No art is built on a strong foundation without first, the sketch. I have found that the most edifying practice of creativity is utilizing a sketch book. A sketch book can be a collection of napkins with doodles on them, or a blank space on the back of a receipt. Wherever inspiration commands you to personify your idea onto, there lies the essence of the sketch book. You could say my very first sketch book was a conglomeration of multiple paper types of various colors and thicknesses which were designed for anything else but holding collections of my visual ingenuity. To this day my mother keeps an old scrapbook stuffed full of folders and leaflets containing my drawings from my earliest years. Sheets of elementary school line paper, envelopes, construction paper and articles of old mail all bare the sketches of my young mind.

 

So many artists draw something only to throw it away because they think the paper it is drawn on is not worthy of saving. Here-in is the misnomer. The most valuable art you create is not the finished canvas piece, but the countless quick renderings you formulate which led up to the conclusion. Without a foundation a house cannot stand. Likewise, without the initial concepts - no matter how stained or crumpled they may be - an idea cannot reach it's goal. And you will find that in keeping these seemingly insignificant pieces of doodle, you will gain new insight to push on through stagnant blocks of mental fatigue. So for crying out loud, don't throw any doodle away. You never know when one of those napkins may hold the long lost key to a masterpiece.