I can't draw, well not brilliantly... Well... I'm getting better! I've only recently really sat down and decided that I must learn how to draw properly. I'm not too bad at creating pretty doodles...
This has been a  serious drawback I have had to deal with: because drawings are an excellent communication tool I was basically deprived of the best tool to explain ideas to other people.... A picture is worth a thousand words, so maybe a doodle can be negotiated for say a hundred words? I am permanently in awe when faced with an artist who can capture or create an image in a few seemingly effortless pencil lines or ink dots, not to mention those amazing and accomplished artists who through their evolution have added all kinds of media to their skill set. Some know no limits: pencils, inks, brushes, airbrushes, patchwork, pastels, crayons etc...

 

I could drivel on and on regarding this topic, but no. I could list all the artists I admire and where I find my own inspiration but even that would be too long. I will, however, name three because these have had perhaps the most important impacts upon my own works. Olivier Ledroit, for the amazing "Chroniques de la Lune Noire" series and his absolutely mind-blowing "Requiem" series. Paul Bonner, for the incredible works he created for the now deceased Rackham company. Finally, I must mention Paul Kidby who succeeded in bringing nearly every major Discworld character into being. I actually got very scared when I first leafed through one of his artbooks because he had basically created the characters exactly as I imagined them to the point I thought some weird sourcery was at work...

 

All jokes aside, up until recently I never felt the need to be a decent drawer or sketcher because I could understand my scribbles and odd renditions of ideas, and I was the only person who ever saw them or needed to understand them anyway. These days it is quite different. Now I have the good fortune of having to explain to potential clients what they are going to be letting themselves in for, and they have every right and interest in getting a clear picture of a project before committing to it. So now I strive to improve my pencil and ink skills alongside my brush and clay shaper skills... I will have to seriously consider 3D drawing in the near future, which will undoubtedly lead to (finally) 3D sculpting, but one step at a time is the way forward...

I always carry a small sketchpad with me, one of those pocket sized ones. I really like the blank page Moleskine sketchbooks... Bit by bit the pads fill up with doodles, rough ideas, abstract scribbles, and written notes of varying legibility. Sometimes out of these emerges an actual concept that I can turn into something "real". There is something to be said about the virtues of sketching, and improving your sketching skills, particularly if you intend to sculpt your drawings ultimately. I find that the more I draw and doodle all the different bits and ideas I get for a project the easier the sculpting process is. Basically you get a feel for your sculpt before you have even started mixing the putty, and of course, you can "test run" your ideas in a few minutes rather than spending hours on a detail that you scrap in the end because it looks ugly or wrong. Possibly the most useful, vital even, aspect of sketching is that you can get ALL your ideas regarding a given project out on paper, and then pick and mix the best combination of options when you finally get round to sculpting it.