Scribbling and Sketching

One of my worst bad habits as an artist is that I do not sketch and scribble enough. I do not work out my ideas and concepts on paper nearly enough as I should. Most of my concept work takes place in my head and at the time I am beginning to work on a new piece. I think and think and think about the idea before putting pencil to paper rather that searching for the idea on the page. My sketchbooks are empty but I have a lot of finished pieces. It has been this way my entire life. I never really enjoyed working on something that was not intended to be a finished piece of work.

As a child I had stacks of sketch pads that I toiled away in, kind of. I would begin working on a page and if the drawing did not go as I planned I would stop wherever I was at and turn to the next page. Even if I had just started drawing, making only a few marks, if I did not like it I abandoned it and went to the next page to begin again. There would be page after page of just one eye, or a hand, or the silhouette of a dragon head. I felt like that page was corrupted with a page drawing and needed to start again on a fresh sheet. So much wasted paper... So much wasted time looking for the perfect mark, the perfect line.

To this day I do not have the habit to doodle. If I sit down to draw it is to be a finished piece, a completed drawing. Not sure if I can do anything about this issue at this point, and I sometimes wonder if I should. It is not like I am not making work that I really enjoy and enjoy making. Not like I have lacked professional work opportunities. ...but as a artist I wonder if I am depriving myself of the opportunity to explore without limitations. Here is a recent scribble that was done to see if an upcoming monster might work out as envisioned. Still on the fence. Might go in a completely different direction...

Rare concept scribbles... that will most likely be abandoned.

That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, see you back here on Friday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com