I always travel with a sketchbook because that I love drawing—and it’s always the best souvenir. Even though my final art is digital, I love the act of drawing. There is something mystical and poetic around the smell and the textures of the paper as well as the sound of the different pens and pencils on the paper. You don’t get this when you work with a computer and a Wacom. Indeed, you will never need batteries or electricity to work with a sketchbook and pencils or pens; therefore, they’re the best if you are travelling. You can work anywhere, at the beach, in a train, plane, and so on. Whether you draw landscapes and portraits, or you draw about personal experiences, after you return from your travels you will automatically remember that time when you open your sketchbook.

I use my sketchbooks in different ways. I have sketchbooks for my daily work where I work with the subjects and ideas for commissions. These sketchbooks are always Moleskine plain journals in around of 7x9 inches. But I also I have numerous personal sketchbooks in different sizes and shapes (family and friends usually give away these to me so there’s a lot of variety). These are my favorites. Sometimes I use it as a diary in which I write and glue stickers or labels that I find in my travels or daily walks. I put bus or tube tickets, and so on as “calendar markers.”

When I am travelling I sometimes can start with a single idea and if this becomes poetic or interesting enough I work with this for the entire time (swimmers and pools from a 2015 sketchbook  Sketching is good to improve your skills because you can practice with new tools materials without fear. I easily get into a dialog with my thoughts, from a poetic sense. As a space for experimentation and to develop your style, the sketchbook is always ready for ideas!

In addition to several friends who keep interesting sketchbooks, I like the drawings of Tiago Lacerda (a Brazilian Cartoonist) and the daily doodles of Mogu Takahashi, I like to follow Urban Sketchers (http://www.urbansketchers.org/) and Urban Sketchers/Spain (http://spain.urbansketchers.org/).

Verónica Grech is a freelance professional illustrator living and working in the northwest coast of Spain. She is graduated in Fine Arts and Design at San Carlos University in Valencia. As a point of departure, she rarely starts working with the computer; although her final art is digital. She always likes doing sketches with traditional media for the projects and explores the process of work with colored pens and watercolors. Verónica has been recognized by the Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, Communication Arts, Society of News Design and 3x3 (Magazine of Contemporary Illustration).
Instagram: https://instagram.com/veronicagrech/
Behance: https://www.behance.net/veronicagrech
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