Why I travel with a sketchbook

I love taking photographs when I travel. But I also bring watercolours and a small sketchbook — not because my drawings are any good (they’re mostly quick and clumsy), but because of what drawing does to the way I experience a place.

A photo takes a second. A sketch makes you stay. To draw a doorway, you have to really look at it — the colour, the light, the way the paint is peeling — for five whole minutes. And those five minutes of truly looking are when a place stops being a backdrop and becomes a memory.

Drawing also turns you back into a beginner, which is one of the best parts of travelling. You don’t know the streets, the words or the customs, so you learn to let other people’s kindness fill the gaps. Most people are patient and warm with someone who’s clearly, humbly trying.

You don’t need to be an artist to try it. Buy a cheap notebook, take one pen, and once a day, sit somewhere and draw one thing badly — a cup, a window, a pair of shoes. Nobody ever has to see it. That’s not the point.

Years later, I can’t always find the photos I’m looking for. But I can open a sketchbook and be instantly back by that wall, in that light, with my coffee growing cold beside me. A drawing remembers differently: it holds on to the act of looking, not just the view.

So here’s my little travel tip: bring a sketchbook alongside your camera. Trade five minutes of scrolling for five honest minutes of paying attention. You can take the perfect photo, too — but sometimes, the best souvenir is the moment you took the time to draw.