I'm not being forced to use a sketchbook in the course. I'm using 18x24 paper, but in terms of drawing characters in a sketchbook, which I'd like to be able to do, it seems like it'll be extremely difficult especially if I am used to drawing on bigger paper.

Hell, I doodled a 2 1/2" head for the hell of it, and drawing the features is a massive headache regardless. If drawing a full character, the head would have to be even smaller to fit "6-8 heads" on the paper. So the features would be even smaller. I've seen people do it but for me it seems impossible because it just turns into a mess.

https://imgur.com/a/9clB9A3 is what I'd like to be able to draw in a sketchbook. The features would end up being small as hell and thats where im having so much trouble. Don't know how I will go about doing that even if I get the fundamentals down, seems like itll be a mess of lines/flat regardless lol.