Sketching the journey to Ardnamurchan

If you google ‘travel memes’ one of the first quotes that will come up is

“Its the not the Destination, It’s the journey.”

by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance: An Excerpt from Collected Essays, First Series

I love the idea of these wise words, but sometimes the road just goes on and on and on, and I confess as a passenger I get pretty bored just staring out the window, even though the views are stunningly beautiful.

The trouble is that when I get bored, my hands look for something to do and my dirty confession is that I’m an avid finger picker and fingernail chewer. If my hands aren’t kept busy at all times, they fiddle, put sweets in my mouth and pick at themselves, which drives the hubby (who is driving the difficult roads) absolutely crackers.

I first tried wearing gloves but I was still being an annoying fidget, and still eating too many sweets. I’ve also tried doing knitting, which usually ends up in lost stitches and a lot of swearing (I’ll tell you about the 500 miles socks sometime) or sewing, which results in tiny sharp things being dropped and little threads all over the cab, which is far from ideal. These are also difficult activities to do on the winding roads of Scotland, and as I need to keep my eyes on the task 100% I tend to make myself feel travel sick.

So what I occupy myself with now, on a long journey, (especially one I’ve done many times before = boredom = finger picking) is to keep those devilish fingers busy by drawing whatever I see as we travel, in real time. I use the simplest of materials, such as pen or watercolour pencil and an aqua-pen and even construct my own tiny concertina sketchbooks from paper that I don’t want to use for bigger drawings. This means the books carry no pressure at all. It’s pretty much free fun!

Ardnamurchan campervan kayaking & sketching trip in Scotland 2025
concertina sketchbook sketches of a campervan journey from Dumbarton to Ardnamurchan via Glencoe in Scotland

The only downside in Scotland is that the roads can be very twisty, so you will notice that there is not much sketching on the upper Loch Lomond Road! We have fondly nicknamed it ‘the road of hell’ and it is travelled with both of us gritting out teeth in preparation for being hit by a crazy driver coming the other way, but that’s another story.

The sketches above were made over a 3 hour drive from Dumbarton to Ardnamurchan Peninsula, via Glencoe. I used a Caran D’Ache Museum Aquarelle pencil in Prussian Blue and a Pentel Aqua-Pen to make the lines into watercolour. The drawings were made on unprimed cartridge paper, cut into landscape strips and folded, in a concertina style, into 4 landscape panels 15cm x 10.5cm.

I find speed sketching in real time really engaging and engrossing. Yes, things do go by in the blink of an eye, and you can’t capture an accurate representation but it’s a great exercise in building your hand to visual memory coordination.

– What do you remember from that split second glance?
– What caught your eye in the scene around you?
– Draw it! (or write it down if you don’t draw)

But for me, the real beauty of this activity is that once you have reached your destination, you will have intact fingers, a thinner waistline and also have a magical record of your journey.

Each time you do the same road, your recordings will be different as you will notice different things or glance up at different moments.

concertina sketchbook sketches of a campervan journey from Dumbarton to Ardnamurchan via Glencoe in Scotland

Once back home, I spent an afternoon, constructing the finished sketchbook, by attaching the folded panels into two lengths and then gluing them back to back. I then made two card ‘end’ covers which I labelled parts 1 & 2 with the tea break at the waterfalls in Glencoe valley as a perfect pause in the journey.

The final book is a little rough and ready, and I got glue on the cover (grrr) but I’m pleased with the memories, this little book holds. Also my brain and my fingers are very thankful for being kept busy in such a productive way 🙂

I can’t wait for another trip now to make another, perhaps in a different colour or pencil. What would you like to see?

From Travel Sketches to Finished Art: Artist Talk in Glasgow | Fiona WilsonFrom Travel Sketches to Finished Art: Artist Talk in Glasgow | Fiona Wilson