Recently my partner Matt went on a last-minute work trip to Vietnam for a week! I don't know when I'll get to do much travel myself so I decided to use his photographs to experiment with travel sketching. I have a cheap little watercolour sketchbook and a travel kit of cotmans watercolours which I used to simulate the experience ;) 

I chose to add some tasty looking food (I loved how the king prawn looked in the bowl!), lovely flags blowing in the wind and a fabulous lady running her juice/cafe stall in Ho Chi Minh City. I wanted to paint the beautiful bright colours in some of Matt's photographs. I think a different combination of images could show the humidy, the crowds and the rain - maybe another time! 

I added black pen and some white gel pen at the end to define some of the shapes. I'm not used to illustrating small, complex elements so I felt adding the lines gave the illustrations clarity while retaining their sketchiness. I don't aim for realism so I'm happy with these colourful, almost children's book-like illustrations in my sketchbook :) 

I hope I get to see Vietnam in person one day, thank you Anastasiia for your tips and advice in this course! 

Some photos from Matt's trip - the first set I used for my sketches and the second I really liked but didn't end up using (this time)!