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

[vampyrfetal.livejournal.com]

No, I don't take it as bashing at all. I realized, after reading over my own comment, I seemed to be the one bashing which I am ashamed over, considering that was not my intention.
And when I read the things they say and the, now quite apparent hypocrecy, I do understand why people would be offended, to some extent, I'm offended.
I just am upset people let this get under their skin. I guess it didn't offend me so much because I wasn't necessarily paying attention to his words and concentrated MORE on the drawing tips. I actually found this while looking for drawing tutorials, lol.
I do, now, realize just how foolish this reads. They speak more from a *fantastical* standpoint, which, to some extent, I understand but they shouldn't put so much emphasis on the thickness of lips and the roundness of their rear ends. They make them seem less real and there really isn't any diference in expressions from one character from another. The rest seemed like they were trying too hard. From my views now from then, I see the stupidity and the ignorance in their words.
But, even still, I DO think they CAN draw, regardless of whether they are creative or not, I believe that to be a matter of opinion. Because, regardless of how offensively they act and speak, someone, somewhere, thinks they're the best thing since sliced bread. Now, I'm not now or WAS defending their chuavinistic behavior or words, I just defend them in the fact that I have NEVER found insulting someone's skill to draw or anything else to be fair. Because they DID have to study and practice and work HARD to get to where they are and of course there will always be critics, I just don't think it is always necessary to insult someones drawing skills just because they have upset you. I may have seemed to be disagreeing with everyone but I didn't mean it that way. I wrote that quickly, lol, and didn't bother to proof read it. So I hope I haven't offended anyone, myself. I just didn't like the INSULTS.
I'm sorry for rambling at you and I hope I don't come across as anything other than what I intend.
Thank you for the time you took to read my reply!