Sketching

So it's been quite some time since "blogged"- I don't know if I really should use that reference but I am anyways- and I could give some excuses like " I've been super busy" but to be totally honest I sort of forgot about having this....Sad I know.....
But I've done a ton of work lately and ToonHeadz is, slowly but surely, starting to become more noticed.
One of the things I really wanted to discuss is sketching.
For anyone who wants to get into drawing, it is very, very, important to have a sketchbook. Back then I always treated a sketchbook as a portfolio, which is one of the worst mistakes I could of made. I recently bought Joe Bluhm's "Sketch Infectus", and it's almost been a bible for me for drawing. The book has a lot of great artist explaining how important it is to sketch. In the book Joe makes a really fantastic quote, " Sketchbooks are where you should make your mistakes; don't be afraid of generating brain-farts and pencil-vomit."
Once I understand the quote I sat down and just staring scribbling lines and playing with form. I noticed that the next sketch I did, just alike the technique I was doing earlier- started to make more sense and my brain flowed with more imagination. It was easier to put a drawing down on paper while I still could visualize it in my head. And I think that is what makes a great artist, having a great visual in your brain and transferring it to paper. If you are starting out, you will notice that once you put your pencil to the paper, the whole thing you visualized becomes hazy. And it can get so frustrating when you know what you want to draw and can see it in your head, but can't get it on paper. Sketching is like the workout to achieve this goal. You relax, put your pencil to your paper, and start drawing nonsense. Once you finally come to terms that your drawing is partially complete, you can see that whatever you are drawing isn't nonsense at all and makes so much sense.
One other thing I want to add about having a sketchbook is going out of bounds with what you're comfortable with; or just the shorter term, going out of your comfort zone. I have been watching a lot of videos by Will Terrell and he was discussing how he goes about sketching. He sketches in public areas, such as Walmart or coffee shops. So I decided to get all my art supplies and take it EVERYWHERE I GO. I see one character that I want to draw, I don't just keep his image in my head all day, I want to sketch him there and now. So my new goal has been to at least go out twice a week and sketch random people.
This is really fun to do and a lot of ideas will come to you along the journey. So remember treat your sketchbook as collection of great garbage, not a portfolio and remember to USE THE SKETCHBOOK. Don't keep it around collecting dust.

Here are a couple of my sketches that I did live.