Travel Journaling as a Teacher and Artist

Travel Journaling

As a high school art teacher, I'm always looking for ways to encourage my students to engage in regular sketching and drawing practice to hone their observation and visual perception skills. This past school year, I had the chance to lead a student trip to Germany, and it was this adventure that sparked my newfound passion for travel journaling and sketching. 
The trip was organized around the themes of history and art, and as the art teacher, it was my role to create an art component for our journey. Knowing we would encounter emotionally challenging histories and realities of Germany’s past, I began researching travel journaling as a way for students to document and process their experiences. I aimed to make the travel art journal approachable and accessible, especially since not all the students were art students. My goal was to introduce travel sketching for beginners techniques and incorporate elements of a travel journal and scrapbook to ensure everyone could participate and benefit from the creative process.
During all this planning, I never anticipated just how profoundly travel journaling would impact my own art and teaching practice. Keeping a travel art journal transformed my experience on the trip, guiding me to stay present and ultimately changing the way I travel forever.

Travel Art Kit

When preparing for our trip, I knew I needed a travel sketch kit that was lightweight yet included all the essentials. My kit comprised a compact watercolor sketchbook, a fine-tipped pen, a pocket watercolor palette, a watercolor brush pen which holds a small amount of water to paint on the go (this was a game changer), a glue tape runner, and a roll of Washi tape.  In addition to these materials I also brought some materials that we could share as a group including Posca pens, crayons for texture rubbings, white gel pens and extra paper. To organize the kits I used mesh zipper bags from Blick art materials that I found in my classroom and repurposed for this purpose.  The bags were 10" X 13" which was a good size for including the 8.5" X 11" photocopies I created as a guide to the museums would visit, museum scavenger hunts and art journal guide I created for the trip. I have updated and expanded on this guide and created a *free* Travel Journaling Get Started Guide (pdf with links) for you in hopes it will inspire you and your students to try travel art journaling. 

DIY Watercolor Dot Cards

For a lightweight alternative to pocket watercolors, check out watercolor dot cards. I learned about these from a fellow teacher on Instagram after I had purchased the pocket watercolor sets and wished I had known sooner! While the pocket watercolors I packed for Germany worked great for my students, they were a bit bulkier. Watercolor dot cards, on the other hand, are ultra compact and easy to carry. You can buy them pre-made or DIY your own with tube watercolors by placing small dots on a piece of watercolor paper and letting them dry. Just grab a water brush pen, touch the dot, and you're ready to start sketching. 

DIY watercolor dot cards

Preparing Travel Journaling Kits

In preparation for the trip, I spent time prepping my journal, experimenting with the materials I had ordered, and trying out various techniques like Washi tape resist, architectural sketching, texture rubbings and mixed media collage. During our pre-trip meetings, I presented these techniques to the students, encouraging them to get comfortable with the supplies and to cut out images ahead of time, especially if travel sketching wasn't their thing. 
We reviewed our itinerary to get a sense of where we would be going and what we would see, helping everyone feel more prepared and excited. I also created a museum guide for them, and included a Museum Scavenger Hunt with a mix of specific pieces and more generic items to look for, to make the free time of our museum visits more engaging and interactive.

Travel Journal Techniques

Once we were in Germany, I wanted to engage my students in travel journaling, regardless of their skill levels. I devised various ideas and techniques to cater to their diverse abilities. We focused on observational drawing by sketching architectural elements, landscapes, and street scenes. For those less confident in their drawing skills, we explored mixed media techniques, using torn paper, brochures, and found objects to create visually appealing pages. Incorporating text was another important aspect, as I encouraged students to add personal reflections and descriptive notes to their journals.

Mixed Media Collage Art Journal Pages

Collage quickly became a favorite medium among my students. It’s approachable and offers endless possibilities for creativity. By incorporating maps, texture rubbings, and other found materials like receipts, paper packaging, and tickets, students could visually narrate their travel stories. This technique was especially beneficial for those who felt less confident in their drawing or painting abilities. The use of torn paper edges added a unique, organic touch to their compositions, and I encouraged students to use their watercolors to add backgrounds and areas of emphasis to their pages. 
If you are interested in seeing more mixed media collage techniques that could be incorporated into travel art journals and other classroom activities check out this blog post on Mixed Media Collage Sketchbook Cover Ideas and this blog post all about Collages for Women's History Month. ​

This page includes texture rubbings, receipts, a paper gift bag and a postcard purchased at the Art Museum.

