This development of ideas can be seen very clearly at this website where you can link to many different artists works such as the watercolour travel notebooks of Eugene Delacroix and the Lion Studies of Gericault.
http://www.gis.net/~scatt/sketchbook/links2.html#D
Its important to realise for your own artistic development the importance of working upon the idea you may have for a painting before you touch the canvas. Thinking about the best approach and searching for opportunities to fill your work with meaning comes from an effort to contemplate what you are about to spend your precious energy upon.
Sketchbooks are the ideal place for this thought process. A simple squiggle well in advance of work on the canvas can save you hours and bring about countless opportunities. These opportunities will help improve your abilities to visually communicate enormously. Improving your skills to select well, choose wisely for and refine your image-making is well worth the little time of preparation it makes. Be inspired by this video of the Detour Sketchbook Exhibition in U Tube.
Also have look at the work of this artist who with his simple lines manages to say a great deal about his surroundings
http://uchronie.over-blog.com/15-index.html
Enjoy!
