If you ask me - What is a one thing that you are really proud of ? I wouldn't hesitate long with the answer: it's keeping up with my landscape sketchbooks aka "visual diaries".

Since 2014 - I have been registering the views and memories from all the places I visit around the world, having in mind a rule to have at least one sketch from every new place I visit (mostly a country, but often also city/town, specific area - just to register the fact that I've been there).

By the time I write this in 2024 (so it will be already 10 years!), I’ve filled 7 of such landscape sketchbooks. First 6 consist of the similar format: nearly every page is such 'postcard' painting. In the 7th one in which I have started more experiments with various compositions/ masking - registering more situations and people over only 'pretty' landscapes. You can see the gallery as well as videos of my sketchbooks flip-throughs here ✨

How did it all start?

My painting journey has already started when I was a kid, but this specific type of painting technique, where I use watercolor and gouache for travel/plein-air (outdoor) sketches, began during my Erasmus scholarship in Spain in fall of 2014.

I had lived in Poland my whole life before that, so when I discovered the Mediterranean landscape of Cuenca (a small charming town located between Madrid and Valencia), I was introduced to a completely new culture and climate, with very different views than what I was used to back in my home country.

Therefore pretty much everywhere I looked, I could find some new, inspiring and interesting subjects to paint. Additionally, I was very focused on improving my skills (to the contrary of Erasmus trips having a reputation of a “constant party” - mine was one of the most productive time I had in my life - with a great balance with socializing and fun, of course!). At that time I really inspired by the landscape sketches of Nathan Fowkes (if you don’t know him, I really recommend checking out his landscape works for the inspiration).

^ Here is a compilation of all the paintings I did during that time - which I treat as and 'origin' and beginnings of my all further travel sketches (these were not my first outdoor paintings though - I had previously did some bigger pleinair pieces working mostly with acrylics, but this was the first time I started them in this small format and with watercolor and gouache technique.

It became quite addictive, I would take my painting kit everywhere I went to “register” all the views in my small postcard size and I just kept wanting to have more of them as memories of the places I visited.

While capturing the beauty of those places, I was also determined to study and improve my painting skills - observing light and shadow over so many different light situations.

And even though I've been painting mostly landscapes -j ust by studying directly from life - I've been significantly improving my understanding of color, light and composition, and I could also use this knowledge while working on my digital painting pieces.

Travels became a really great inspiration - not only because of new places to visit (as there is always something around you to paint) but also sort of time limitation - I knew I wouldn’t come back to that place soon or at all, so I wanted to capture as much. Therefore I would usually create most during my two weeks vacation trips (for example to Thailand, United States, Tatra Mountains - which compilations of you can see below)

I would make compilations of all the sketches from my specific travels.

But during my time in Berlin - and especially when I worked at Wooga game studio - I would use the lunch break to go out and paint the areas around - that's why I have so many sketches from cemeteries - there were a couple of them close to the studio and I found them really calm and inspiring.

Lunch break sketches from cemeteries in Berlin (2017)

My setup & materials

To be able to travel and paint on the go, I had to decide on the mobile set up that would be light to carry, quick to set and easy to clean up. Watercolor and gouache work really great for that as the only things that you need to have with you are:

- sketchbook

- watercolor palette (with all the colors you need)

- couple of brushes

- white gouache tube + for me also important burnt umber watercolor tube (optionally some other light gouache like yellow)

- water container

- optional (yet not essential masking tape)

On the image above you can see everything I need to create my travel paintings.

Here are some most frequent questions I get asked constantly

If you want to get extended information on my tools (and more photos but also more tips on pretty much everything you need to know to start painting with watercolor & gouache (like composition, practical outdoor tips, values, color&light) - I have put together a PDF booklet + videos explaining all of them in details:

I have created this tutorial as a part of my Patreon rewards that I was running 2-3years ago - but since I do not continue with it anymore, it is now available for everyone to get *here*.

What you will find inside:

- the whole setup and materials descriptions in detail

- access to exclusive real time video recordings of the whole painting process (+description of each step from start to finish)

- outdoor painting tips

- fundamentals of composition, light and color that I get to think about each time I paint

- inspiration of where and what to sketch

- how to practice from different sources (both from life & photos)

It is so far the biggest tutorial material I have ever done and I am happy to have received a lot of positive feedback from people who have already tried it out. I hope it helps you with your landscape painting journey as well!

If you can afford it, I would really appreciate if you buy it for it's original price (your support will help me create more of the content to share!) But if that's too much for you (which I absolutely understand as I've been there too) - there are other ways of support - please feel free to contact me for a discount and choose any amount that you can afford and/or are willing to spend on it and enjoy the read, but I would ask you to share the info about the booklet on your social media with a small review :) Which is also appreciated even if you bought the booklet for an original price 🙏

Upcoming workshop in Berlin (August 10-11th)

If you want to learn from me directly, I will soon be teaching a live workshop in Berlin, with a collaboration with Drink&Draw Berlin!

You can see more info about it in this post.

Ready to paint?

I hope you learned something new from this post or got inspired to go out and paint yourself! Please share it around with others that may be interested in this topic, inspiration is contagious 😌✨️ And if you manage to paint something inspired by this post or my work, please tag me when you post or send me your work, I would love to see (and share, if you allow) what you come up with!

Let me know you thoughts in the comments, I always love to hear any feedback people may have. Or perhaps do you have some more questions that I haven't touched up on? Let me know :)

Cheers,

Iga

PS. I have recently posted my first YT video (well, technically it's not the first, but I treat it as a first - of this type - because here I actually show myself and talk to the camera instead of only having a time-lapse process or a sketchbook flip through. I am currently preparing more videos, including the brief history of my whole 10 years of landscape painting - so feel free to follow me there and watch more about my painting adventures ✨️