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Hi Oliver! Between the two of us YOU are the one with a debut graphic novel published so I'm going to go ahead and link to that lol. It's Space Story!

Okay, here's the post with the Lynda Barry exercises. I can't recommend Making Comics enough for idea generation & general comics motivation. Barry is a master at getting you to loosen up and then tighten back up. I've also gotten a lot of mileage out of this Before/After worksheet from Tom Hart. The random image can be anything (movie screencaps, memes you've saved, other people's comic panels, etc).

Lately I've been working on Junk World #2 which is really long. I don't worry about sticking to a daily routine because my day job is physically taxing. But I do at this point have a set "formula" for finishing pages that feels very natural & doesn't stress me out.

First (image 1) I doodle a scene with ZERO regard for panel layout or page composition. This kind of drawing is just little guys talking to each other. Like literally floating heads. Everyone can do this kind of thing, I did it in the margins of my school notebooks. Then (image 2) I go back & start chopping up the story beats into panels, pages, etc. I only do this 1-2 pages at a time. Any more and I get bored!!!

Then I lay out the panels on 11x14 bristol and pencil/letter/ink. This is a "draw the rest of the owl" ass thing to say and it takes the most time, but because I've worked out most of the problems in sketch form it doesn't feel stressful or like I'm just staring at a blank page.

I think this is different from the standard "thumbnail" advice because the first part, the part where I'm just doodling/playing around, is fundamental to the actual flow & feel of the story. I can't skip it. And it's an extension of all my favorite exercises where the focus is generating silly images/characters just for fun and not worrying about the finished Thing.

But I don't know if that answers your question really... TL;DR:

In order to get in the groove, I pretend there's no causal relationship between "doodling a little cartoon animal" and "crafting something purposeful that people will see." And the core of that is getting to a place where I can just make stuff up without worrying about it :D

I shall cut down all who stand in my way

I shall cut down all who stand in my way

I shall cut down all who stand in my way

I shall cut down all who stand in my way