THUMBNAILS and THE TINY SKETCHBOOKS

I built a couple of tiny, pocket-sized sketchbooks out of copy paper and chipboard, and spiral bound them at work. Now I always have a sketchbook with me. It's a great way to work out ideas. Plus being so small eliminates the temptation to overwork the sketches. No time for rendering, just working with the picture space in broad concepts,
major abstract shapes, composition, and gesture. 
Later, I was watching a couple of videos where concept artists take you through their creative process, and I really liked their thumbnail processes. I got the idea to transfer the process to traditional drawing media. So, I created a couple of 'grid' pages that I can lay under my sketch paper, so that I am working an idea through a consistent, small visual space.
To my surprise, I found that there's something very satisfying about a full sheet of thumbnails.
It's amazing how much fun you can have with a tiny sketchbook,
or a few sheets of 2x3" rectangles or 1" squares.

The tiny sketchbooks

03/27/14
Horses - thumbnails 3x2"

04/03/14
Dragon thumbnails

04/03/14
Scene thumbnails

03/30/14
Faces thumbnails, Pen, 1"
Pushing shapes around the square.

03/31/14
Composition thumbnails
Pen, 1"
The best thing to do with
an ideais to
'run it through the mill.'

03/29/14
Skulls - 1" thumbails

03/27/14
Misc. 1" thumbnails

03/27/14
Fishes 1" thumbnails

03/27/14
Dogs & Rodents 1" thumbnails

Add 03/27/14
Misc. 1" thumbnails

03/27/14
Horses 1" thumbnails

03/27/14
Birds1" thumbnails

03/27/14
Animal Sketches
Pen & Marker, ~10 x 4"

03/22/14
Thumbnail Sketches (Pen)

01/12/14
Sometimes all I need
is a scribble to get the
idea down.

01/12/14
I had this idea of
looking down into
a circular room.

12/01/13
For a caricature
commission.

01/09/14
More compositional ideas.
Doorways are a recurring theme.

12/01/13
Slash Sketch 04 - 2x3"

01/10/14
Compositional ideas.
(Ahh, my lucky red pen.)