Yes, I always do.
Artists make sketches and preliminary drawings before starting on a big project. When planning to use Java to draw a picture, it is useful to have a sketch on graph paper, like the following:
Artists use the sketch to help them transfer their ideas to canvas. We will use the sketch to trasfer our ideas into a program. The location of objects in terms of X Y coordinates can be read off the graph paper.
Say that you decide to make a picture that is 350 pixels wide by 250 pixels high. (Mentally) label the grid lines of the graph paper in the above. Put X=0, Y=0 at the top left corner.