A quick little sketchbook tour...

This past month Corbin and I took our baby to Oahu, Hawaii on what we called a "work-cation." We rented a house, woke up early to work remote, and did all the fun touristy things at a slower pace, exploring the island for an entire month.

I love drawing while traveling, so I took my sketchbook everywhere I could (although I ended up doing most of my drawing at our local beaches: Laie Beach, and Malaekahana State Park). This trip marked my first time ever drawing the ocean from life, an intimidating/exciting undertaking.

Sidenote: If you like this style of blogpost, I save most of my shop talk for my Patreon page. I'd love to see you there.

Beach plants

I had a lot of fun experimenting with mark-making while drawing Hawaii's beautiful plants. Beach plants always look so windswept, as if they're holding to their roots for dear life. I wanted to communicate some of that energy with scratchy, fast line-work.

I went over the top of these loose sketches with a portable gouache set I bought especially for traveling. The paints performed beautifully, drying nice and fast while still giving more opaque layers than watercolor.

On the road

Did you know that you can draw in the car? I've drawn on planes, trains, buses, and finally after years of thinking about it, I finally whipped out my sketchbook while driving on Oahu's winding mountain roads.

I love the car's wobbly movement showing through the linework.

Beach patrol

While I'm not satisfied with either of my drawings of the lifeguard station, I thought I'd include them anyways. I was drawn to the structure's complicated overlapping lines and angles and feel like I could have leaned into that more.

Visual journaling

My family joined us for part of the trip and helped out a lot with Heyward. I spent some time by the pool drawing precious little interactions between my baby his grandparents, aunt, and uncle. Everyone is so obsessed with him, and who can blame them?

Speed painting

I did some quick paintings at the beach and in the parking-lot while my husband took a surf lesson. While scary at first (I always feel like I'm about to ruin my drawing), I loved scrubbing around with my brush, trying to capture the beautiful nature.

Sidenote on painting at the beach: Orient yourself according to the wind, otherwise your paint set will fill to the brim with blowing sand!

I ended up filling almost two sketchbooks during our month-long trip, which surprised me because I never felt like I was forcing myself to draw. I simply sketched when I wanted to (which it turns out, is most of the time).

The biggest takeaway from Hawaii? I want to do way more observational drawing.

There's an energy to drawing from life that you just can't replicate in the studio. Though I try my best, I inevitably tighten up at my desk and overwork my sketches till they're no longer interesting. And while I might be able to draw exactly what I want from photos on the internet, too much photo-drawing can leave me feeling unoriginal.

On the other hand, while drawing outside with the wind and the ocean spray may seem more inconvenient, the elements, plants, and people around you are your best source for inspiration and ultimately work together to form an art-practice bursting with life– your life.

Thanks for reading!

-Audrey Day