After years and years of avoiding my sketchbooks so as not to mess them up with less-than-stellar doodles, I have finally realized what works for me.

I keep a clipboard with scratch paper (usually recycled from discarded printer paper).  If I am in the mood to doodle, or have a sudden idea for a sketch, I grab whatever utensil I fancy at the moment and sketch away.

Sometimes my trusty clipboard isn’t handy. So I’ll use a legal pad, notebook or a napkin…

If the sketch or drawing doesn’t do it for me, I chuck it.  If I like it, I cut it out and tape it into my sketchbook:

artist or three-fingered sloth creature?

Somehow, this works for me.  I no longer feel like I have to sketch in a sketchbook, which I never liked to do.  I have so many abandoned sketchbooks half-filled with crappy, scratched-out drawings or where massive numbers of pages have been mercilessly torn out.  They are aesthetically unappetizing and remind me of all the crap I have to produce before something I like comes along.

The system that’s developed over the past couple years allows me to sketch freely and without inhibition.  I keep only the stuff that I want to remember.  It’s also a good way for me to clip and organize reference images — stuff that isn’t mine, but that gives me that “yes!” feeling.

I’m also more inclined to use prettier sketchbooks because of the new system.  I have a collection of a few very nice ones that I never used for fear of marring them with crap, but they’ve finally come into their own.