It’s interesting, you mentioned that you thought the sketches by hand weren’t helping you much and decided to go straight to digital (something we ALL tend to do), but, I’d say imo that the hand sketched ones have a bit more narrative, gesture, and energy. I dunno, there’s something magical about sketching in analog or outside of “a tool”. I’m at the point where I’m fine with completely redrawing and ditching the hand sketch, but somehow stuff does seem to have more energy from there. I do also think, with practice, one can say do some Photoshop sketching as a first iteration and have it work effectively but it’s a challenge.

This is a really good article and it’s right up my alley (I also write about illustration and design and ponder all these process questions). I also really liked the Jillian Tamaki article you linked; all really good stuff—thanks and bravo!