“The future enters into us long before it happens.”

– Rainer Maria Rilke

You know those mornings when you’re in the shower and an idea hits you mid-shampoo-scrub-down and you think, “Now that was worth waking up for!”?

That was me a few weeks ago, shortly before leaving for Book Passage, and the idea went something like this:

I want to do something with my travel sketches.

I didn’t know what exactly, but I wanted to do more than I had been – i.e. not letting them see the light of day outside my sketchbook.

* * *

In the world of travel writing and blogging, one of the most oft-repeated mantras seems to be, Find your niche. It doesn’t matter what it is, just get one – and get one quick. Budget travel. Luxury travel. Solo travel. Couples travel. Travel with your pet. Travel with your kids. Travel with your fridge. (Hey, it exists!)

Since I started this blog, I’ve never had an idea of what mine is – let alone how to find it. Indeed, the very idea of pigeon-holing myself into a category felt opposed to the way travel has opened up the world to me.

But that morning (with tropical-scented suds stinging my eyes, no less) it hit me:

Let travel sketching be my niche.

Let it become – as my marketing director sister would say in her snazzy marketing lingo – “part of my platform.”

Travel sketches of Portugal
Sketching session along the Duoro River in Porto, Portugal…I’ll take it!

Later that same evening, I received an email from a guy asking if I’d be interested in doing travel sketches for the chapter headings of a book he was helping put together. He didn’t know about my revelation that morning, but it absolutely felt like it.

So I wrote the man back and then I got to work setting up a little new travel sketches page on my website (just to make it official, yo) and when I arrived at Book Passage two days later, I realized just how fortuitous the timing of all this was – that opportunities are now presenting themselves to share my sketches with a wider audience than, say, my sketchbook. Which is always a thrilling prospect for an artist.

* * *

In the midst of all this, though, my mother started rooting around in the deep, dark abyss that is our cabinet of family photos and found some shots of me, hard at work on my sketching even as an appallingly-dressed 12-year old.

“Here’s to a few days that have brought you to this place today,” she wrote in an email when sending me the photos.

Because a huge part of my vision for this blog has always been sharing the journey itself with you – not just the excitement of arrivals, but stepping back and saying, how did we get to this point in the first place? – I felt compelled to share them with you, too. As exciting as it is to look ahead to the future, sometimes there’s value in looking back, too.

And if nothing else, seeing me layer denim on denim is bound to brighten your morning.

Enjoy!

Travel sketches as a kid
Homeschooling at its finest: channeling our inner Michelangelos…
Travel sketches as a kid
We’re not going to talk about my fashion sense here…but at least the globe pillow’s cool, right?
Travel sketches as a kid
From the Sistine Chapel it was on to a project about the Shoshone tribe…we were an ambitious bunch!
Travel sketches as kids
What kid wouldn’t want to personalize their own miniature teepee?

9 Comments

  • Your sketches are gorgeous! It’s funny how serendipity works right? You know what would be cool? If you wrote a post and had the accompanying sketches. I won’t fault you for the denim on denim look though. I was wearing XL World Cup Soccer T-Shirts at 14!

    • Thanks so much for this, Natalie – both for the kind words, and for the moral support about my 12-year-old self’s fashion sense 🙂 Great idea about doing sketches to accompany a post, too…I’ll have to test that out soon!

    • Thanks, Julie! I’m really hoping the assignment comes through (they’re still in the planning phases), as I’d love to work on it. Hope all’s well with you 🙂

  • I really like this travel sketching niche. I’ve been wanting to get back to sketching/drawing but I like combining the travel element. I’m going to start doing this, thanks for the inspiration.

    • Thanks for your comment, Melissa! I’m so glad to hear this inspired you to not only get back into drawing, but to take your sketch art on the road as well. I’ve found it has really enlivened my travels and helped me absorb a place in a whole different way. I can’t wait to see your sketches!

  • Funny I should just come across this post…I was just mulling over this same problem of “niche-finding” for myself!

    Our writing styles seem to be much more focused on personal narrative and story than guides to different places, but the “guides” thing seems to be (mostly) what attracts the largest audience. Whenever I write guide-style, though, my language is stilted and forced.

    But you’re absolutely right: play your strengths. Share. Repeat. You just launched your travel sketches component, and I just re-launched Sparkpunk with a new vision in mind.

    Are we on the same frequency or something? 🙂

    • “Play your strengths. Share. Repeat.”

      Such wise words, Zak. We’re both definitely more focused on the narrative side of things, because for me, that’s just what feels right – as you rightly say, it’s what flows naturally. I’m not opposed to some service pieces here and there, but I think it’s all about finding what makes you tick, and then going after that. We may not make as much while doing so, but at least we’ll be writing what we love and want to write 🙂

      I love SparkPunk’s new look, by the way. Congrats on the re-launch, I’m sure it’ll only get bigger and better over the next year!

  • Pingback: Travel sketch of the month: February edition | The Great Affair

Comments are closed.