Visualization

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I want to ask about visualization.

I have no trouble actually composing an image in my mind, even then transforming it, but I can't actually hold an image in my mind for long enough to draw it. It's kind of like the moment I start thinking about putting the image to page, it just kinda goes *poof* and vanishes. I'm just a hobbyist with no ambitions of ever being anything more, but this is so damn frustrating. Like when I say the image vanishes, it's just gone. I've only a vague sense of what it was, but no longer do I have any useful sense of what it was...like going from actually seeing the Mona Lisa to just "eh, a plainish woman with a kind of smile" (not implying anything I want to draw is on that level, just trying to express what's going on).

Are there any tricks to overcoming this? I'd be happy if I could hold onto something for long enough to even just do a stickfigure sketch...