Early Summer and Portugal Sketchbooks Bound

My early summer sketchbook

The smoky skies have been keeping me indoors with the windows and doors tightly closed. I don’t like it at all, especially in August, but being shut in has enabled me to get several things done that I haven’t otherwise made time for. At the top of my list was binding my Portugal sketchbook and the last sketchbook before that.

My early summer sketchbook (above) includes our trip to Yosemite in May, so the front cover shows my sketch of upper and lower Yosemite Falls. On the back is the sketch of our house, which I had made just before we left for Portugal.

 

My Portugal sketchbook

As is my tradition for all my travel sketchbooks, the covers of my Portugal sketchbook are collages of maps, postcards and other ephemera. I bound the symposium program right into the sketchbook: I just removed the staples and drilled the program pages and related planning papers using the same hole template that I use for all my signatures. In the center of that signature I included my “certificate of participation” from the symposium (yes, I spotted the typo 😕). I filled blank spaces with cards that I had swapped with new people I met in Porto.

 

The symposium program is bound right into the sketchbook.

I taped in the cards I collected from sketchers I met in Porto.

I "graduated" from another symposium!

Before I started sketching, I used to save ephemera from trips by shoving it all into a bag or box and then forgetting about it. Now I find a place in my sketchbook for any scraps of paper I really want to save, and the rest get recycled. I like the tidiness of everything in one bound book, and it cuts down on clutter that I never look at. My travel sketchbooks, on the other hand, are so much fun to look back through, again and again.

Portugal Travel Journal: Field Notes Signature

My Portugal travel journal in a Field Notes Signature

Although I’ll probably continue to mention my trip to Portugal occasionally (I won’t stop thinking about my experiences in that beautiful country for a long time), my last blog post as a trip follow-up is related to my travel journal.

The last time I talked about it was in 2014 shortly after I had returned from Brazil. For several years, I had happily used a pocket-size Rhodia Rhodiarama notebook for that role. The size and format are compact enough to slip easily into my bag and write in on tiny café tables and train or plane tray tables. It has 192 pages (96 sheets), which is more than ample for a duration of two to three weeks, which is typical for our international trips. Most important, it has paper that can be used for both writing (with any implement, including fountain pen) and sketching (as long as the medium is not too wet).

Although I was still satisfied with the Rhodia, I decided to try something new as my travel journal for Portugal: an unruled Field Notes Signature (which I reviewed when it first came out). The page format is slightly larger than a Rhodia, giving me more space for sketches, the softcover profile is less bulky than the Rhodia’s hardcover, and overall the book feels lighter. The paper is not quite as friendly to fountain pens as the Rhodia is, but on the other hand, the light tooth is friendlier to graphite and colored pencils. It can take a light wash just like the Rhodia. The only drawback I foresaw was that the Signature contains only 72 pages (36 sheets), which I thought might be insufficient to cover 18 days of travel. But with a larger page size, perhaps it would be a wash? It was worth a try.

 

I left the cover blank when I left for the trip, hoping that I would find an appropriate sticker by the end of my travels. Indeed, my symposium goodie bag contained stickers!

A few things I always do to prep my travel journal long before the trip begins is to glue a calendar with itinerary to the inside front cover and a map on the first page showing the cities I’m visiting. As soon as I commit to a trip, I use the first several pages to make notes from my research about things I want to see and do. Starting from the back (where it’s handy for quick reference), I use a few pages to write vocabulary words and pronunciation cues I learn as I’m researching.

 

Calendar and map at the front

The bulk of the book contains observations and musings about my experiences. But because I’m in the habit of using a pocket notebook for general memos during my more mundane life at home, I use the travel journal for that role, too. I wrote messy reminders to myself right alongside pontifications of the day and notations of steps Greg registered on his Fitbit (18,111 in Lisbon one day; 19,932 the next!) I glued in ticket stubs, receipts and other ephemera. And at the end of each day, I looked through the photos I took and picked out just one or two favorites to print out on my Sprocket portable printer (the printer paper is self-adhesive, so it’s about as handy as it could be).

