As far back as I can remember, my dad has been there with a camera, journal, or sketchbook recording what he sees and thinks. Book after book after book he has filled sit in boxes, on shelves, and tucked where there is spare space in my parents’ house. In 2006, I took a trip with an Art History class he taught and suddenly, through a project he assigned, travel journalling become a new world to me.

My dad is an epic level journaler. He writes and draws all the time when he’s not busy teaching Art and Art History full time at colleges and universities (currently Georgia Gwinnett College), so when I started rolling around the idea of a “Go Creatively” series featuring various people’s ways of incorporating their creativity into their adventures he was the first person I thought of. Without further ado, let’s hear my dad, David Cook, tell you about how he Goes Creatively through journalling…

What inspired you to start documenting your adventures through journalling?

I was writing diaries back in high school, and my poetry was autobiographical, too, so I was writing journal-fashion from

the time I was 16. I didn’t really start “documenting” adventures until 1981, though, when we went off as missionaries.

I knew that going to Papua New Guinea was a once-in-a-lifetime adventure and a place that would never be the same, so I bought some journals to carry with me. I pasted photos in, like an album and I also drew in there. That was the first time that I combined sketchbook and writing was in Papua New Guinea.

Have you always journaled on adventures both short and long?

I have kept sketchbooks and journals ever since traveling across the Pacific. We were so excited about living in Virginia that I kept journals there, too, but I could run to a store more conveniently there (even though I was a bit restrained by being a broke graduate student) so photo albums got photos, sketchbooks got drawings, and writing went into blank books — most of the time. I do have some journals from those years with sketches, photos and writing on the same pages.

I spent a lot of time in darkrooms developing black-and-white film and making contact sheets of my negatives, so I often pasted contact prints into my Virginia journals.

As children were being born I wanted to record all I could. That was affected by work hours and responsibilities and there are some years that are only preserved on VHS tapes and 35 mm pictures.

In 2000 in Kansas there were two things that prompted me to really get back into keeping more detailed sketchbook journals. One was a man in our town who sketched 3 pages in a sketchbook every day, and the other was a pen pal friendship where I felt that I should write down everything in a journal for us, too, not mail it all away to him.

I think that the most dedicated travel journal job I ever did was on my first trip to London in 2003. I wanted to capture every atom of sight, feeling and impression.

Do you more often sketch from life or from memory?

I mostly draw from observation (heavily influenced by Leonardo, Rubens, and Rembrandt — look at their drawings from zoos) but there are a lot of things that I have to draw from memory and imagination. The London 2003 journal is a good example of that, I would draw when we sat in a theatre or once I returned to my hotel room. Sometimes I would make thumbnail sketches then turn those into a full drawing.

What are your favorite mediums to use in your sketches?

For drawing in journals I prefer felt tip pens like Pentel Sign pens, Flair pens, Stabilo markers, that kind of thing. I have sometimes used India ink. Michaels stores sell a Recollections brand that I like. I tried pencils but they smudge and make a mess, ballpoint pens skip too often. The Pilot Precise V5 RT click type pens flow freely enough that I like those. There’s a bit of economy that sometimes has to be considered. It might take 6 or more pens to fill a 200 page journal and at $2 each that can add up. Price of journal plus $12 in pens and I realize that my musings added up to $20 or more! Yikes! I like smooth white pages that can handle watercolor so I have been using the Pentalic brand from Hobby Lobby for the past 7 years. Before that I liked books from Hastings, Borders, and Barnes & Noble that were “store brand”.

In what ways has journaling and sketching enriched your experiences—specifically your travel ones?

Maps! I think that making maps and keeping track of things such as the weather have made invaluable records. Calendar dates too! I go back to past journals and I can tell if last year or the year before were colder or warmer, and I learn a lot that way. Making my own almanacs and maps can bring out a wealth of detail and the next time I go somewhere — even to the local pond to fish — I know what I want to do and where. So my journals are planners as much as they are record books.

Find David Cook online on his blog Shake up the Heavens.