When it comes to an illustrators professional practice, drawing - or more specifically, sketchbooks/preliminary sketches - is a very important aspect of their career. Illustrators and just artists in general will always be drawing, and this is usually in the form of a sketchbook. Some examples of this would be a storyboard/concept artist or designer - any one of these jobs would require you to keep a sketchbook or produce preliminary sketches. A storyboard artist’s main job is to sketch - to sketch ideas, concepts and frames - for this you need a sketchbook. Whether this would be in a traditional or digital format, it doesn’t really matter, mostly likely a mixture of both. The same goes for designers and concept artists - designers start their journey with sketching ideas and concepts (Cousins, 2017). Some really good examples of this are Amelia Lorenz and Alex Chiu’s work.

There are many types of briefs where and artist would need to produce preliminary sketches, pretty much every artwork would have started from a sketch. For example, if and artist was to design a character they would have to sketch this character multiple times to visualise their ideas. Keeping a sketchbook can also help improve your skills as an artist. Drawing regularly, even if it's just simple sketches that take you five minutes, can improve your drawing skills exponentially - this is one of the reasons why so many professionals keep a personal sketchbook (Milan Art Institute, 2020).

It's also just a good outlet for creativity in day to day life, and a great place to really quickly note down ideas for later projects. As Christine Stevens said during a TED Talk about her relationship with her sketchbook, “I’d open my page and release” (2019). A great thing about sketchbooks is that they don’t need to be perfect - you can be as creative and messy as you want, it’s all part of the process.