Sketching ideas - the ideation process

This is the process that flows for me, and varying this is often a good thing. I grab paper and pencil and draw everything out on a page, fill it and keep going until the ideas run out. 

Then I work on refinement, cleaning up the sketches, overdrawing, redrawing until I get the images I'm after. I often find during this stage that new ideas pop up and a million variations can be made, so it's important to stay focussed a little. The wandering imagination is great but needs a little guidance. 

I use A4 sketchpads, get them from Officeworks or similar at a reasonable price. Because I sketch everyday, this is a good size for me. I'll often take the A5 though on the road because it's more compact for travel.

Depending on how I'm feeling, I'll switch up between a hard HB pencil or a softer 2B. Sometimes it's nice to sketch quick and dark. The HB is great for linework though. Then I go over it with a permanent fineliner. There's many days where I just use the finalise too, it's saves time and with confidence it gets easier. 

What have you sketched today?