Can I contact my client directly? Not yet. Once they choose the sketch and direction they want to go in, then you can work with them directly.
What if my client didn’t answer some questiosns? Then most likely they don’t have preferences, giving you more flexibility
What if I like something different than my client suggested? Feel free to offer other options in the sketches
How many sketches do I need? 5-8 DIFFERENT ideas, showing different approaches, styles, layouts etc. If you want to show multiple variations of a sketch, you can, but that still counts as one concept