"Road Trip Chit-Chat" Sketch (or How to Avoid Going Bonkers on an 11-Hour Drive to the Beach)

I love the beach, but the trip from our home in Pennsylvania to Oak Island, NC, is l-o-n-g...about 11 hours with stops. This year, to pass the time, I decided to write down (and sketch) everything we talked about during the drive.

Ink & watercolor in a 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 Stillman & Birn Zeta series softcover sketchbook

While there were four of us in the van (my husband Fred, sister Donni, mother Saundra, and I), I'd have to say that Fred mostly drove and the girls talked. He did come up with the idea for the page title though - go, Fred!

Click to enlarge and see all the details

I did pencil sketches throughout the day, with input from my traveling companions on what warranted inclusion on the page. It made the time pass quickly for all of us, and there was a lot of laughter about the randomness of our wide-ranging subject matter.

My sketchbook page was full by the time we made it to Oak Island that evening. I painted the sketch over the next few days, whenever I needed a break from sun, sand, and grandkids.

This was such an enjoyable project! It's full of family memories and inside jokes that are hilarious to us but probably mean nothing to anyone who wasn't in the van that day. And isn't it amazing how much three women can talk about? We could probably answer the question "What is truth?" and bring about world peace, too, if we put our minds to it.

Well, I hope you're having as much fun this week as we are here at Oak Island. I'm heading out to the beach now to read a book and watch the waves roll in - there's nothing I like better!

Have a great summer, and do some sketching to capture those summer memories.