After one week of pen-tooling mazes, I never had any difficulties with the instrument again. If I could shout one thing from the rooftops to beginning illustrators, it would be to conquer mazes.

Rather than dreaming up every little detail—shape, color, perspective, message, texture, and so on—I was just both rebuilding and adding to an existing set. Copying is the fastest way to get inside the mind of an illustration, and truly understand how it came to be.

Most flat illustrations are either based upon these basic shapes (which Illustrator perfectly pre-sets), or an organic shape (for which the mazes serve as preparation).