Book Review: Barry Herniman's Travelling Sketchbook

I love travelogue sketchbooks and can't get enough of them. I managed to spot this sketchbook from Barry Herniman by chance. I've such good luck. It's a wonderful book.

This guy Barry Herniman is not just an artist but also a musician and an adventurer. He has been on Drakensberg range of mountains, Okavango Swamps, Rhodesia, South America, and a lot of other places with names so exotic that it's the first time I'm hearing about them. It was fun reading through his tales on the road. He's born in England.

This travelogue sketchbook is a collection of sketches that he made in British Isle, Ireland, other countries in Europe, those that are near the Mediterranean. Again, he's been to many places and recorded what he saw in ink and watercolours. Much are of the towns, houses, boats by the river, shorelines, mountain ranges, gardens, a few ruins, and some of the people he met.

I love the watercolour sketches in the book. The colours are lovely and the lines are loose and relaxed. Sometimes the lines would also retrace, i.e. going back the same route, to give the extra sketchy mood. The colours are sometimes saturated, and sometimes they have a nice pastel tone going. I like those with the softer, muted pastel tone, and they seems to give a more idyllic vibe. He has a nice way of splattering colours to give the sketches more textures.

Other than the sketches, there are also some watercolour paintings. The style feels different because of the lack of lines. The quality of work does vary a bit throughout the book. But hey, it's a sketchbook, not an artbook of studio paintings. I enjoy looking every piece, imagining what it would have been like to be at the same place.

All the artworks featured are label with short captions.

It's a 144-page hardcover.

I bought my book from Book Depository because it seems to be the cheapest at the time of purchase, and the price includes shipping.

Highly recommended to all those who like sketchbooks and travelogues.

Barry Herniman's Travelling Sketchbook is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN)

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