Barcelona is great: it's the city I try to visit once a year. Amazing place for illustrators and it has a very vivid illustration community. It's a bit hard to get into that community as most of them don't speak English too good, or even Spanish (although you ARE in spain when in Barcelona) but mostly speak Catalan (a dialect). But there's a lot to discover.
The local illustrator Javier Mariscal is a hero (www.mariscal.com). His work is present all over the city. He's know for his animated movie 'Chico & Rita' but has also done poster art, graphic design, comic strips, logo design... Keep an eye open for his work (for example: the logo of the Barcelona Zoo is done by him and you'll see a HUGE lobster statue he made: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Gamba_de_Mariscal_-_...
His art books are great (and not always easy to find when you're not in Spain). So keep an eye open for them. They are really astonishing.
Other than that: if you're in a touristy mood, Els 4 Gats is the bar Picasso frequented before he left spain to work in Paris. It's still open today, but is mostly swamped by tourists. But it still has the atmosphere it had back in his days. The Picasso museum in Barcelona, not far from there, is AN ABSOLUTE MUST SEE! They keep his (youth) sketchbooks there... and they are exhibited most of the time...
Meeting local talent is not easy in the summer: a lot of people that work there are not Barcelona natives and go home during summer as the city is swamped with tourists.
If you ever decide to visit Barcelona again, try to come during the FiComic weekend: it's the second biggest comic book fair in Europe, and I always go home with heaps of art books that are nowhere to be found but in Spain...
Other book tips: if you're awake on Sunday morning (from 9am until 2pm), and not to far from the Raval neigbbourhood, visit the San Antonio book market. It's more a flea market for books, but the gems you can find there are astonishing. I've bought picture books from the twenties there that costed me 50 cents... Stuff that would cost me 300 euro in an antique book shop... In my experience: mostly art books and some novels too.
La Central del Raval (Carrer d'elisabets 6) is the most beautifull bookstore in Barcelona, in an old Chapel. They have a great selection of artbooks and comic books in various languages (so not only spanish but also english, sometimes even french, ...)
Libreria Loring Art (has art books, on art, not too much cinema art books)
Food: try to follow the rhythm of the locals: they eat early in the morning, work until 14h o'clock - then a lot of stores close. People have a siesta, or hang around in bars, and live really catches on again in the evening. Most of them eat around 8pm.
Be sure to try their local sea food: i love the Paella (but ask if it is fresh, they sell preheated microwave paella too which is inedible if you ask me. And before you eat take an hour or maybe even two: have your sketchbook, sit down in a bar and draw people while you enjoy tapas: patatas bravas, anchovy, ... Everybody does it ;)
One other thing I ALWAYS do when in Barcelona is take out half a day to go to the shore, and visit the Barcelona Aquarium. It's one of the best in it's kind in Europe and very sketch-friendly.
Barcelona is great: it's the city I try to visit once a year. Amazing place for illustrators and it has a very vivid illustration community. It's a bit hard to get into that community as most of them don't speak English too good, or even Spanish (although you ARE in spain when in Barcelona) but mostly speak Catalan (a dialect). But there's a lot to discover.
The local illustrator Javier Mariscal is a hero (www.mariscal.com). His work is present all over the city. He's know for his animated movie 'Chico & Rita' but has also done poster art, graphic design, comic strips, logo design... Keep an eye open for his work (for example: the logo of the Barcelona Zoo is done by him and you'll see a HUGE lobster statue he made: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Gamba_de_Mariscal_-_...
His art books are great (and not always easy to find when you're not in Spain). So keep an eye open for them. They are really astonishing.
Other than that: if you're in a touristy mood, Els 4 Gats is the bar Picasso frequented before he left spain to work in Paris. It's still open today, but is mostly swamped by tourists. But it still has the atmosphere it had back in his days. The Picasso museum in Barcelona, not far from there, is AN ABSOLUTE MUST SEE! They keep his (youth) sketchbooks there... and they are exhibited most of the time...
Meeting local talent is not easy in the summer: a lot of people that work there are not Barcelona natives and go home during summer as the city is swamped with tourists.
Great bookstores:
https://abracadabrallibres.com - childrens books and illustrated books.
If you ever decide to visit Barcelona again, try to come during the FiComic weekend: it's the second biggest comic book fair in Europe, and I always go home with heaps of art books that are nowhere to be found but in Spain...
Other book tips: if you're awake on Sunday morning (from 9am until 2pm), and not to far from the Raval neigbbourhood, visit the San Antonio book market. It's more a flea market for books, but the gems you can find there are astonishing. I've bought picture books from the twenties there that costed me 50 cents... Stuff that would cost me 300 euro in an antique book shop... In my experience: mostly art books and some novels too.
La Central del Raval (Carrer d'elisabets 6) is the most beautifull bookstore in Barcelona, in an old Chapel. They have a great selection of artbooks and comic books in various languages (so not only spanish but also english, sometimes even french, ...)
Libreria Loring Art (has art books, on art, not too much cinema art books)
Food: try to follow the rhythm of the locals: they eat early in the morning, work until 14h o'clock - then a lot of stores close. People have a siesta, or hang around in bars, and live really catches on again in the evening. Most of them eat around 8pm.
Be sure to try their local sea food: i love the Paella (but ask if it is fresh, they sell preheated microwave paella too which is inedible if you ask me. And before you eat take an hour or maybe even two: have your sketchbook, sit down in a bar and draw people while you enjoy tapas: patatas bravas, anchovy, ... Everybody does it ;)
One other thing I ALWAYS do when in Barcelona is take out half a day to go to the shore, and visit the Barcelona Aquarium. It's one of the best in it's kind in Europe and very sketch-friendly.