We frequently relate to preliminaries and sketches on a different level to that of finished works. There’s something so fresh about a study, done perhaps for the artists themselves, often as part of a further creative process.
From van Gogh: “As practice makes perfect, I cannot but make progress; each drawing one makes, each study one paints, is a step forward.”
In a similar vein from John Singer Sargent: “You can’t do sketches enough. Sketch everything and keep your curiosity fresh.”
I definitely agree with (as is often the case) Eugène Delacroix: “Perhaps the sketch of a work is so pleasing because everyone can finish it as (they) choose.”
Finally one of my favorite quotes from Delacroix’s great rival Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres: “Always be drawing, draw with your eyes when you can’t draw with the pencil”
Break-a-Brush!
David
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“Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.” John W. Gardner