how to draw female comic characters (according to Wizard)...

[ratcreature]

brown_betty asked for examples "to illustrate the exactly how and why female comic characters are illustrated differently than the male." And I thought, really, what's better to illustrate these things than the books teaching the style in the first place?

A while ago I posted some scans from Wizard How To Draw series on drawing female superheroes (here and here), and I thought I'd post a bunch more from the first book of the series on "How To Draw: Heroic Anatomy".


As everything, it starts with the basics, i.e. proportions. First the male superhero


The female example is similar, but slightly different, notice how he stands firm and straight, wheras she stands with her hips cocked a little and the leg thrust forward?


Also notice in the direct torso comparison below, how the male one is ramrod straight, but she curves and leans just a little bit in the same pose?


Now onwards to the chapter "Sultry Women". It even cautions you against overposing! Yes, it's not as if Wizard wasn't aware of the problems! (Their definition and mine of which poses are already overposed might differ slightly though, heh.)





Next, Michael Turner explains "Sex Appeal". (Or what he thinks sex appeal is.) Incidentally it also illustrates the meaning of "overposed" that was brought up in the previous chapter very effectively...





Finally for compare and contrast purpuses the chapters on "Superheroic Men" and "Superheroic Women". For the male superhero it is all about more or less ridiculously enlarged muscles as we learn:





Female superheroes don't have it that easy, they need to worry about tilting their shoulder, nipple and pubic lines attractively at all times, not to mention legs, breast size, eye make-up and hair:

Comments

Re: Honestly..

[key-revolution.livejournal.com]

Mmmm... Some manga are better than others.

A good deal of manga is virtually indistinguishable from the rest of that good deal. But some are actually creative.

Also, although manga also has lots of fanservice, at least there's fanservice to both genders.

But finally... Every picture in this book was so distorted it was nauseating. Manga has lots and lots of flaws, but at least the art is pretty and doesn't make my eyes bleed.


Oh, and finally, as a note on the book itself, or one of the comments, or whatever it was- Since when do comic books featuring more normal people not sell?

Re: Honestly..

[siouxmoon.livejournal.com]

They sell, I just dislike the normal ones, they bore me or annoy me, take your pick.

And again, I was attempting to be somewhat fair on the matter though, at this point, I really forgot what the original point of argument was or why I even commented and exploded like that.

I appreciate that you got back to me however. :)