 

A photo printed on my Sprocket

Since I do most of my sketching in my usual hand-stitched sketchbook signatures that I’ll later bind together, I didn’t make too many sketches in my travel journal. But again, just like in my ordinary life when I sometimes sketch in a daily-carry Field Notes, I occasionally reached for the Signature instead of my full-size sketchbook. It was especially handy when I had only a few minutes for a sketch, or I was in transit and my full sketch kit was in my backpack (when that’s the case, my travel journal always stays at my side in my mini-size Rickshaw Zero messenger that I carry during transit only).

 

Peacock sketched at Castelo de S. Jorge right next to a list of restaurant options we were researching.

The Signature held up very well to daily wear and tear and constant pulling in and out of my bag. My only minor complaint is that I did, indeed, run out of pages at the end of the trip. My final observations and a couple of sketches were done on the backs of receipts and a train ticket (which I later taped in). I enjoyed doing that, though; writing and drawing on ephemera gives the book a certain grittiness that’s part of every trip, no matter how well-planned.

The Signature is a winner. Wherever I go next, a Signature is coming with me.

I adhere ticket stubs and receipts with Tombow Mono tape glue, which is pricey but very handy and neat.

When I ran out of pages toward the end, I started sketching on ticket stubs and receipts.

On the last page are vocabulary words I started jotting long before the trip began. On the inside back cover, I taped in the
ephemera I wrote and sketched on when I ran out of pages.

Portugal Sketching Highlights

7/25/18 Coimbra

Every time we travel, Greg and I learn a little more about what we enjoy most (and least) about traveling, and I learn a little more about what kinds of travel sketching moments are my happiest. When planning a trip, I always have a mental “must-sketch” list based on images I’ve seen, and I usually manage to hit a few. But time and time again, the highlights of my trip are not when I’ve checked off the “big” sketches on my list but the casual moments captured spontaneously. Since I can’t plan for the spontaneity that I know will ultimately be the most enjoyable, I’ve learned that I can only build in enough unstructured time in my travels to enable those moments to happen. And over time, we’ve gotten pretty good at avoiding over-planning and staying as loose as we can.

My favorite sketch of the entire trip is the one you saw earlier in my report of my workshop with Eduardo Bajzek (top of post). It was late afternoon on our last full day in Coimbra when we had nothing to do except maybe look for a place for dinner. Greg was taking photos somewhere nearby; a busker played jazz on his saxophone. Relaxed and unhurried, I looked at those café umbrellas in black and white and the canyon of buildings topped by a triangular slice of sky, and the casual scene seemed just right for practicing the graphite techniques I’d learned. In addition to being a quintessential Portuguese street scene, it represents the best of what I took home from my symposium education.

Another highlight was when I sketched Mondeguinas Tuna Feminina da Universidade, one of several musical groups made up of female Coimbra University students. Singing traditional college songs about loyalty and fraternity, these vivacious young women seemed so positive and cheerful as they busked to help pay for their education. (They were so delighted with my sketch that we exchanged Instagram names, and they showed my sketch on their account later that day.)

 

7/24/18 Mondeguinas Tuna Feminina da Universidade

I had good moments in Lisbon, too. On a Sunday afternoon, we stopped for a late lunch at a café with very rocky tables and chairs teetering on the lopsided, inclined pavement. No amount of tissue folded under the table legs would keep it from tilting dangerously. A large tree provided plenty of shade (and occasionally dropped small leaves onto our plates). It was too late for lunch and too early for dinner for the other patrons, who shot the breeze over bottles of Sagres, so we were the only ones leisurely eating. After I finished, I sketched a building on the street below us that was covered with yellow tiles. Streetcars passed by (but never long enough for me to work one into the sketch). The whole time I was wary of leaning too far in any direction lest my unstable chair toppled over. I was sketching in Portugal, and it was wonderful.

