A picture is worth a thousand words, but a drawing tells your story.
When we go on holiday we (rightly) want to document every moment with pictures.... beautiful shots and breathtaking colours. But sometimes the beauty lies in the moment, in the emotion, in those details that the lens of a camera or mobile phone cannot perceive. By creating a drawn diary of your holiday, you can capture not only the images, but also the emotions and memories that come with it.
Personally, it is a souvenir that I love to take home: drawings, probably not perfect from a technical point of view, but which encapsulate all the memories, emotions, situations that I have experienced. And that is exactly what I did for my holiday in Corsica at the beginning of September.
Planning the Illustrated Holiday Diary
Last year I also made an illustrated holiday diary to document two weeks of sailing (you can see it here). This time, however, I prepared ahead of time: I roughly copied the shape of the island I was going to spend a week on, with the idea of also writing down the itinerary. Nothing geographically accurate, but enough to make me really understand where I was going. Each morning I would draw the highlights of the previous day. That was my plan.
Documenting your holiday in this way is more personal and intimate than simply taking photographs. You can capture the small moments that might not be significant enough to capture with a camera, but are still important to you. Your drawings can also reflect your mood and emotions during the holiday, making them a more authentic representation.
The Illustrated Holiday
1 September: we spent the day on the ferry boat from Genoa to Bastia. As chance would have it, we met a friend on the ferry, so the trip turned into a nice chat that lasted several hours! Arriving on Corsican soil, we went to Pietracorbara, where Jeanmarc gave us a wonderful welcome and showed us the Corsican aperitif (Cap Corse Mattei). Too bad about the coffee that the waiter threw at me... but whatever, my smile soon returned during the surreal karaoke party of yesteryear to which Jeanmarc, the host, invited us along with his friends!
2 September: we visit 'the big toe' of Corsica. Starting from the Spiaggia delle Mucche (Cows' Beach), we go for a walk of about ten kilometres. What a landscape, what colours, what beaches. Centuri is a fabulous, picturesque village, right under the windmill.
3 settembre: me l'avevano detto che la corsica è piena di curve... ed è vero. Per fortuna non soffro di mal d'auto. Volevamo andare a Saleccia, che sembra essere spettacolare... ma ci si arriva solo in barca, e la quantità di persone che si aggirava alla partenza delle barche ci ha tramortiti. Abbiamo preferito andare a Calvi e visitare la cittadella murata, un aperitivo corso, e una fantastica mangiata in un piccolissimo ristorante.
4 September: is that a hole in the mountain up there? Eh no, it's the glowing eye of a dragon lying in wait for someone! That's how I see the world, I can't help it.... Anyway, there are so many bends in Corsica! Luckily, the views between those red pinnacles and the breathtaking glimpses of the sea are a great reward.
5 settembre: stiamo macinando chilometri di passeggiate. Le isole Sanguinarie sono bellissime, nonostante il nome inquietante. Ci sono dei fiori a papozzo che ricordano quelli che metto sempre nei miei disegni. Gli scenari sul mare, queste torri genovesi che sembrano messe lì per fare atmosfera, le spiagge anonime che sono bellissime comunque.
6 September: we went to a beach that is difficult to reach but which really has something more to offer than the others (apart from a rock on the mountain in the shape of a huge turtle, which looks at the bathers with a smile. Some say it is a lioness... but it is clearly a turtle instead). The water is so transparent that the fish can be seen well even without a mask. Then a visit to Bonifacio, that little town resting on the white meringue... I have no words to describe how beautiful it is.
7 settembre: altra passeggiatona, questa volta nella foresta dell'Ospedale, tra i pini marittimi profumati. Dopo una discesa che sembrava un'arrampicata (c'è una parola per definire un'arrampicata che scende, invece che salire? Boh...) siamo arrivati a vedere la cascata Piscia di Gallo: un salto di 60 metri.
8 September: We spent the night in Corte, a small town perched in the mountains. The Corsica museum inside is very interesting, especially the part about cartography. PS: this drawing is pitiful... what is that wavy line in the middle? Well, it was an attempt at a cartography model separé, which came out particularly bad.
9 September: A day waiting for the ferry boat, which set sail in the evening. We found a beautiful beach of warm pebbles, full of lots of little fish to which we fed apple cores: a new taste for these little sea friends!
A creativity-enhancing habit
Creating a drawn diary was a great way to stimulate creativity. Drawing allows us to see things differently and pay more attention to our surroundings. The drawings I made are not accurate, they are not spectacular in their faithfulness to scenery or monuments. But they do tell what I felt was worth representing of the day, what I remember and how I remember it.
I am not satisfied with some of the drawings... I could definitely do it a thousand times better!!! But that's part of the game... sometimes you have to accept that the drawing isn't perfect, or doesn't fully satisfy, and that's OK. I had fun making them, and I have fun now looking back on that experience. It was certainly an enriching element of my holiday: I came back more energized than ever, full of energy and creative ideas!
Conclusion
In conclusion, creating a drawn diary of your holiday is a beautiful way to document an experience. It is personal, intimate and enhances your creativity. It is a unique souvenir that you can keep forever.
It doesn't matter if it is perfect, if all the drawings are a work of art... the important thing is to have fun while doing it, and while looking at it. It is the joy of being able to hold it in your hands.
So, next time you go on holiday, consider putting down your camera and picking up a pen and paper. You might be surprised how much you will enjoy it and your experience will have an extra memory.
