When I was young I would often redraw an image from comic books. I could learn a lot from copying what other artists had done. Why did they draw this muscle this way? Why did they put this line here? Why did they include this detail but not that one? Why this pose? Studying a professional artist’s work is a really great way to improve.
I haven’t done that in years, so for my latest sketchbook session I thought I’d give it a try. My dad collects old cowboy western comic books from his childhood. Some of them have some really great covers! So I googled “cowboy comic book” and chose a cover that I liked. Now that I’m a professional illustrator myself I didn’t want to just copy it line for line. Instead I thought I’d try sketching it in something closer to my own style.
I still learned a lot.
Here’s the original. Unfortunately the artist isn’t credited:
