Creative Illustration: Draw Your Dream Vacation

1. Let's Begin!: Illustrating from my travels really brings everything into focus. I'm constantly challenged by wanting to marry contemporary fashion and style with the history of a destination. My name is Meagan Morrison and I'm a traveling fashion illustrator and the founder of Travel Write Draw. I started my blog in 2010 and it was really with the intent of manifesting my dream profession. I thought, "What better way to create it than to do it myself?" One of the common misconceptions about travel illustration is that you actually have to leave the country in order to be inspired by the destination and I really want to re-frame that in this class to show you that you don't actually have to buy a plane ticket to be inspired at all. Today, we're going to explore the seven elements of travel that you can use to investigate your destination, how to compile all of your inspiration together, start your preliminary sketches in your first impressions, take that to a more conceptual stage and then ultimately, a final painting. The goal is ultimately to show you my process so that you can make it your own. Your project in this class is to create an original work of art that is reflection of either experience that you've lived in the past, that is around you currently, or that you hope to take in the future. I'm so excited to get started so let's begin. 2. Your Assignment: Travel to me is the greatest source of inspiration, it's really the lifeline of my creative process. The reason I love it so much is because every time I travel, I learn something new about myself, my place in the world, about other cultures, other people, I develop greater compassion for the world, and I can really come back and share that with all of you, with my community. The thing that I've discovered about travelling so much these last few years is how differently the experience is when you get to that definition from maybe what you've heard or what you expected it to be, I love being out of my comfort zone. It's a bit of a test of endurance that I have with myself. So, when I go to some place, that's a real culture shock. I think the things that are going through my mind are either to be really proactive, and keep my eyes open. I have a tendency to be so focused on my song when I'm in the States, and I'm at home in New York, that I really want to try and see everything with my eyes, and not through a third lens. In the last few years of running travel, I drove four times, I have travelled to over 40 countries. I've been to Africa and South America, Russia, I've learned so much about myself in the process just seeing how differently we live all around the world, and to really develop an understanding for how different we are, and how we are also very similar at the same time. Illustrating from my travels really brings everything into focus. It suddenly gives it a time, place and context. I know exactly how to piece together the inspiration, and I'm constantly challenged by wanting to marry contemporary fashion and style with the history of a destination. So, where it came from, where it is now, how can I put my own spin on it? That's a challenge to really speak to these different elements of a destination through the lens of fashion illustration. I love destinations that are super colorful, textural, the Marrakech , the Istanbuls, the Japan, Dubai, all these places that are just so rich in culture, but I honestly believe that you could draw from any destination so long as it inspires you, that's what's most important. There are three approaches that you can take to deciding on your destination of inspiration. It could be something local, it could be a dream destination or maybe it's something that you've already visited in the past. So, when it comes to local exploration as your starting point, it could be a local gallery or a museum The best part about a local experience is that you can actually go physically in person, take your own photos for reference and have that emotional connection having lived it yourself in real time. So, a dream trip could be a destination that you've always dreamed to visiting. For me, I'd always dreamed to visiting Capri, but about a year ago, I hadn't yet made it there. So, I was scouring together all of my inspiration, going through Instagram feeds of people that I knew had visited there, pulling references on Pinterest, going through Google images, going through magazine editorials trying to find as much references I could from the destination to make sure whatever I was painting was really an accurate reflection of that destination. But it's an amazing time also to get really inspired by something that you hope to one day travel to, and literally draw that into your future. So, today the trip I've decided to explore with you is Marrakech. This city is just an infinite pool of inspiration, and when I came back, I could not illustrate fast enough to get out all of my inspiration. So, I really want to unpack that with you today to show you my process, and how you can recreate that yourself. Marrakech is at the top of the continent of Africa, it is in Morocco. I visited Marrakech a few seasons ago, I was there in part personal, part professional capacity, it's hard to define the two at this point in my life, but the interesting thing about Marrakech that that is an experience in and of itself, because the design is so distinct and unique. Where you're staying is so inspiring, as inspiring as stepping outside your door and actually being in the markets. The senses are all ignited there from the smells to the tastes to visually, everything you're seeing, you're hearing, you're observing constantly, so your senses are just alive, which is why I've chosen this destination to draw from today because there's so much to pull from. The very first step that you're going to do is determine whether you're going to pull from bus trip, a dream destination or something local. So, decide on your destination, and we'll move forward to inspiration. 