22 Tips on How to Draw Superheroes

Hi everybody,
I just want to tell you that I put a lot of thought into to this post but it will be very long. I am going to be using some pictures and links. Also I will talk about this more but the link to my youtube page where I will be putting up some superhero stuff is right here.
Okay for me one of the best coping is drawing and one of my favorite things to draw is superheroes. For a lot of people with mental illness superheroes are great because it puts them in a different world. So here are a bunch of tips that I have to help you succeeding in drawing superheroes. I am going to later try to do some step by step things and post them to my youtube page.

1. Draw superheroes you like: Unless you are making it for a client or something draw superheroes that you like to draw 
2. There are so many ways to learn how to draw them: Whether it is using step by step instructions like cartooning4kids, a book (Stan Lee has made a lot of books on how to draw his characters) or just a google image there are so many ways to draw characters. 
3. They don't have to be perfect: I am called the imperfect artist for a reason. If you are using this as a coping skill the goal is to help you relax not to put pressure on you. 
4. There are pros and cons to every type of material: Obviously but...
5. Especially paint pens: So first of all most paint pens do not have a lot of different shades. So therefore some drawings will end up like this ( the drawing is above to the right). So there is a lot of gold in this drawing I didn't want that. However I wanted to show all the lines that are black. But I only have one black paint pen so this is the best I could do. Also paint pens often are very hard to do specific details. For example I will be posting two projects I have been working on in the next few days 
6. I would start with pencil: You can still trace over it after. Even when I do paint pens I start with pencil first. 
7. Also start with paper not canvas: There is one reason for this: Paper is way cheaper 
8. Practice, practice practice: If you look at the first Hulk drawings I did they are by no means great. But I worked on them until they got better
9. Understand scale. I am going to show you two drawings I did of scarlet witch 
   
     I personally like the one on the left better. I drew that one first. But I also drew the head too big so I drew the one on the right as a full body drawing. It is also so important to understand details. In the drawing on the left there is a lot less body which means the part I did draw has to be a lot more detailed. Also sometimes it is just really hard if you don't know the scale the best example of this would be with Mr. Fantastic where his long arms need to be drawn correctly
10. Google images is your best friend: So search Captain America civil war in google images right now. You will find so many different posters or promotional pictures that you can try to draw or use to inspire you.
11. Superheroes change so much that = less pressure on you: So because superheroes are comics they change a lot over the years therefore things do not have to be perfect
12. If it is not though add things to make it obvious who it is: Captain America's Shield, Antman's antennas, flash's lighting. Those are 3 examples of things that would show who that character was. For this project I am doing my war machine is not the best so I added the 003 on his arms I added different features to show who it was. In general adding color will  help show who the character is. 
13. There are so many projects you can do: This is one of the things that I enjoy the most. There are so many superheroes that you can draw and so many projects. Maybe you draw a brand (Marvel, DC) maybe you draw a group (Avengers, Guardians of The Galaxy, X-Men). Maybe you draw lots of superheroes. You can also do a superhero sketchbook or just try to draw as many superheroes as possible. One of the advantages of google images is you can also do this project very easily: One superhero in every suit the have worn. For example here is spiderman
    
     sorry I couldn't make it bigger but the point is that would take a while. Oh another option would be to do chibi (mini) superheroes. Once again Cartooning 4 kids has a lot of those
14. Go with the flow and finish drawings even if they are not your best: Finishing drawings even when they are not great allow you to learn and work on things. 
    
    I figured out pretty quickly that this drawing of the Thing was too fat (Fantastic four just gives me trouble) but I finished it so I could say I drew it and could know what to do differently.
15.    Sometimes they even come out better than you thought. Below is a picture of iceman. I made his legs blue and at first I did not like it but by the time I finished drawing I loved the way that it turned out.

    Iceman
16. Understand the mediums: Also with drawing superheroes in different suits there are different mediums. So for this new project that I will be posting I drew hawkeye and it doesn't look like Jeremy Renner at all. So it is a cartoon version. The movies have given people a lot of options on how to draw characters (especially movies like spiderman where there seems to always be a new one). So if a drawing doesn't come out right it might look like that character just from a different time or medium
17. Draw them how you like: This is a drawing of spiderman from the new civil war movie. I love him with Captain America's shield. But some people might now. Draw characters the way you like them 
    
18. When you can keep them simple: Drawing characters with all the lines are hard. So realize you don't have to add every last detail. 
19. If you aren't the best at drawing faces you can practice by drawing things like caricatures like this one of Chadwick Boseman shown here. Practicing this will give you better facial features in your drawings. Also by drawing them big with more detail it will be easier to draw them smaller with less detail
20. Know your strengths and weaknesses: If you are much better at details and not good at faces draw characters with masks. That would include: Spiderman, Batman, Iron Man, Antman and Black Panther among many others. Likewise...
21. If you are less good with details draw characters with faces: Scarlet witch, Haweye, Black Widow and Mr. Fantastic are all examples of this. The one exception: Vision, who has no mask but still a lot of details. 
22. Lastly, have fun with it: Especially if you are using this as a coping skill it is important to enjoy it. Don't stress over every itty bitty detail and just draw. 

I hope this helps some people. These were general tips not based on any specific superhero. Let me know what you think and if there a character you would like me to draw and/or give tutorial tips for.