Tom Pajdlhauser’s love of travel sketching began in Vietnam in 2012. As a production designer and art director for animated television shows produced by Disney, Warner Brothers, and Nickelodeon, a big part of his job is honing his drawing skills – capturing moments and stories from his life and, for Tom in particular, drawing the places and spaces which he discovers throughout his travels. What began as a means of practicing his drawing skills quickly evolved into his passion, the development of a personal style, and a way of capturing his life experiences in his own unique light.
Since Vietnam, Tom has travelled to over a dozen countries. He has gotten over his fear of drawing in sketchbooks and has developed a field sketching/painting kit that he can fit in his back pocket. Often adventuring by skateboard or motorcycle, having something super portable is key. Tom now travels with a Lamy Safari fountain pen, a mixed media 8×10″ sketchbook, a tiny watercolour spitbox, and a single 10mm flat brush, pausing here and there to sketch the sights that catch his eye.
Tom’s creative process is spurred by his wanderings. He spots a space that he finds interesting, then chooses the most appealing angle from which to draw it and sits down to scribble a few lines out in ink. Once the ink is dry, he lays on some watercolour. Working with a single flat brush means that detail is limited, but this is precisely why Tom loves such a tool.
Tom loves the spontaneity and honesty of ink and watercolour. His sketches can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour to produce and are typically no larger than 6X6”. Oftentimes, while sketching, he will attract the attention of locals peering over his shoulder as he captures the beauty of a space that they walk by every day without so much as a glance. This is also a part of the process that Tom loves – highlighting the beauty in the places that oftentimes go overlooked and under appreciated.
Over the years, Tom has filled countless sketchbooks, capturing memories in the form of doodles and scribbles. These memories are shared with the world on his beautiful Instagram feed, which you can view @captain_tom. In the future, Tom would like to publish some of his travel sketchbooks, as well as make prints of his sketches and produce larger, more detailed pieces. With such impressive skill found on such a small scale, one can only imagine the beauty to come from Tom’s larger, more complex creations.
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