The idea of preparatory sketches is a tale as old as art. While graphite pencils weren’t available for artists until the late 1800s, the idea of starting with a pencil sketch was already well established. “Pencil and paper let you get your ideas down super fast,” notes artist Tammi Heneveld. “You can do a brain dump until you find something that you really like.” Sketching a rough draught can help you to develop creative concepts, tweak your composition and experiment with shading. From there, it’s simple to transfer your pencil drawing into a digital space and take it to the next level.