In the collectible-card game Marvel SNAP, every time you recruit Luke Cage to defend allies or summon Storm to unleash a flood, you’re witnessing one of Jomaro Kindred’s superpowers: his ability to transform legendary heroes into playable works of art.

But given the scarcity of Black comic book characters, Kindred and his team at Second Dinner take special care when illustrating the likes of Blade, Falcon, and Misty Knight.

“I didn’t have the luxury of seeing as many Black characters in comics and entertainment growing up. It was like out of sight, out of mind,” says Kindred, Second Dinner’s art director and cofounder.

It turns out portraying a Black superhero involves nuances that not all artists are attuned to.

“Sometimes the characters come back with really light skin, or their noses aren’t broad,” Kindred says. “I definitely try to hire people that look like me to create art that looks like me. We want people who can nail that.”

The approach paid off with the card art for Blue Marvel. Introduced in 2008 by writer Kevin Grevioux, he was one of Marvel’s few Black superheroes to be conceived by a Black artist.

“Blue Marvel was a special case because we needed him to feel powerful and dynamic but also majestic,” Kindred says. “That can be a hard balance to strike.”

So he enlisted Ryan Benjamin, a Black artist who has illustrated Iron Man, Captain America, the X-Men, and many other heroes over his three decades in the comic book industry.

“Not only is he a dope artist, but he also innately understands how to capture the nuances of Black features, like face and bone structure and the texture of our hair,” Kindred says.

Benjamin started by drawing a series of rough sketches to help the team land on the right pose.

“There are a few things we look for in this phase: Is the pose dynamic, and does it capture the vibe of the character?” Kindred says.

Then comes penciling and inking the character—a step that accentuates details outlined in the initial sketch—followed by coloring.

“We wanted to avoid Blue Marvel looking overly angry or aggressive,” Kindred says. “We do this by having him look directly at the camera, with a slightly furrowed eyebrow, but keeping his mouth relaxed and calm. Ryan Benjamin nailed all these points.”

Kindred’s own art journey began when he was at a laundromat with his mom, where he spotted an older boy drawing Conan the Barbarian fighting a monster.

“I’m 7 years old, and I’m looking at this big, brutal battle scene,” Kindred says. “I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s cool!’”

With guidance from friends and mentors, Kindred taught himself how to draw, ink, and paint. To get noticed by game studios, he created fan art of the brown-skinned orcs from World of Warcraft’s Warlords of Draenor expansion. This helped him land a job working on the collectible-card game Hearthstone at Activision Blizzard.

“Finding my own path is something I’ve never shied away from,” he says. “I don’t want to go down the already-proven road.”

Kindred believes seeing Black heroes take on more visible roles in videogames is crucial to the future of the industry.

“Players see themselves in these worlds,” he says. “We’re here. We’re part of these worlds. We’re these superheroes too.”