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: "Hippo" Crits....

[rurouniidoru.livejournal.com]

Eleventy billion years later, she replies....

What are you talking about? "Humanity is a disease...," what in the name of the Flying Spaghetti Monster does that have to do with what we're talking about? Besides the noble attempt at backpedaling there ("I wasn't saying feminists are fat and that's bad because you're not fat and the makes me a bad person, I was saying that, um...We're all ugly inside! Yeah!"), None of your reply was even coherent, much less relevant.

This isn't about art and censorship. This is about treating women as objects for sex and pleasure and men as strong human beings. No one here is saying that these people should have to live under fear of Big Brother is they happen to draw a character's waist too small, or exaggerate her bustline. I, for one, want people to realize for themselves that THERE IS A PROBLEM. If you are a realist as you claim to be in your spectacular logic backflip there, then you should know that this is utterly wrong. Have you ever put on a pair of high heels in your life? They're painful to wear for long periods without even standing. How is anyone (particularly humans without any special ability pertaining to feet) going to fight crime in them? And don't even get me started on the barefoot women WHO STILL STAND LIKE THEY'RE WEARING HEELS. NO ONE walks around on tiptoe constantly. Likewise, no one has a waist smaller than her palm and breasts larger than her head AT THE SAME TIME.

Not only that, but your claim that we all have fantasies may well be, but let me ask you something: Look at SuperVampyVixenLadies #1-whatever. What sort of fantasies do they pertain to? And now, look at SuperBuffBeefcakeMen #1-whatever. Do they pertain to those same fantasies? I guarantee you know at least one heterosexual male who would gladly sleep with the most deformed of these cartoon women. How many heterosexual females do you know who want to sleep with the hulking muscle piles that are the exaggerations of men? I'm not talking Nightwing Or Wolverine or whoever the stereotypical comic nerd girl is attracted to. I'm talking Beardy McAmulet-Loincloth up there. Put all of these characters in street clothes and ask which ones look powerful, and which look like sex toys, and there will be a perfect gender divide.

If the exaggeration is the basis, if this "art" relies on being a paragon of power or of sexual desire, then there should be even distribution amongst fictional people with fictional penises and fictional people without them. You're deluding yourself if you think it's about anything besides pandering to gender stereotypes and preferences of heterosexual males.

After all, why would the silly women be reading comics anyway? They have to get back in the kitchen.

Re: "Hippo" Crits....

[mulato1.livejournal.com]

No back pedaling here, If that's what you picked up from the post then hurry up and get back in the kitchen. Nowadays everyone has something to say aout how offended they are.... bottom line...stop crying and acting like a girl...oh my bad did i offend you again????... grow the hell up.

Re: "Hippo" Crits....

[rurouniidoru.livejournal.com]

Who's crying? I'm outraged. Did you even read anything I said past the first paragraph, or did you stop after being accused of backpedaling?

Nice to see that you've finally resorted to the more head-smashingly obvious tropes of chauvinism. Shows you don't even have an argument anymore; It's like plugging your ears and yelling "La la la, I can't hear you."

Like I said, I'm not crying, I'm outraged. And now, thanks to your inability to consider that maybe something you see as okay is, in fact, a problem, I'm also severely disappointed.

Re: "Hippo" Crits....

[mulato1.livejournal.com]

Me caveman, me like women. Food good.......

My argument and point has been made two posts ago and i refuse to continue to repeat myself because you are "OUTRAGED". Who gives a shit.....
If the points that I've made make me chauvinistic in your eyes, so be it. I have a strong woman that would disagree with you. You are right about plugging my ears. It gets annoying when all you hear is bitching and crying about how unfair and unjust everything is. Strong men and women are of action not whining. If you like screaming so much about equality, consider this....when have you ever heard of a man crying about how unfair the hair styling industry is, or how unequal men are treated at a knitting club?

Notice as soon as i stated knitting or hair, the image of a "Woman's" job came to mind. This is not something I'm making up. It is the way it is. In the same token, no man is bitching of how unfair it is....