3. Observation & Illustration: So, when I like to begin my research for inspiration, I have a list that I like to reference when it comes to starting. I want to share that with you guys because I know it can be a bit of a daunting task to think about, where to begin and what should I be looking for. So, I think this is a really good place to start. Firstly, I'll look at geography and climate of a destination, because I think that is a really great framework and puts it into context. Is it a desert destination, is it a city destination, is it really warm, is it cold? All those little things are going to fit into, what they're eating, how they're dressing, so I think that's a really good place to start. From there, I tend to go to, either, what they're eating, or how they're dressing. If it's what they're eating, I look at traditional dishes, foods, I think, even you can extract color from that. Then when it comes to fashion, it's what are people wearing on the streets today. Can I find fashion editorials that were shot in that destination or how the locals are dressing. I look a lot to street style reports, or if the destination itself is a little bit more traditional, there's a lot to investigate in that as well. From there, I tend to look at architecture. Are there specific buildings, styles of architecture, is it really ornate and detailed, is it very modern and clean, is it a bit rundown? There's so much that can be extracted from that as well. Then, even looking at the natural flora and fauna of a destination. What type of flowers, what type of colors? You can also look at transportation. How are locals getting around in that destination? Is it super modern and sleek, or really cool streetcar? There could be so many different iterations of that as well. Then from there, from all these different elements, it's usually enough inspiration and evidence to inform your colors. When I think of colors, I think of Bermuda. The houses in Bermuda, the blue water, the pink sand, from having observed all these other elements, you can really start to piece together your palette. So now, that you have your destination and your list, this is your time to really go on a scavenger hunt of inspiration, which is really my favorite part. It's going to differ depending on which option you've chosen. So, if you're going to go to a local experience, you want to take this list, and you want to get out there, and start observing the things that we named, and collecting photographs. Maybe you're sketching on the go, you're taking notes, you're making voice memos of the things that you're seeing, that you want to make note of. If it's a past trip, you're going to be pulling from the photos you've already taken. Maybe you did take sketches along the way. You could also be doing your research. You can even go to the library. I know that seems like an ancient concept, but I definitely used to do that as a student, when I was referencing certain themes or destinations, and the same could be for a dream trip. You're going to go onto Pinterest, onto Google, onto Instagram, anywhere you can think of, to find imagery that really inspires you and that you're naturally inclined to go to. Take that list and use it as your starting point to gather everything together. The number one place that I go to, to start my research, is always Google. I know it's, maybe, a little commonplace, but it really helps to point me in the right directions. I get an automatic list of the major tourist spots and attractions of the destination. You can get an oversight of the skyline, which gives you an indication of the geography and climate. Then from there, it really helps me to narrow in on the specific points of inspiration that I want to investigate more. Since I've chosen a past trip as my destination for inspiration, I'm going to delve a little bit into Marrakech and all the references that I compiled together, and open that process up to you. When I started compiling my inspiration for Marrakech, I started with the Medina, because that's where I felt was the heart and soul of the city. The Medina, in Marrakech is like a maze. It's the main portion of the city where all the action is taking place. Souvenirs that you can buy, gorgeous rugs and tapestries, and it's just the real heart and soul of Marrakech. Walking through this, this is a photo I took just on the fly. One of the vendors that was selling these incredible handmade rugs. This really speaks to the culture, how they live, how they dress their homes, but also it's a perfect example of the colors you'll find in Marrakech. The same thing with the bread baskets. I just absolutely loved the patterns and the textures that I saw there. It's just such a vibrant place. You'll even start to observe the foods, the spices. So, I started to pull together elements of what you could potentially eat, or buy to eat later in the market. Even the way that the spices are arranged, it's just so visually compelling, and it's like looking at a rainbow of colors. I use this as a color palette reference, but also speaking to what people would sell there, how they live. Also looked at, this is an artist, I found in the Medina, who I thought so accurately depicted what it is to experience the Medina. Which is just like a mind blowing bustle of color. Styling with slippers, this is something that really speaks to the fashion, again, of the destination. This is something that women and men wear. Currently, this is something that you could pull into contemporary fashion. I've definitely bought a fair number of slippers, myself, to pair with my outfits on the streets of New York. Seeing the textures of the wall, the colors, it's very warm. Then, I started