Copy the Masters

Much of how I learned art… and the drawing of cartoons, I learned by copying the masters. (Apologies to the late Charles Schultz. I promise I am not making any money off this bit of plagiarism.) I learned oil painting by copying the work of Maxfield Parrish and Norman Rockwell. I learned to draw cartoons from drawing Al Capp’s Lil’ Abner, Walt Kelly’s Pogo, and Charles Schultz’s Peanuts.

You can easily see that I am not trying to make counterfeit Charlie Browns and Lucy Van Pelts. My arthritis won’t allow that. Proof of that is in Charlie’s head wounds, unintentionally made in ink. But I did learn to draw in Schultz’s easily identifiable style. And so many things you learn by copying that you can’t even put them into words. Of course, it would be wrong to not mention that it is a copy of a copyrighted thing I don’t own. So, I can’t make money off of this picture. I would have to use what I learned only in my own original work.