 

7/14/18 Lisbon

Although the last official leg of our trip was Coimbra, we had to fly home out of Lisbon, so we returned there for an overnight before our morning flight. With only about 18 hours in the city, we felt at loose ends. Wandering around our hotel’s neighborhood (which was different from the one we enjoyed during our initial Lisbon stay), we stumbled upon a lovely park. Strangely enough, it was filled with roosters and some large, ugly birds that looked like a cross between a turkey and a vulture. Some of the most fun I had in Portugal was chasing these birds around the park, sketching them. At one point a surprising gust of wind took my hat off and into the fenced area where the birds roamed. As I was contemplating whether to climb ungracefully over the low fence to retrieve my hat, a young woman who had been sitting nearby saw my quandary and stepped over the fence to get the hat for me! It’s a simple memory that I’ll cherish.

7/2718 odd birds in Lisbon

Although these weren’t necessarily among my most enjoyable sketches, small thumbnails (like those below) turned out to be long-term sketching energy-savers. Sometimes when traveling, I don’t have enough time for a full-page sketch, but I want to preserve a scene anyway. A tiny thumbnail (these are only a couple of inches) does the job as well as a full page, and it enables me to save energy for a larger sketch later. In this case, it’s not so much a sketching highlight as a strategy for greater enjoyment overall.

 

7/26/18 thumbnails of Lisbon building tops

If these were the highlights, what were the lowlights? Although I enjoyed seeing both Sintra and Guimarães, I realize I don’t appreciate short day trips nearly as much as committing several days to a single place. Greg feels the same way. I feel too rushed and compelled to sketch only the “big” sights because that’s what I came to see, and I end up missing the ordinary. It’s hard to resist the “must-see” side trips that travel books recommend, but I have to keep reminding myself to stay true to what I enjoy – not what the guidebooks say I will enjoy.

The more I travel and sketch, the more I learn about both traveling and sketching.

Tchau, Portugal! We'll be back someday!

Coimbra

7/24/18 Coimbra University Tower

Our international travel experience has shown us that we are happiest when we schedule a smaller, low-key town at the end of the trip instead of a large, intense city. To that end, we made Coimbra the last stop on our Portuguese itinerary, a college town that has been described as “Lisbon, but without all the tourists.” Four nights is probably more than most travelers to Portugal would devote to this friendly town, which doesn’t have any big-name attractions (other than Coimbra Universidade, of course – one of Europe’s oldest universities). But photos we’d seen and articles we’d read gave us the impression that Coimbra would be an ideal place to wind down and relax before we headed home, and it turned out to be exactly right.

Although we didn’t get to rest our weary legs much – Coimbra has its share of hills – we could give Google Maps a rest (in a town with one main square, it’s hard to get lost). Feeling safe and relaxed and having sketched enough iconic towers and views during the rest of the trip, I found myself making more of the kinds of sketches I would make if I were home – ordinary street scenes, utility wires, a busker, heavy equipment.

 

7/23/18 Bellini gelateria, Coimbra

We finally had time to enjoy Fado, the traditional Portuguese musical form. I found myself taking more photos of the remarkable pavement and details like doorknobs because there wasn’t as much vehicular or pedestrian traffic to worry about bumping into. We ate more gelato!

7/24/18 Fado performers

7/23/18 busker

7/23/18 Detail of Igreja de Santa Cruz

7/24/18 door knob

7/24/18 Igreia Santa Cruz 

7/25/18 An historic flag of Portugal was being hoisted
for an event.

7/26/18 Se Velha cathedral, Rua dos Coutinhos

7/25/18 monument of Joaquim Antonio de Aguiar,
which was always covered with pigeons

7/25/18 I loved the juxtaposition of the Gothic cathedral, highrises, construction crane and utility poles -- all in the same view.

7/26/18 St. Benedict Chapel and bamboo forest, Jardim Botanica

7/25/18 utility wires wrapped around a balcony

7/25/18 building details

7/25/18 Mondego River, Coimbra

7/26/18 Hotel Astoria

Street scenes of Coimbra

A car and a bus trying to squeeze past each other!

Lots of interesting doors and doorknobs

I had more time to appreciate the pavement.

Bamboo grove inside the Jardim Botanica, which is part of Coimbra Universidade

Burger King delivers!

184 narrow, winding steps to the top of Coimbra University's
iconic tower

And when we climbed to the top, this view was our reward.

After Greg's Fitbit registered our 19,488 steps for the day, we stopped for gelato. BIG gelato.