thinking about where I actually had my experience staying at La Mamounia, because part of my trip was wanting to draw from the experiences I had at the property. So, compiling together imagery from the interior of this incredible property, the colors that I would observe, just at breakfast, the bougainvillea flowers, the archways in the architecture. Whether you're in a property or you're in the Medina, you're going to see these things carried through design wise. When I think of geography, climate, landscape, just observing from an aerial, getting a sense for how busy it is, how bustling it is, it really informs that high intensity energy that you feel. It's such a rush to walk in the Medina. From observing through my own imagery that I collected while I was there, I started thinking about fashion references, fashion editorials that were shot there. This is one of my favorite editorials from Vogue Paris. I think from 2010, it's from eons ago, but it has stayed in my mind since then. I didn't actually travel to Marrakech until 2015. So, just goes to show you, I draw from past dream local experiences all the time. So, I wanted to include those in my research process, because they really speak to, how to bring Marrakech into, maybe, a more fashion angle or a contemporary side that might relate to my followers who love street style. I started looking at the designer Yohji Yamamoto campaigns and these leaping figures, because I was thinking about these women in their gowns and their headscarves, and how colorful they were, and how could I speak to that feeling of floating through the Medina, and what better than to have references of leaping figures to speak to that. Also, these cloaked images, or this to me really reminded me of the dress of the women in the Medina. Even if it's a completely different context, I could see how I could use that shape to marry with some of my references from the trip. Another thing in terms of color that was really impactful, is the Jardin Majorelle. That royal, royal blue and that bright vibrant yellow, and the contrast between those two really sticks out in my mind from that trip. I'm a very tactile person. So, being able to hold the physical references, it helps in the flexibility of my creative process. When you're painting, you're going from your sketch paper to what's next to you. It's more organic flow of a workflow versus referring to a phone or a screen. I often find this is something that really interrupts me, is when I have multiple functions for my phone, I have multiple functions for my laptop, that's open for my emails and things like that, but when I shut that all down, I can really be in the zone and really focused on what it is I'm doing. There's going to be things that are really important that are going to come to the surface. It's like the cream rises, and the things that are most meaningful to you, or that you really want to convey in a work of art are going to come over time. So, as you can see, through compiling all these different images, I really touched on the major categories that we discussed earlier. Those seven elements. We've seen the geography and climate. We know that it's warm and it's desert inspired. We've had a look at the fashion, not only where it is locally, but how it could be interpreted in a contemporary way. We've referenced fashion editorials that were filmed there not so long ago. We've looked at the color palettes, which are obviously piecing together through what we've observed in the Medina, the things that they're selling, the slippers. We've seen the foods, the spice stands, the fruits, the flora, the fauna, the transportation is really by foot. The bustling nature of the Medina, how people walk around. So, I have a really well-rounded and informed overview of this city, and now, it's about pulling out the elements that I really want to emphasize. 4. Materials: So we're now entering into the illustration portion of the lesson, and I'm so excited to dive into this with you guys. I'm going to give you a little lay of the land when it comes to my materials and what I start with when I begin sketching and where you're going to begin with also. You can really choose whichever materials you want to work with. If your preference is watercolor, gouache, inks, whatever it is it's really about using your medium of choice. For me, I love my gouaches, I have some Winsor Newton colors, I've pulled colors that really speak to the palette that I discovered through referencing all those images from Marrakesh. So, we've got some great ultramarine blues and yellows, some vibrant fuchsias and then I've brought in my Caran d' Ache colored pencils. My preference for these is that they don't bleed so much when you sketch on the paper and then add paint over top. My biggest pet peeve is to have the lead of a pencil bleed in with paint. I can't stand the way that looks. I'm a very meticulous painter even if at times I get very expressive. So, that's my reason for using these guys. I also have my angle brush. This is a half inch angle, and the reason I like it is because you can get a very thin line or a wide line depending on which way you use the paintbrush. So, there's a bit more versatility, and I try to be fairly lean with my supplies. I don't like to be too overwhelmed with different materials. Then I use just a non-stick palette because it just is versatile and can clean really well and you can reuse it and help the environment at the same time. So, that's what I'm going to start with for supplies. In terms of paper, I'm using just a Canson sketch paper. It's multipurpose, it's very smooth, and the reason that I use this for my sketching, and actually for my final works as well, is because it's cheap and I don't like to be too precious with my paper. I know it can be a little intimidating to purchase its gouache or certain expensive price points or