Texture Rubbings

Creating texture rubbings is a great technique for looking at the world around you in a different way. Considering the texture of surfaces forces you to look all around as you move through architectural spaces. One of the best places for creating rubbings that I found on our trip to Germany was the ground. Man hole and grate covers, street placards and infrastructure markings often had interesting textures that showed up well using a wax crayon and somewhat thin paper. For some of these rubbings I used paper I brought on the trip and for others I used the complementary notepad from the hotels we stayed at. If you are traveling internationally consider making rubbings of the coins, this is another fun way to explore the textures you encounter while traveling. While we were in Germany I found an East German coin at the Mauerpark Flea Market and used it to create rubbings for my Travel Art Journal page about our Berlin Wall bike tour. 

Creating texture rubbings of a 50 cent Euro coin

Shadow Tracing

To help students stay present and connected with the environment, we explored shadow tracing. I encouraged them to look for interesting shadows in the landscape and trace their outlines in their journals.  This activity was not only a creative exercise but also a meditative practice which served as a way to stay present even when confronted with the difficult and tragic histories we were confronted with on our tour. 
While at the Jewish Museum at Berlin, I found a shadow of a bouquet in a vase in the Museum Cafe and used a pencil, waterbrush pen and watercolors to create a small painted tracing of the shadow. I found this to be a soothing and reflective activity after an emotional tour of the museum. 

Travel Journals as Scrapbooks

Beyond drawings and paintings, our travel journals also served as scrapbooks. We incorporated mementos like tickets, brochures, and photos, creating a personal narrative that combined art and memories. This approach allowed students to document their experiences holistically, blending their artistic expressions with tangible keepsakes from the trip. I also like how it makes you more aware of all the paper ephemera around you and seeking out these materials feels like a treasure hunt. I also noticed students engaging more with maps and reading brochures more since they were using them in their travel art journal pages. We often had to look closely at maps to find the exact locations we visited and in the process students would develop a greater understanding and appreciation of the areas we visited. 

Travel journal scrapbook page with maps, photos and some brief reflections

Unique Materials for Travel Journals

Keep an open mind about what could be used in your travel journal to make art. One of the materials that proved to be a great medium for painting was the instant coffee packets supplied by the hotels on our trip. These dehydrated coffee crystals made a nice sepia toned paint when mixed with water using the waterbrush pen. I used this to add background texture to pages as well as to paint a motif from a carved wood door we saw in Munich. An added bonus is that it makes the journal page smell faintly of fresh coffee. 

Using instant coffee as paint in my Travel Art Journal

Another unusual technique that I experimented with was paint drag downs. Inspired by "overpainted" photos I saw in the Neue Nationalgalerie by the German artist Gerhard Richter, I used the corner of a postcard and let the paint pool from a Posca paint pen so I could drag down the paint to create an abstract effect. ​

Engaging Students of All Abilities

One of the most rewarding aspects of travel journaling was seeing how it engaged students of all abilities and levels of experience with art. I emphasized that there is no right or wrong way to travel art journal, encouraging them to experiment and explore their creativity. Whether through detailed sketches, vibrant collages, or written reflections, every student found a way to express their experiences. I'm not sharing images of student work here because these journals became very personal to the students. 
These techniques and approaches can also be used by anyone who enjoys traveling and wants to connect more deeply to their experience of a place. There is a very low bar for entry to the world of travel journaling and it is incredibly rewarding.  

Travel Journaling After the Trip

Something that surprised me was that for most of us the majority of the work in our travel journals happened after the trip or on the flight home. It would have been nice to have more time to work in our journals during the trip but I don't think this is always feasible especially when working with a tour company with tight schedules. But don't let this deter you from sharing travel art journaling with your students or from trying it yourself. Creating pages after the trip or while traveling home is a wonderful way to re-experience the memories and reflect on your experiences. I love this quote by Anaïs Nin "We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect." I find this to be very true of Travel Journaling as well. When you travel with the intention of creating a journal page you pay more attention to your senses and when you create the page you get to relive the experience with a richer understanding. 

Travel Journaling Next Steps

At this point I'm hooked on travel journaling. I found it to be personally rewarding as an artist, educator and traveler and I plan to keep using my journal as I travel and also to explore new places close to where I live. As an art teacher I want to approach teaching travel journaling again in the future. There are some things I would do differently and I would find a way to get in a bit more journaling together on the trip (the Germany trip was especially hectic due to some flight and transportation delays) but having more time to work together in our journals at a park or cafe would have been beneficial for the students who had trouble getting stated. 
If you want to see more about the travel art journal set up or our trip in Germany check out these two Youtube videos: Travel Journal Set Up for International Tour with Students  and Art Journal through Germany: Student Group Travel Vlog and please share your own  experiences with travel art journaling in the comments below!  If you haven't already downloaded it, here is your Travel Journaling Get Started Guide. 
Looking forward to continuing this journey! 

Here I am working in my travel journal on the plane home from Mexico