For most of these, I first find a piece of text in the trash (usually from an old music score), cut the letters apart, find all the anagrams, draw some people, decide on the anagram that matches the people, and then finish the drawing (ideally) to match the anagram. Letters piled at the bottom of a drawing are the ones left over. I've gotten a lot of my inspiration from the work of the (now-defunct) Royal Art Lodge, Edward Gorey, and Ray Johnson.