brands. I would say that the rule of thumb is to really get your primary colors covered and I'm not going to go too extensively into your color range and color theory and things like that, but your primary blue, your primary red, and your yellow which is very true blue, true yellow, true red, they'll mix to make your secondary colors, your purples, your greens, your orange, so that you can blend and get a variety of different shades. So, if you're really tight on budget, I would start with those three as well as a white and black so that you have an ability to dial it down with the white and then you can add a shadow with the black. I'd also say that it doesn't have to be gouache. This is your opportunity to really put your own mark on what you're creating, and if you are more inclined to use an ink, a water color, be you, be true to you. I like gouache, something that was brought to my attention when I was still a student, and I just loved the versatility of being able to make it watered down and opaque. So, I've just had a love affair with the material for nearly a decade. So, that's why I'm choosing gouache today. 5. Early Drawings: At this stage, you've determined your destination, you've done your research, you've pulled together all of your imagery, and you're ready to sketch. So, where do we go? Where do we start from here? So, I've gone through all the images that I printed out from Marrakech and started thinking about a few references that really stuck out to me. For the preliminary sketch stages, just felt like working through those ideas and exploring them. I really loved seeing the woman in the Medina. They were impossible to catch these colorful butterflies that just float very quickly and it's actually considered quite rude to photograph them. So, I found difficult to get any references of them and obviously didn't want to take any myself. So, I found this great image in my Google search of these cloaked women walking into the distance, into an unknown destination. So, I'm going to use this as my starting point to recreate an image from the Medina of the women in their colorful robes. So, I've chosen this great, royal blue, ultramarine blue, and I'm going to just follow from top to bottom, this cloaked figure on the right hand side, just stream. I don't tighten up too much at this stage, it's really just about exploring ideas. And I always tell myself as a way to relax and to not tense up that. No one needs to see this, this is not something that you need to show anybody. If it doesn't look great, just take the pressure off. I'm the first person to put pressure on myself when it comes to creating something amazing. So, I suggest just leaving that at the door and letting loose and having fun. One thing you might be observing is that I'm not filling everything in solid. I'm really just gesturing with lines. It's really just about capturing the light and telling the shapes in the figures, and with as few lines as possible without overdoing it. I think that gives it room to breathe and be really dynamic. So, I am drawing this figure in, and don't be afraid to make a reference more dramatic than you're actually observe it to be. And edit out the parts that don't make sense obviously because gloves is not something that I would see in Marrakech. I find painting just so liberating and so freeing. Truthfully, I never liked sketching with the pencil. I feel like it gets in the way of being able to fully express myself, and I'm super expressive person. So, I'm just being really gutsy with it. I feel really confident about just going in with paint and I think, what do I have to lose? It's just about experimenting, and this trial stage is the most exciting, because you don't really know where things are going to go or how it's going to turn out, and it's really only for you to see anyways. So, yes. So, it's very loose, very gestural. A quick glance you might not even understand what it is that you're observing. So, it's speaking to the bond of the woman in the Medina. So, that's where I would start my first preliminary and I could probably explore this a little more different position. Another image I found super compelling was a stack of slippers in the Medina. It's really just about pulling on images that inspire me. And it doesn't have to be any more complicated than that. In this case, I may actually start with a gold pencil. Just to get the shape down or to create a bit of a pattern, and then start using this lime green slipper as my point of reference. Like that it has these little bubble details in different colors. You never know how this particular illustration or working through these colors is going to connect to a more finished piece, but it's really about working through the ideas. So, this is all about the brainstorming stage of my creative process. Like that, each one of them has its own different tassel or embellishment. I could maybe even turn this into a print or a pattern and print it on paper. You can say I am really watering down the gouache to almost take it to a water color just a little bit more opaque or just a bit more symmetric. So, at this stage, you're actually being the closest to literal in your rendering, your sketching. But it's moving towards something that's going to be a bit more conceptual and unique and personal. I still don't render verbatim. As you can see obviously, I'm taking slippers but moving them around. But it's it's not quite to the level of combining multiple images together to make a finished work. It's still really observational and in a way even if I don't necessarily do a finished painting of the slippers. Just working out which colors sit next to each other nicely. I might actually love how this looks and want to get rid of the rest, and maybe pull those colors through to a different illustration. It's really about working out ideas. 