My 2025 France trip extended from late August to early October, and, because this was such a long trip for me, I decided to write in my journal every day and record the highlights of what I experienced. Of course, I couldn’t include everything, and it was often really challenging to pare down what I was writing to fit it on a page, but something is always better than nothing, and I was determined to write consistently and capture memories which would otherwise fade over time.
To read earlier posts about this travel journal, check out these links:
My whirlwind visit to Paris didn’t allow for a lot of painting time, but I did manage to complete two pages and get a good start on two more while I was there.
The border design on the first page of journaling was inspired by the decorative ironwork on the Eiffel Tower.
I designed one section of the design on tracing paper, then retraced it a couple of times to make a larger pattern. Then I transferred the larger pattern in sections onto the sketchbook page to create the full horizontal border. It’s an easy way to create a border that appears complex but, in reality, was drawn in just a few minutes.
And what better choice could there be for my first full-page sketch in Paris than the Eiffel Tower?
I always love that feeling when you see something out of the corner of your eye, and you turn to look and are gobsmacked by what you see. That’s exactly what happened with this sketch.
After a sleepless night on a red-eye flight, we had dropped our bags at our hotel the morning we arrived and then wandered out to explore Paris and look for a cafe where we could have some breakfast. We were checking out the various restaurants lining a nearby street when I casually glanced to the left, and there it was – Le Tour Eiffel! It always sends a thrill through me when I see it. It’s so much larger and more beautiful and impressive than any pictures can convey.
This drawing of the tower, framed by Haussmann buildings with their lovely detailing and honey-colored stone, will always bring back to me that moment of pure delight when I turned and gasped, surprised by joy!
The next page of journaling includes small sketches of the boat on which we took our river cruise, and Hotel Eiffel Seine, where we stayed.
I don’t enjoy painting this small, but these little vignettes are a great way to break up a page of journaling and add some visual interest.
They don’t take long to do, and they are good memory-joggers.
It isn’t always easy to draw something as detailed as a hotel in a scale that fits with a page of journaling. This little drawing is only 1.25″ x 3″.
The trick is to eliminate most of the detail but leave just enough to give the impression of complexity. And I leave some of the detailing until I get to the painting stage. Then I don’t have a lot of unnecessary black linework which would overwhelm the tiny image.
The next day we visited the Musée d’Orsay…
To add interest to a full page of journaling, I featured a sketch of one of the elaborate clocks that graces the exterior of the old train station-turned-museum.
After I did the line drawing, I painted a base wash on the entire clock and frame then added shadows with a darker, more concentrated version of the golden base color. Finally, I used a white gel pen to add some highlights, and inked over the lines on the clock face with a gold metallic pen. (The sheen shows up a lot better in person than in the scan.)
I used polka dot washi tape to separate the left page from the right, and extended it onto both pages to draw the eye across the two-page spread.
That’s it for Paris! In my next post, I’ll share some of my sketches from Giverny.
