I've always drawn, for me it's the bedrock for creativity whether its a painting or a sculpture. When you draw or sketch, you think about the subject in a subconscious way, making alterations to the drawing without thinking - responding automatically to what you see. I use drawings as the starting point for many paintings, often combining more than one into a finished artwork.

For me, there's 'Observational drawing' which is sketching from life and drawing what's around you, and there's 'Drawing for a purpose' which is when you have a painting or artwork in mind. The discipline for each is slightly different.

With 'Observational drawing' you respond directly to what you see, soaking up the feeling as you go along, storing some of it in your head for later. These drawings on many occasions can become finished artworks in themselves, as it's sometimes impossible to improve on them.

With 'Drawing for a purpose' you combine elements from existing sketches, from what you remember and also from source references like thumbnail photographs, pulling them all together in a composition.