Why constant sketching keeps you sharp

When you turn on a hot water faucet, the water usually takes a few minutes

to warm up, depending on how cold the pipes are. But if you turn the faucet

on again soon after, the water gets hot much more quickly this time.

Creativity is really no different. The longer you let the creative juices flow,

the hotter the ideas are that come pouring out. The next time you turn on

your creativity faucet, the easier the ideas flow. So to stay creatively sharp,

sketch often and sketch everything. By doing so, you may draw something

that triggers an idea that may never have come to you otherwise.

Your sketchbook should be filled with all sorts of sketches and doodles from

things you may see, hear, or observe. Though these doodles may be nothing

more than exercises in free association, they’re a gold mine that you can go

back to and dig through later. The little doodles can be the seeds that grow

into a bigger idea down the line.

For example, you may be sitting in a park and hear the roar of a motorcycle

as it goes by. Later on, you may be sitting in the lobby of an auto shop

waiting for your car to be fixed. While you’re there, you may glance out

the window and see a man get out of his car. All these experiences are

opportunities to scribble something down in your sketchbook.

An example of this is the sketch in Figure 5-1, which I did several years ago.

In this sketch/doodle, I drew a big semi truck going over an uncompleted

freeway overpass. Now, I didn’t actually see a big rig going over a bridge, but

I had been looking at a freeway being built by the school I was attending and

had seen numerous semi trucks go by. The drawing came out of my observa-

tions and my attempts at drawing something from an unusual angle or per-

spective. The large concrete pillars that hold up freeways are massive and,

when looked at from directly below, create a dramatic perspective.