The Visual Method: A Practice-Based Approach to Reflection and Meaning-Making Through Sequential Comic Drawing

This paper introduces the Visual Method, a structured approach to reflection, communication, and meaning-making through simple sequential drawing and comic-based visual storytelling. Emerging from personal reflective practice, the method developed into a transferable approach applied across individual and community-oriented, corporate and organisational, network and professional development, and educational contexts. The paper draws on 56 documented applications conducted in Norway between June 2024 and April 2026. Using qualitative comparative analysis of facilitation records, participant feedback, and post-workshop survey responses from ten workshops (n = 69), it examines how the method was adapted across contexts. It also identifies the core features that remained stable across these applications: low-threshold drawing, sequential structure, metaphorical representation, and guided reflective inquiry. Cross-case findings suggest that the method may help lower participation barriers, support structured reflection through visual sequence, enable indirect expression through metaphor, and move participants from individual reflection towards shared dialogue. Survey data is treated as triangulating participant-voice evidence instead of as a central proof mechanism. The paper positions the Visual Method in relation to visual methods, arts-based inquiry, multimodal meaning-making, and reflective practice, and argues that its distinctive contribution lies in combining participant-generated sequential drawing with cross-context transferability. Although the study is limited by retrospective documentation, it provides a conceptual and practice-based foundation for future research.