22 Panels That Always Work

"Never draw anything you can copy, never copy anything you can trace, never trace anything you can cut out and paste up."

Wally Wood had this motto hung in his studio to remind him to not waste time "noodling". Smart. Working as an artist is hard and time consuming. Any shortcut helps.

When I was a wee lad learning to draw, I turned my nose up at the kids I'd see tracing over their favorite Jim Lee wolverine drawings. They were just copying and I was a dedicated purist. A decade or so later (and after art school) I changed my mind.

Of course, nothing beats drawing from life blah blah blah. (life drawing session here next Thursday @ 6:30!) But aside from the shortcut factor, there's a lot to learn from other artists and tracing over their work in fine detail you see every choice they make. From linework and contrast to proportion and paneling. Wally put the lock down on 22 successful panels and thanks to Joel Johnson, you can now find hi res scans of them here.

-Nick