Everyone wants to draw characters. I sure did when I started drawing at six years old.
I drew my own version of Spider-Man in the Star Wars universe, which was crazy in the mid 70s but is definitely something that is close to what they’re doing now in the Marvel Cinematic. Universe. I drew Conan and Red Sonja and my own characters. It was fun!
But if I had it all to do over again I would have started by doing something totally different.
My advice is to make sure that you have the fundamentals down first. Get anatomy down. Get comfortable with gestural drawing. Know how to draw backgrounds and cars, and swords, and two-point perspective, and clouds, and kitty cats. Learn to draw everything!
Then move on to doing your own characters or other people’s characters.
There are a lot of options out there for reference and for training that did not exist back in the era before the internet. So, you’re very lucky in that.
Some of the resources are:
- YouTube videos that focus on creating characters,
- Online classes that will walk you through the process, (and there are plenty of those that are excellent),
- You can also follow great artists on platforms like deviantART, which will give you a good idea of what to do, and how to do it, and may even have tutorials involved.
- You also may have local meetup groups where you can talk to other artists.
But the one thing that I’m going to tell you is what everyone else who is a professional artist is going to tell you and that is… just draw your fingers off.
Try different styles. Try to draw characters that do not interest you, and make them interesting. Try to draw with your offhand. Draw until your eyes bleed.
Just keep drawing – but don’t just draw. Draw a character. Then do some critical evaluation on how it turned out. I’m not saying to beat yourself up about it, but I am saying take a critical look at how well you did, and determine what you could do the next time around that would make that drawing better.
If you have artist friends, you can ask them for an honest evaluation.
Don’t bother asking friends or family because whatever it is that you create is going to be loved and appreciated by them, and that’s not valuable to you. Only critical evaluation, both by yourself and by people who have achieved some success as an artist, will be valuable to you.
Finally, just relax and have fun with the process.
You’re not going to get anywhere if you’re always beating yourself up about not being able to produce something that’s high quality. We all go through that. Both beginners and people who are professionals have to deal with insecurities.
Be honest. Have fun. Keep drawing.
