La Page Blanche
At the Angoulême comics festival, I was having a late business meeting with someone in a pub that prides itself on serving American beer (Bud) and burgers (I don’t know what it was, but I had a weird allergic reaction to it later; let’s blame the Bearnaise sauce). The bartender brought around a big sketchbook, asked if we were artists, and quite charmingly asked us to add our own sketches to the many pages by other comic artists in it. My dinner companion zipped through a funny drawing of a duck. I stared and stared at the page in a panic. I drew one thing, then covered it with another, then tried to fix it with colours as I eventually managed to sort-of draw the Library soldier with a bag of comics. The barkeep came back for the sketchbook, and maybe it was his crushing sneer of disdain when he looked at my page that brought on the allergic reaction. (I didn’t take a pic of the drawing. I consider it to non-exist.)
Expecting something like his reaction is why I freeze when faced by a blank page.

All this went in the trash, so it doesn't matter how many toes I drew on that foot
So, I’ve decided, if everything I draw is garbage, why not just treat it that way? Draw any sort of trash on a page, no matter how horrible it looks, then tear it out and throw it away. Go into the notebook knowing it’s going to be consumed, not filed away for later appreciation; don’t feel bad about tearing the pages out and never seeing them again. No need to be paralysed by how I can’t elegantly fill a Moleskine or what-have-you like so many other people manage to do. Draw something, anything, then toss it immediately.
Dare to use a blank page. Draw without fear, because it doesn’t matter if the notebook is trashed. That’s the point.
Then destroy the evidence.
I like how your throw-away “bad art” is better than what most people can manage on a good day with the full intention of making “good art”.
A sketchbook with “bad art” is 100x better than one that is blank. So draw away. (and sometimes post it up here for us to enjoy)
Instead of “sketch of the day,” I could start posting “bad sketch of the day” 🙂
(But you’ll notice in the photos I carefully covered up the veeery bad scribbles!)