I can't seem to get any inspiration to draw any original characters for any sketches, any time that I do try i wind up with something i put too much effort into trying to shade it just right and all this crap. It's a habit my teacher made me get into... but anyway. I'm trying to break this habit by drawing smaller "cartoon" characters so I can advance on my own style of drawing.

For those artists out there, what would you recommend on finding inspiration to draw original characters? It can't involve googling random stuff.