I had a lot of fantastic professors when I was at Sheridan, and each one seemed to have a key piece of advice that has stuck with me through the years. These little pieces of advice have come back to me on a regular basis, and more often than not, have saved A LOT of my art work from a terrible fate.

Today’s piece of advice came from one professor who told us to never use an eraser. Wait, wait, wait… hear me out! This is seriously some of the best advice I have ever received. He encouraged us to get all of the “crap” out on paper. If you’re not loving your sketch, move on to a new sheet and try again. Just leave that little guy where it is for right now.

Now, I am not saying throw out all of your erasers. I use mine for little touch ups, or areas that are getting a little too built up to know where I am going. Erasers still have a purpose. What I AM saying is, if you are hating your sketch, leave it there, don’t erase the whole thing and start over. Get that guy out of your head and out of the way.

The reasoning behind this professor’s advice was this: leaving these sketches or ideas out on the page makes room for the “good” ideas to breathe and come to be the amazing art that you do this for. Everyone wants to have that perfect sketchbook full of daVinci level amazing but that’s just not realistic most of the time. You should be free to explore new ideas, concepts, media and approaches. That’s what your sketchbook can be there for. And who knows, maybe one of those “crappy” ideas will be just what you’re looking for later on.

Speaking from personal experience, I have sat down on many occasions to develop an idea that has been swirling around in my head, but the pencil and the page have a different idea. Rather than erasing and starting over, I remember the advice that was given and I keep those lines on the page, I just let it happen and explore where it takes me. These almost always end up in my top favourite sketches. No, it isn’t what I set out to do, but I might never have come to this new idea by forcing it and erasing my lines and starting over.

Sometimes ideas need to breathe. Let out the clutter, clear up the space and let it do its thing. You never know what you might come up with.