route of the trip, with highlights of the adventure
  • dialogues and salient thoughts: that joke that made us laugh so much, or that sentence we couldn't stop saying. Or the lyrics of the song we couldn't stop listening to.

 

Personally, I make at least one sketch every day of the vacation, to select the elements of that day that I want to remember and represent. If I then don't feel like finalizing it, I will do it as soon as I get home. There is a risk, however: that once I get home, the routine absorbs me completely and the Vacation Diary will always remain in a draft state. Therefore, it is best to do the diary sketches right away, perhaps taking a moment during the day (which can be in the evening, before going to bed, or in the morning before leaving for the next adventure). 

 

My Illustrated Travel Journals, to date.

Everyone does the Travelogue as they prefer, but if you don't know how to start I'll leave you for inspiration the Journals I've done in the past. You will notice that they are all very different, and that's the beauty of them. 

  • Croatia 2022: one big design made up of small designs

    I decided to group scenes, experiences and reflections, into a grid suitable for Instagram. My goal was to create a single drawing made up of many small drawings. So I prepared the grid and chose what to represent in each box, before actually drawing (digitally!).
    Check out this Diary

  • Corsica 2023: my journey around the island

    Here I had prepared in advance by drawing a map of the island, marking some landmark towns. During the trip I then marked the points I was visiting on the previously drawn map. 
    Check out this Diary

  • Greece 2023: simple drawings and Greek writing.

    As also with the one from Corsica, in this one I used to make drawings in the morning, collecting and drawing the memory of the previous day that I most wanted to fix in my mind. They are simple drawings, with some writing--and I had fun adding some Greek writing as well.
    Check out this Diary

  • Croatia 2024: a comic book chronicling the adventure

    This year I wanted to create a kind of comic book, to fix the different funny or exciting events that happened. Dialogues, symbols, all collected into a story (without the moral, though--I didn't plan that much, but I wanted to make it lightly and without planning).  
    Download this comic diary (only in italian)

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Debora

Debora has a degree in Visual Communication and works as a UX Designer. Raised as a self-taught artist, she has always made drawing her most enjoyable pastime, giving birth to the collection of "iCosini." Completing her great passions are glider flying and mountains.

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