Memories of Scotland

Here's the 2 page layout in my journal. The pen, for scale, is 5 inches. Bottom left page, is what I remember of the TV room in the basement of the bed 'n breakfast. Top right page is my memory of eating fish 'n chips out of a rolled up newspaper with my two co-workers and travel companions.

My Travels - English Tea

Landed in Glasgow, Scotland and had a short drive to the ferry pier. The ferry ride seemed to last a couple hours. I only remember gray and drizzle. We checked into the bed 'n breakfast about 2pm and I was starving. So while the others napped, I looked into the dining room. It was dark. I was told it was only open for breakfast but the nice lady at the desk said, "wait downstairs in the TV room and I'll bring you tea." I shrugged, better than nothing to get me to dinner. I was just expecting a hot beverage, but she brought a tray with a couple sandwiches, quartered and with the crusts cut off. Never had cucumber sandwiches before. Never had a sandwich with alfalfa sprouts. There were biscuits (shortbread and cream sandwich cookies) and chocolates! Of course, there was tea and cream...never had such dark tea before, I needed the cream. Bright sunshine was streaming into the room from a huge picture window. I only regret that I didn't leave a big tip on the tray, or any at all, because the meal never showed up on the lodging bill as I'd expected to add tip to my meal bill. As you can see, I've never forgotten my first encounter with British hospitality. I only learned years later I'd been given "tea," meaning a substantial meal with tea, the hot drink. Americans would think of it as an early dinner.

The sketch is gouache and ink. It's not much, but I'm rather proud of it as I've never been able to draw from memory or imagination. All the sketching practice of everyday objects has paid off.

My Travels - Ireland

It's St. Patrick's Day. How cool that my next planned sketch was my memory of our one hour fuel stop in Ireland. Not sure, it might have been Dublin. I only remember the brightest green in my 20 years. I don't even remember if the sky was gray or blue.

Of the sketch, the window ended up too big. I only wish they made airplane windows this big. I might have taken a picture of this sight but the shot would have been lost in my first mis-loaded roll that developed blank.

My Travels - New Project

This is the first entry of my new project. I'm scanning my travel-related 35mm film to draw/paint them into My Travels sketchbook. The sketchbook has smooth, but thick, 12x15 inch pages which are bound to be able to lay flat for double-page spreads. It's great for colored pencil, but I hope to do more gouache, acrylic inks, and fluid acrylics on the pages and in more of a journal format.

The drawing is of my first camera, a Canon AE-1 Program, in colored pencil. I used it from 1985 until 2006 when I went all digital. I was waiting for just the right digital SLR. That lens (extended) is really long and heavy from back in the days when lenses were made with glass and metal, but oh, what a workhorse this combination was!