"Sketch" set

zackesch

Out of curiosity, do any of my fellow AFOL's keep a specific chunk of Lego off to the side to be used as sketch models?

In terms of my element collection, its still quite small by other Afol's collections, and a number of months ago I purchased the Architect Studio set. Along with the elements that came in the kit, I threw in all my white and clear pieces that I currently own in with it, housed in a Swoop bag. Because My element count will be growing, I would want to purchace my pieces with a goal in mind instead randomly acquiring elements just for the sake of it. So, essentially my white elements with the Studio kit has become a "sketch" kit so I can play with ideas, concepts, techniques etc without the distraction of color and really hone in on the details and form. 

Now that the wife and I recently purchased a home, and with the wifes support, the lego collection will grow with a dedicated storage and building area in the basement/ wreckroom in process/ mancave or nerdcave if you prefer.  

tomalphin

I am very biased (having written the book "The LEGO Architect" which was inspired in part by the Architecture Studio set), but I wholeheartedly agree with keeping the most common elements near your primary building area.  I do not have a dedicated LEGO room - just one and a half walls of the guest room.  (More would be great, but this works.)

In my case, I use 4 Akro-mils cabinets.  For the longest time, I had kept the white brick separate for sketching.  I have since decided that is easiest to combine all of my elements independent of color, for everything except the most common brick and plate.  This seems like a good balance - I can explore the primary massing of a new design using white brick and plate, and use whichever color I want for the finer details.  (It's easy for me to ignore mismatched colors when sketching.)

Most importantly, do what works best for you - whatever unblocks your creativity so you can  build without thinking too much about searching for the right part or the right color.

Good luck!
---tom