There are certain artists who never seem to run out of ideas. I am not one of them. When I feel like drawing or writing, but seem to be getting nowhere, I will often turn to a person I find inspiring and use one of their proven techniques for getting unstuck. 

Lynda Barry (the brilliant writer, cartoonist and teacher) is one of those people. She has an exercise that involves drawing a spiral which somehow becomes a meditation, which then relaxes you, resulting in your thoughts opening up and your concentration increasing, eventually leading to…well, all sorts of things. 

I have used it many times, sometimes following her directions and drawing one continuous line, sometimes drawing concentric circles instead. They show up in the pages of my journals, in my doodles, and in a lot of my artwork. Sometimes they are just the opening act. Sometimes they become the main event, as happened here in The Onion.