6. Conceptual Drawings: So, in my preliminary sketch round, something that really struck out to me was the royal blue and this gorgeous vibrant yellow, which really directly comes from the Jardin Majorelle, which is very, very special place. I didn't want to render the building itself. I want to think about how I can encapsulate those colors, that feeling, that experience with another element of Marrakech that really stuck out to me which was the women. So, in that process of thinking, I found references which we've walked through before, these sort of leaping fluid, free-flowing women in these oversized gowns and headscarves. How can I could have capture with the colors of Jardin Majorelle the feeling, the hustle bustle of medina married with these really sort of beautiful and elusive women and that's the next challenge. To take it into a more conceptual place. So, knowing that I'm going to be using my two key colors, my ultramarine blue and my yellow, I'm going to decide on a figure, a reference that I'd like to use. I think I'm going to go with this. This is, I believe it's a Yohji Yamamoto gown, potentially from a campaign or an editorial shoot. I might start with a gold pencil for this and the reason I'm using the gold actually is not only does it kind of speak to the metals that you'll find in Marrakech in the lanterns and things like that, but it's a subtle color. It's not the lead pencil color. I think it still has this feeling of elevation even though it's a colored pencil. So, I'm going to start with the top of the head. So, you can see, the reference is quite pixelated, which actually works better for me because the further I can get from the reference, the more it's going to feel like my own. So, that's actually a good thing in this case. This is very subtle, just the kind of work out where everything is going to be placed. She's got this high shoulder from cloak, and I think that's enough to get me started. I do want to just use minimal color for this, and I think the blue cloak will be the most striking. So, starting with the shoulder. So, for you, maybe it was a particular food or accessory and maybe you want to combine those two elements together to make a unique piece. It doesn't necessarily have to be a figure. It's really just about finding at this stage more than one element from the trip or from the local experience, from a dream destination and bringing them together to make something that is completely original and drawn. I want this figure to feel like she's actually standing, so making sure that it's balanced from head to toe, adding in this cloak and I think in terms of feet. I'll just do the slipper, the essence of a slipper. That's it. I don't want to overdo it because I feel like the more I go into it, the heavier it will get. I can try this with another figure. Maybe it's more of a close-up on a portrait or I mean in this case, you can hardly see the features, but I think that's kind of what lends itself to conveying the mystery. Whether it's faces or figures, I always start from the top of the head. I'm going to challenge myself even more in this case and just go in straight with paint and see if I can get even more conceptual. Just by limiting my palette to two colors, the blue and the yellow, not only is it speaking to that experience, but it's also challenging the work to look less like a literal depiction and more like a conceptual one. At first glance, you're not going to maybe see this work and think, "Oh, she's definitely painting the Jardin Majorelle from Marrakech." The colors might be recognizable to someone who's been or someone who's familiar with the garden, but in general, it's about that challenge of creating something that is not such an obvious and then once people understand, "Okay. This was created from her experience in Marrakech." The royal blue, this vibrant yellow and how that's translating into something that's really quite editorial. So, I wanted to share some actual sketches that I did when I returned from my original trip to Marrakech in the vein of the royal blue and yellow reflecting the Jardin Majorelle and the woman I saw in the medina. This is obviously a step further from what I've just created for you here, using a bit of colored pencil just to refine the details and you might recognize this from one of the leaping figures I pulled in my reference pile, but having it just sort of cast across in air. To me, it kind of encapsulated the feeling of everything being so fast and really just joyful. It was so inspirational that exuberance I think comes through in the gesture, and then this is very similar to what you saw me create earlier, as you can see just a bit more defined, but the same reference, same concept, years apart actually and interpreted quite differently as you can see. I mean even, the way I did the cloak today versus a while ago is kind of a leap apart. After you've gone to your local experience or you've gotten all of your inspiration together and you're about to start your preliminary sketches and you're thinking about how many should I be creating, how many ideas should I be focusing in on and this is a very organic and intuitive stage. I think you need to flush out as much as you can until something really starts to pull at you. That's a bit vague, but that's really the intuition that you're looking for. I know from having done the slippers and the figures. Sort of walking to the Medina picking up on colors, but also on the back of my mind, thinking about that strong blue and that strong yellow and wanting to have that come across in some way, I kind of knew when that turning point was coming just from that instinctive feeling of what it was I really wanted to tell from that experience, and I think you should follow that same intuition. 