This is going to be the first in a series of posts that shows the progression of a project that I have been working on for a little while.  My biggest fear about posting about this project while it’s still in progress, is that I might get busy with real work and not finish the project.  Hopefully, these postings will help me finish this. 

About a month ago, I had a day off and I started sketching.  I’ve been looking at a lot of original comic book art lately, and I’ve noticed that a lot of artists recreate famous, classic covers.  Looking at the art of John Byrne, Fred Hembeck and (my favorite) Arthur Adams’ recreations inspired me to try one for myself.

(and make no mistake, there is NO WAY that I am comparing anything that I do to any professional artist.)

I looked through a lot of X-Men covers at comics.org. I noticed that Uncanny X-Men 150, originally drawn by Dave Cockrum, had a few characters (not as many as a lot of X-Men covers), a bit of action, and a bit of emotion.  Once chosen, I then got to drawing. 

One of the main reasons why I don’t draw a lot (besides lack of time) is that I can be a perfectionist when I’m using graphics programs.  So for this project, I wanted to make sure that I did everything by hand.  The logo and the type on the cover would be drawn by hand, imperfections and all.  

Next time I’ll explain how this project evolved into a much larger project than I originally envisioned.

For a large version of my pencilled drawing, please click on this image.