I'm back home after two weeks of travels, home to Germany to see my family, then off to France for a workshop. It was lovely, amazing, exhausting, and everything that a good voyage should be.
Naturally, I took a bunch of pictures with my phone - of my colleagues, friends and family, the gorgeous landscape in the French Alpes, the city (Lyon) I've missed so much. I've been revisiting some of the highlights over the last week, and sharing them with my husband and friends here in Sweden.
But let's be honest, those images have a shelf life. how long after you've come back do you look at those pictures you took on a trip? Do you go back through your phone to look at photos from that holiday five years ago?
Classic photo albums are a bit better than digital collections, because you can take them off the shelf and flick through. But still - and you can call me biased - the best thing I've found to better savour a travel memory is to capture it with a pen on paper.
The Activity - Make a sketch of an old travel photo
Step 1 - Find an old photo
Find the photos from a trip you've taken at least 5 years ago. Go through all the random snapshots you might have taken, and find one that sparks that “Oh, I totally forgot about that” feeling. Of course, in the eternal words of Mary Kondo, it should also spark joy!
(Admit it, we all have a photo like this somewhere in our collection)
Step 2 - Sketch it
In the medium of your choice, turn your snapshot into a drawing. It doesn't have to be photorealistic, because that's no fun and you already have the actual photograph for that. So have some fun! And while you're drawing think back on that moment. What where you doing, feeling, thinking? What happened before and after?
Step 3 - Hang your sketch (optional)
When you're done, hang your sketch somewhere you can see it so you can keep the memory alive even longer.
But whether you hang it up or not, I promise that the memory of that moment will stay with you much more vividly now, then when it was just a snapshot on your camera roll.
My Example
This is a proper quick phone snapshot I took back in 2017, out of the car window, while we were driving through France on the way back home after our friends’ wedding.
I can't resist a cute French castle village in the middle of a field. Even though (or maybe because) I'm from the south of Germany which is riddled with castles. Also, look at those clouds! The whole scene already looked like a painting just driving by.
And here is my sketch, done in oil pastels.
I have a big love for the colourful German expressionists of the early 20th century like Kirchner and Nolde, and, so inspired, I went for fluffy yellow clouds on a pink sky, and a bright red castle.
I have no idea where this castle was, but I surely won't forget it.
And you, which memory did you choose?
Love, Lorena
Bonus
Some of my favourite travel sketches and snapshots from the last two weeks: