One of the big issues in working on a comic is in figuring out where and when script, layout and illustration are done, because usually those all start fragmented: you have an idea for a cool image and certain things the story needs, but they are not a fully-formed gestalt that fits into the specified page or panel count.
My latest strategy for this is to start by collecting a lot of reference images, then to go ahead and make a 4"x4" panel with a t-square ruler, and sketch in one of the references using some colored pens...and then continue the story from that point, drawing more outside the panel boundaries and just adding text wherever. If I want to try an image multiple times, I have permission to do so.
The rationale is that at the end of this process, I pick up the tracing paper and sample the best stuff into it at any position or angle, then copy it using the "cover the back side in graphite and trace again" technique, ending up with clean pencils that can be inked over directly with little erasing.
Because I started with a certain scale of panel, the relative proportions of the other drawings stay in line with what's needed without resorting to digital edits(although I still use digital to composite). And it acts as a first pass on the drawing that is thumbnail-like and can apply any kind of materials or techniques, which adds fluidity - if the drawing needs a lot of development it can be gone over with different passes of color, and small elements that need a rework can be broken out. At the end of the process, the story has been gotten through(an important milestone) and the remainder of the work is more editorial in nature.
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