Information Maven: Greg Meyer

My sketchbook is back for a great reason. I hate starting to paint. I’d rather draw a simple sketch than start a painting on a big, “important” piece of paper.

Fortunately, more sketching equals much better results in the final piece. That seems like a big “duh” to anyone who’s had the experience of making art, because part of the creative process requires getting your body to have some muscle memory of the perfect line, or at least the pretty good line, when it comes time to draw. I’ve been looking at lots of sketchbooks lately, including Everyday Matters, an always interesting blog by illustrator Danny Gregory, and see lots of effort (and great stuff). I want to dash off the perfect drawing without trying, but it never comes out that way.

I find inspiration in other places too. My childhood hero Ed Emberley taught me that drawing is, at its core, powerful conventions that you need to follow over and over to get right. Once you can make the drawing a hundred times, it gets a lot easier to improvise. Eben gets it.

The end result is always interesting when I paint. But not always what I expected. In this case, the sketch of the tulips ended up being this piece.