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....

[(Anonymous)]

I'm a dude, and as much as I like a hot women. I also equally hate pretentious comic artists who make all fantasy artists look like drooling teenagers who can't appreciate a female character without making them dress like prostitutes who fight in 40 inch heel red patent thigh boots (example Witchblade)

Ok some the "super-heroic" women are fine due to Super Heroes generally being ideal. The guys are the same way. They're supposed to be perfect. Some artists on the other hand don't know where to draw the line before their art becomes less heroic, and more, insulting kiddie porn.

Some amazing artists have been making strides toward breaking this tired concept as people wish to find more pathos in their heroes.

However, the Bride of Frankenstein-cum Avengers super vixen was absolutely ridiculous. It is so atypical of the trite one note comic artist mentality. It really painted the artist as a stereotypical horny comic artist drawing soft core porn living vicariously through the muscled dingus hanging out with his living doll super girls.

As for Mulato1, first thank you for your hilariously stupid "the lady doth protest too much" rant.
Perhaps learning the definition of 'hypocrite' may help your future trolling efforts. Though the key to good trolling is being award-winningly ignorant. The fact that you're even posting on a topic about comics is ironic at best. As you are obviously an 'internet troll'. We all know how socially dynamic and attractive Internet dry humping trolls are. Every playground-quality insult flung at the imagined masses you perceive as being such an immense issue for you can most likely and accurately applied to yourself.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, next time you feel the need to hang out on a site about comic book art, flailing your Dorito covered hairless little boy arms and feces around, like a chimp who hasn't had his morning banana latte yet, you may wish to brush the breakfast burrito out of your breath and scrub the stench of irony out of pits and realize that you're most likely the fattest, ugliest one in the room.

I'll finish with this:
*Johnny Carson voice*
A one hundred foot tall hammer.
A ten ton wrench.
Mulato1
...
Name three gigantic tools...
*cue ed McMahon "Hiyooo"*