Thumbnail Sketches

One thing that I enjoy doing very frequently is making thumbnail sketches, small drawings about 1.5" x 1", in my sketchbooks (I especially like the Robert Bateman Recycled Acid Free Paper 5" x 7" sketchbooks). I usually line off one of the pages into 8 or so small rectangles. Using a pen, sometimes I sketch from some model or actual subject, but much more often I just draw fairly abstract compositions which come to mind. Sometimes these sketches become paintings or collages. Working this small allows me to try out a lot of compositions and ideas in a fairly short amount of time.