100 Days of Travel Sketchbooks

Open pages of my 2025 India travel sketchbook

A Sketchbook Page a Day with a Bit of Writing Thrown in Too.

Inspired by #the100dayproject, and by all the people that are constantly nagging me to show my travel journals, I have begun my 100 Days of Travel Sketchbooks personal project.

My husband, Trevor, and I opted for a slightly less financially stable life than many that enables us to have the time to do as much traveling as possible. We have had some absolutely amazing trips, all over the world, and almost none of them have really been holidays. Every time we go somewhere I will create a travel sketchbook (or journal), recording a diary of the trip in words, pictures and found objects. If it is a shorter journey, say a few days in Venice for example, I will dig out another Italian sketchbook and add to it. We have quite a collection now. You can read all about my New York one, and even watch a video tour of the book, here on my website.

Having just returned from a fabulous trip to India – our third visit there – I am going to begin with that particular book. Each day of my project I will show a page, or couple of pages, and talk about my inspiration behind it, something that happened that day, a feeling inspired by the art on the pages, or perhaps something completely different. I am sure I will take a break from India somewhere along the line and branch out into some other places but it seemed as good a place as any to start initially.

So please, follow along and I would LOVE to know what you think! If you are a user of Substack you can follow along there too!

Indian sketchbook page showing collected labels and sketches relating to the in-flight meal choices.

DAY 6 – Which meal?

We have flown with Virgin Atlantic before, but in the other direction towards the United States, so we didn’t know what kind of food to expect on a flight to Delhi packed mainly with Indian passengers.
A sketch of a man in a lilac turban sits in a aeroplane wearing his headphones over the top of his headdress.

DAY 5 – In-flight Entertainments

After paying attention to the safety demonstration, everyone settled down with their welcome drinks to peruse the films available on the Virgin Atlantic Heathrow to Delhi flight. Knowing how I like to watch back to back films, Trevor had very kindly bought me a pair of noise cancelling ear buds. I was excited to give them a go - only to find that although they cut out the engine noise really well, I couldn’t get them to connect (wirelessly) to the TV system.
DAY 4 - The Glamour of Glasgow Airport

DAY 4 – The Glamour of Glasgow Airport

They say that ‘it’s not the destination, it’s the journey’. Whoever said it first was definitely not a tall person flying economy class from Glasgow Airport, to London, then to Delhi.
Day 3 of my 100 days of travel sketchbooks – The India Itinerary & the Reluctant Traveller

Day 3 – The India Itinerary & the Reluctant Traveller

January 6th 2025 was a freezing day in Scotland, but it was bright with no wind, so a great day for flying. The short flight to London Heathrow was at a very civilised time so no crazy bleary eyed early starts for us. I enjoyed having pre-flight time at home to make sure we had everything on the list for the trip This is, of course, a very nice position to be in as an artist. I have enough materials to last me a lifetime and I adore dabbling in lots of different drawing techniques. Variety is the spice of life after-all!

Day 2 – Sketchbook Packing Stress

Every trip begins with a great deal of stress for me for one simple reason; I simply have too many good art material options to choose from. This is, of course, a very nice position to be in as an artist. I have enough materials to last me a lifetime and I adore dabbling in lots of different drawing techniques. Variety is the spice of life after-all!
Front cover of my 2025 Indian Travel Sketchbook

Day 1 – 100 Days of Travel Sketchbooks

I could sit and sulk that I didn’t quite get around to doing a project that I quite fancied doing, but for once, I’m going to get off my procrastination pedestal and actually write something, and maybe even sketch too.