7. Final Conceptual Drawings: So, at this stage, we've worked through our preliminary sketches, we've sort of fleshed out our ideas and things that really interested us, and then started marrying them into a bit more of a conceptual stage of sketching with the blue and the yellow, and the different figures. I wanted to just take you one step further into a final piece that I actually created for a client, which was my whole reason for going to America [inaudible] a great deal of the reason. Taking that whole concept that I flushed out with the marrying of the blue and the yellow, the idea of capturing mood through expression and not literally rendering an image of the hotel that I was staying at, I wanted to take it into a much more moodier space and conceptual space, and that's how I landed here. So, the pink and the blue have significance. The blue relates to the gorgeous pools in the hotel, the pink fuchsia relates to the gorgeous burgundy flowers in the gardens, and those two things really struck out to me as being so distinctive about the property, and that's how they came into this figure who has this mysterious look on her face and she's a drawing you in. So, we're literally going to draw her onto paper, in my case, I'm going to draw her. I'm going to recreate this for you so you can see a bit of my process here as well. In this stage, I am going to go with colored pencil just because it does give a bit more definition. I'm starting again with the face, the head, so I know where to position everything else. Okay. So, just placing in what her features are. Rule of thumb, I just place the features in thirds, one-third. In terms of where I put my pencil down, I try to hit the darkest points with the pressure and keep it later where there's less shadow. Now, I'm going to go in with my black gouache. Replica won't be exact, but you'll get an idea of how I created this in the first place. Now, I'm going to go in with my fuchsia and really mark out where her shoulders comes into frame her face, and take that straight back. Okay. This is why I use cheap paper because I just don't want to tighten up and get too precious with my lines. So, you can see how I'm taking that leap from our concept stage to refining it a bit more to get closer to what a finished product could be. I will probably spend, I don't know, another 45 minutes to an hour refining those details, getting in a bit more of the shadows, and giving it a proper time to dry in-between so that you can layer up a little bit more. That's one thing to be careful of. Do not add too much paint overlapping because the paper won't be able to withstand. So, definitely, if you feel like it's getting quite saturated, give it a minute to dry, pull out your blow dryer, you can even blow it on the paper to make sure that it's ready for the next layer before you move on. Because otherwise, I've definitely ripped some papers in my career. One thing I wanted to mention to you is that you may actually find that in your concept, your first concept stage of sketching, sometimes the less lines, the better. Or sometimes as you're thinking through things, you're almost thinking less and you're less stressed about a final piece that maybe will be stronger than the finished piece itself. Maybe you'll like it more, maybe you'll want to lean into that. One thing I get asked time and time again by my community is, how, as an illustrator, do find your style? Really, without even knowing it, this is the process of finding that. This is about exploring what interests you, what materials you like, what you want to convey in your art, and inevitably, all those things are going to inform and direct you and your own vision. So, really, as much as you've seen my process of creation, this is about taking these steps and making it 100 percent your own and letting your voice shine in your works of art. 8. More Travel Illustrations: I wanted to walk through a few of my favorite travel illustration as finals, just so you can see a couple of the different directions that can go in or where I would maybe finesse it a bit more and go into bit more details, because what you saw, was obviously, a much shortened version of my process. We spoke about this a little bit earlier when I was describing one of my favorite travel illustrations being from Buenos Aires, and that combination of concept, which we've now seen for ourselves together, and this just combining the scenery of La Boca in Argentina, Buenos Aires, as the shirt to get that thematically across. Similarly, this illustration I created from my trip to Tokyo with Ritz-Carlton there. I really wanted to emphasize in her head piece just the elements of Tokyo that really bring it to life, and the view that you would see when you're staying at the property. So, getting the skyline, the Tokyo Tower, Mount Fuji, which you actually can get a view of, the cherry blossoms, I was there during Sakura season, and the sushi I had, most incredible 20 course Omakase meal at their restaurant at the top floor, when I was there. So, just pulling through all those elements in a conceptual way and really refining that. Obviously, there's more detail in the hands, the face features, the hair, and certainly, in the elements of the crown. Another direction I sometimes go in with finals, which we didn't exactly touch on today but is to be maybe a bit more literal actually, in the interpretation, but still pulling through all these different elements that we covered in the list of the seven travel elements. So, this is something I created from Endes Miaqaba. We have a few different elements from the fashion experience or head pieces, speaking to a Frida Kahlo experience that you can have on property, as well as the climate of the destination, the palm trees, the color of the sunset, the types of birds that you would actually see flying around the property, it's colorful and fun as well, so that comes through. This is something that I created from my most recent trip to Dubai, which