Where to Begin?

It can be anxiety producing to pick up a paint brush and begin. I'm trying to discipline myself to do thumbnail drawings, quick sketches, any sort of preparatory work before diving into anything. I'm hoping that this little chair will pass the screen test and provide me a new star for my chair series.  This exercise is an excellent way to edit out boring non-starters, and gives me a way to begin.

These are all on large sketch paper, which seems wasteful but forces me to work fast and large, and keeps me from bogging down into small detail. It also enables keeping the eyes straight ahead and not looking downward. The idea is to use large, sweeping, whole arm movements.












#1 - Five minute timer:
Not too bad, but I didn't get the angle right and one leg is too short.
















 #2 - 15 minute timer:

 I put a box around it to have a reference to line up the front with, and to help me get the perspective. It was hard to stop at 15 minutes, but that's the whole point.

 #3 - 20 minute timer:

Perspective can get thrown off if too much is added that isn't actually within the frame - as I've done here. The immediate area around the chair is really all that's in frame, so that got away from me. Drawing is such excellent exercise. After I've done a few, or many, I've made all the possible mistakes and will hopefully avoid them if this goes to paint.