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: It's a matter of opinion.

[(Anonymous)]

You guys are douchebags. A bunch of jealous females crieing cuz they dont look that sexy. And guess what, no human ever will. Its a drawing, you have to exagerate certain aspects to make it look like you want. Get over it. These drawings are damn good, quit hatin on positions & curves & blardyblardy. Noobs

Re: It's a matter of opinion.

[(Anonymous)]

I find it entertaining that you can't find the apostrophe, nor consider this from another angle, nor come up with an insult that actually makes sense in this context. The comment that you replied to just explained precisely why most people here are upset - and it's true no matter what medium. TV, video games, comics, anime, manga - female characters are there to look pretty and sexy and get fans - and usually they're just there for that. Yeah, alright, they'll get an episode or chapter dedicated to furthering their characterization... but how often does it stick?

And wow, I just realized that all of this was posted over two years ago... Considering it still resonates and brings a strong feeling of disappointment to the media industry in me, I think I can safely say that it's not just about overzealous female rights activists getting upset.

If you really, really want to see people whining - why don't you search the "Sheik is male/female" arguments?