As dumb as those examples are, it is true. and if you have something to say about this, then you just like arguing and there is not point in further acknowledging that you have any kind of reasoning or common sense.

It is not a problem, just like porn is not a problem, and dancing chicks in a video is not a problem....the word "chick" is not a problem. The problem is YOU and all of "YOU" idiots that make problems of minor things. If you choose to be viewed in a different light, or as a upstanding individual, a comic book babe is not going to tarnish that image. Your cry baby attitudes and insecurities of their big bouncy drawn boobs are ridiculous and demeaning to women with "real" problems. I admire women with a strong sense of security and self image. No self-respecting women with any sense of strong being would be threatened by this.

hennalounge's response to these posts are an excellent response to these posts. That security and strength is what makes her so right and strong. That attitude in itself is of an attractive strong and confident woman.

The one's threatened by this, pointing fingers and calling men pigs or chauvinists are the problem looking for a fucking hand out talking about "shenanigan, shenanigan!!!!" You guys complaining and that are so called "outraged" should have been born Communists. There are bigger problems then comicbooks, and your bitching is not going to change the boob sizes of these "F-I-C-T-I-O-N-A-L" characters. Nuff' Said....

Re: "Hippo" Crits....

[rurouniidoru.livejournal.com]

I'd ask you to google "male privilege" real quick, but something tells me it would be lost on you.

I am not screaming. I am not whining. I am not crying. I am not moaning or griping or doing anything involving female dogs. I am calmly, albeit passionately, discussing what I think is wrong. Yes, it's a little tiny minor thing. But the problem is composed of many, many little tiny things, and it is only thought changing them that we will fix the overall problem: women are still seen as second-class individuals by many cultures.

Hennalounge is one woman. She does not speak for all women. I'm also "not threatened by big boobs." I actually have a fairly decent pair for my size. But just because she realizes it's fantasy and that women aren't meant to look like that, does not mean that EVERYONE realizes this. Would you agree that it's a problem that female celebrities, role models for young women, are airbrushed into physical impossibilities? Well, these superheroines are female role models for young men, and that's keeping it in your parallel universe when teenage boys are the only ones who read comics. Is it okay that, in this imaginary paper world, women are to be physically attractive first, and powerful characters second? Is it okay that, in this alternate universe, men are generally physically male power fantasies, and women are generally physically male sexual fantasies?

And, even though you're going to continue to pretend that, just because women have more freedom than before, we're not still "enslaved" in many smaller, less noticeable ways, I'm still going to call it. May not be five in a row, but...

http://girl-wonder.org/girlsreadcomics/?p=66

Bingo.

(frozen comment) Re: "Hippo" Crits....

[mulato1.livejournal.com]

Hennalounge is one women that in my opinion speaks for confident women. The security of herself an knowing of truth from fiction is what makes her strong and confident. It is not a "problem" to exaggerate, pretend, to make appealing, airbrush or use makeup. Are you telling me you don't use make up or shave those pits? if this pertains to you then good lord. What can i say but ewww, along with damn near the majority of everyone else, unless they just enjoy the natural look. In other words there are extremes. learn to live with them. Educate those so called influenced, that it is not real.

(frozen comment) Re: "Hippo" Crits....

[ratcreature]

Besides the total off-topic fact that visible body hair on women is in no way universally considered "extreme" (like say where I live it is really quite common not shave anything), nor is make-up default (you see at least as many women without make-up than with), and your weird "eww" reaction to either probably means you ought to avoid holidays in largish parts of Europe lest you be squicked constantly, I really don't care to have personal hygiene discussions and threads with trading of insults going on in my LJ months after this post was even current. So consider this the moderation notice, and this thread now frozen.

...

[hsavinien.livejournal.com]

You manage to miss all the points and then become self-righteous about it. I have a sword. I like this combination, though you probably won't. I've also been up all night now (yet still spell better than you do), so my thought processes aren't going much beyond physical trauma as a solution to mental deficiency.

Re: ...

[mulato1.livejournal.com]

all the point are completely missed by YOU. I guess you ran out of things to say other than pointing out my occasional misspelled word. Bravo, excellent comeback!! what a loser.