again, it's not a combination of say the camel within her dress. But, it is a contemporary Gucci dress from a very recent collection, but I loved the idea of sort of the glamour in the desert, because thematically that to me, is really all encompassing of an experience, in Dubai. Then lastly, and I did touch on this very quickly, Capri for a very long time, up until the summer was a dream destination of mine. I created this over a year ago, having done all my research and references as we've discussed and discovering that there is this lemon grove at this one particular spot on the island, and I wanted to bring in sort of that contemporary cool fashion, if it was a girl who was maybe from New York and she's suddenly on holidays in Capri and touching on the geography and the cool current fashions. Then, to have been able to experience the summer and then stand at this exact same spot myself, was really an amazing moment. But in essence, you can see the level of detail that was taken in rendering her dress, and adding the details in the lemon tree, and the stones and things like that, there's a lot more shadow in depth. 9. Final Thoughts: So, a lot of people actually gets quite complicated to get your artwork on to Instagram, but it really is not. This situation, the setting that you're seeing right here, is my day-to-day. I honestly just take out my iPhone, the regular camera, and make sure that it's elevated so I can see the full image, and level so that I don't get any weird angles and elongation, and click photo. That's really it. I think, if I can offer any more tips than that, it's just make sure you have natural light so that the colors are being picked up as true to what you've rendered. Other than that, post out into the universe. This class is really been about creating the illustrations after your trip or maybe in anticipation of your dream trip. But there's also another option of drawing during your travels. I wanted to pull in some examples that I had from when I was traveling on the road in Marrakech, just so you could see my process of thinking and how I inevitably came up with the ideas that I did today. So, this is something that you can definitely attempt when you're on your travels, on your journeys, having that watercolor paper that's a bit more absorbent, and finding any sort of medium that all it needs is a symbol paint brush to be wet to add to the material to give it that wash essence, that doesn't actually require a whole palette and table set up. I thought it would be quite interesting to see actually the origins of my Jardin Majorelle obsession if you will. You can see it just highlighted in the background with marker, again with watercolor crayons, and this is basically all blended together to make a hybrid pencil sketch meets watercolor illustration. Of course, we then took it into a much more conceptual direction today. Lastly, the original slipper sketch. I created it with the intent of posting it during my travels on to Instagram. I really wanted to create a dynamic shape or arrangement with the slippers, and did them in this wheel pattern less haphazardly, to create a more striking image. So, this is something you can explore on your next travels. The sketches that I do when I travel are really observational. I rarely, with the exception of maybe posting to Instagram along the journey to just give my community insight into what's really stands out to me. Usually, I have them just in my stack, so that when I come and sit down in my studio to create a finished work, they're more of a reference point. It's interesting, the more I sketch on the trip how easily I can correlate or draw back to those original sketches. Even if it's not a direct interpretation, the woman sketch for instance, I landed on the female figures multiple times in my conceptual sketches. But I took it from. Instead of an literal run drain of this woman was wearing orange, this woman was very fuchsia, she's wearing the colors that encapsulate a different destination you can visit in Marrakech. My journey to traveling as extensively as I have these past two years, really started with naming the blog travel redraw was definitely intentional, because I wanted to be able to see the world and to be able to illustrate from it. I knew that that was definitely going to be a point of differentiation and would put me sort of top of mind when it came to travel clients. So, that was a really strategic decision. But obviously, until I cultivated a community that warranted being flown to all these different places, I made traveling a priority for myself. When I was still working full-time, I paid for my travels to make sure that I was still getting inspiration from really cool destinations to share with my community. So, there was a great deal of investment on my part before even was conserved for these opportunities, and it wasn't until I sort of cultivated and built that up, that clients started to take notice. The connection I have with my followers is what attracted them to even sending me to destinations. So, my goal in creating this class with Skillshare, was to to create something that would dispel any idea that you have to have all this knowledge of how to paint, all this knowledge of color theory, and materials, and having to get on a plane and physically to leave your home to be inspired. So, I encourage you that now that you have all of your inspiration, you have your materials with you, you've seen where I've gone with this process, to really take all of that and make it your own, explore your unique voice that can't be replicated by anybody else. I encourage you to share your work on skillshare, ask each other questions, and join the travel redraw community on Instagram, help each other thrive and inspire one another. I'm so excited to see what you're all going to create. I can't wait. 10. What's next?: [MUSIC]