Sometimes it’s fun to just do some inking overtop of another artist’s work. It’s a nice break from having to think a lot about page construction, anatomy, etc and it’s also a great way to learn! You pick up nuances of someone else’s process, see how they build a scene, add weight to figures, create depth, etc.
I recently inked a Rob Liefeld page for fun (didn’t record it but here it is):

And then I saw Khary Randolph inking this Captain America page, so I grabbed the file and tried it myself.
The big deal here is that this isn’t just Captain America (and Bucky), it’s Jack Kirby drawing Captain America! The King. The creative genius who birthed all of these modern myths and gave us The Avengers, The Fourth World, The Fantastic Four, the list goes on and on and on an on.

When I was younger I didn’t see the appeal of Kirby’s work. It was ‘ugly’, blocky, overly-exaggerated, simplistic. I was into anatomically-correct Jim lee artwork! But as time went on, I began to appreciate Kirby more and more. The sheer ideas, for one. But also the energy and movement of his figures, the raw power they exuded. The economy of storytelling. The characters seem to explode from the page and he makes it all look effortless. I love Kirby now, and this was the first time I ever tried to ink over his pencils, so it was exciting.

It took a while to figure out what I was doing. I started with lines that were way too thin and I was trying to build them up. Eventually, I realized that a heavier brush stroke was required and that helped a lot. I think I could have varied the line weights a bit more (it’s a little heavy on the background stuff). You can watch the video and see for yourself. I urge you to try this at home! It’s fun, relaxing, and educational. You can grab the pencil file below and have a go. 🙂

Here are the side-by-side pages: