Drawing An Analogy

Between the ages of 8 and 14, nothing held more appeal to me than spending countless hours meticulously copying the covers of comic books. I would labor over the minutiae of each line, noting the way the great masters (Todd McFarlane, George Perez, Bernie Wrightson, John Byrne) applied shading or perspective in order to convey a particular message with a character, or to showcase some kind of new artistic technique they were experimenting with. I would draw comic book covers while I was in my bedroom after school, and I’d draw them while in the back seat of my parents’ car on any road trip worthy of some drawing progress.

This obsessive copying was, for me, a form of learning - akin to the time-honored tradition of apprentices painting under the watchful eye of accomplished artists. Over the years, I became much better at drawing the world by looking at it, or even just from my head, creating my own original art. All of that copying ultimately paid off in me being able to draw human f…