Doodle - before and after (Patreon)

Left is before; right is after.

Basically left one is me with a mindset of "copying" a ref as much as possible, and right one is me reinterpreting it. The difference is quite substantial, but to be fair, redrawing something I've already drawn also helps.

Sometimes when I copy from a reference I get stuck in a "get everything right" mentality that for myself isn't quite good and the final result is the kind of the opposite of "everything right".

If I allow myself to make lots of subtle changes I actually get closer to the reference, while also giving it a nice interpretation. I wanted to change the pose a little and expression too, and while it is a sitting pose, it feels dynamic anyways (at least to me!). Left one lacks flow, and is kind of still honestly.