New favourite sketchbook and some travel sketches

I found this Moleskine Storyboard Notebook in a shop in Hamburg and thought it would make a perfect illustrated (travel) journal. It has four frames on each page which are perfect for small sketches, and with plenty of room for notes. I started to fill it with sketches right away, working on them in the hotel in the evenings.

I had planned to carry a sketchbook with me all the time, and to make sketches during the day, but the temperaturs went up to 30 degrees Celsius, and with the heat, and all the walking I did, carrying my camera  all day was more than enough. So instead I used this notebook in the evenings, using the pictures I had taken during the day as references.

Luckily, I had taken a whole box of CdA Neocolor II and a couple of water reservoir brushes to add colour to my sketches. So here are a few first highlights from my trip to Hamburg last week:

• Of course the Strandkörbe ("beach baskets") at the beach in Travemünde
• The pier and lighthouse in Travemünde, where the river Trave flows into the Baltic Sea, and where in the evening the huge ferries from Scandinavia come in
• The charming Speicherstadt in Hamburg
• The Holstertor in Lübeck
• The weather forecast on Wednesday made me laugh. It said that in the following five days there would be: plenty of sun on Thursday, sunny on Friday, sunshine on Saturday, sunny on Sunday and lots of sun on Monday. It sounded as if someone was trying very hard to come upf with as much variation as possible to describe what basically was simply sunshine and blue sky one day after the other
• I almost missed the Queen Mary 2, which had arrived in Hamburg on Sunday morning for a day's visit. It was only thanks to a lazy detour that I saw her. She's certainly a very impressive sight
• I practically lived on ice cream, it was so hot all the time. My favourite flavours were: mint chocolate chips, blueberry and master of the woods. The first one is hard to find here in Switzerland, and the other two pretty much inexistent, especially the last one

 

I still want to add lots more sketches from my trip to Hamburg. An then of course take it with me to London in summer and Sweden in the autumn, and wherever I'll be going after that. I really love this journal/sketchbook/notebook.

Linking this up with Paint Party Friday. I missed last week's party. And while I really enjoyed an interenet-free ten days, it feels good to be back, especially with this fabulous and inspiring group of artists.