How to Create Your Own Marvel Hero
Since the early 1960s the Marvel superhero has been part of the American cultural consciousness. Unforgettable, larger than life characters like Spiderman, the Fantastic Four and the Incredible Hulk are all Marvel characters. For the aspiring artist who would like to create their own Marvel heroes, there are a few thoughts to keep in mind.
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Things You'll Need
- Pencil
- Pen
- Brush
- India Ink
- White opaque paint
- Erasers
- Illustration paper
Instructions
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To draw a Marvel hero, you must start with some basic supplies. The difference is how the character is drawn. Aspiring artists should remember that Marvel superheroes possess certain physical traits that modern humans do not. Stan Lee and John Buschema write in "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way", that Marvel heroes are literally larger than life. The average person stands about six and half heads high. But Marvel superheroes stand at least eight and three quarters heads high. Male characters are more angular in features than the female heroes.
Artists should break down a person's body into the most basic shapes---circles, cylinders and cubes. In this case, the hero's body would be a series of cubes, cylinders and circles, which are later filled out until they look like a superhero.
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A superhero without a great face wouldn't be the same. According to Lee and Buschema, the most important general rule to remember is that everything about the Marvel superhero should be exaggerated. This includes the head. The faces should be kept simple, but expressive. In fact, it should be obvious what the character is feeling by looking them. The authors recommend that people interested in drawing superhero faces should study their own faces in the mirror.
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Marvel characters don't sit still. Just like the heroes' physical make up, their movements should be exaggerated as well. The movements should be loose and always in motion. For example, instead of drawing the heroes body standing up straight when throwing a punch, the Marvel hero's body is drawn leaning back at almost 45 degrees.
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Superhero illustrators should draw a basic center line in the hero's body and flesh out a loose sketch until they can add details as they go. The final rendition of the character comes from selecting the right lines in the sketch. These sketches can be created by using what Lee and Buschema call the scribble technique. The method is simple to do. Just draw the basic body frame then lightly scribble in the body to flesh it out.
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Tips & Warnings
Before beginning to draw Marvel characters, artists should read a lot of Marvel Comics. Notice how the heroes look in relation to other more "human" characters. However, even these characters have some human characteristics. According to author Alan McKenzie, the direction of Marvel characters changed in the 60s when Marvel editor Stan Lee decided the characters needed to possess very human traits. With the introduction of the "The Fantastic Four" in 1961, superheroes who were like "normal" people were born. They fought amongst themselves, had very human foibles, and reacted to situations like the Average Joe would. Artists drawing their own heroes should include these traits in their drawings as well.
