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

are u serious?

[(Anonymous)]

no section for sultry men cuz usually men draw comics and they aren't gay, and no one wants to see sex appeal on them that reads comics. The human bodies can do most of those and sometimes comics exagerate to give more to the action like to make a much look more powerful u would make it look like they are putting wieght into it and not having a average expression but maybe a somewhat straining one. There's more emphasis on the women's face and hair cuz they do more with their hair and u wouldn't want your girl characters to look like guys with wigs. Women are often flexible and can do positions like that and that is the natural shape to a woman of that physique. They mean imagination to the rest of the body that isn't drawn. The eyes mean more when drawing a girl and the brows cuz a man doesn't need to look so pretty. Girls u can easily make them look accidentally ugly or masculine by just the simplist of mistakes.

Re: are u serious?

[(Anonymous)]

Are you kidding me? This is a HOW TO DRAW book, not a playboy magazine. What he finds sexy and what everyone who ever wants to learn how to draw comic books is sexy are generally two completely different things. When I pick up a how to draw book, I expect to see basic anatomy, such as muscle structure, details on foreshorting and perspective and expressions. The facial structure of a woman being "manly" would all rely on character design.

Re: are u serious?

[(Anonymous)]

Well, the artist does have a good style, regardless how they decide to portray it but some people have a different way of expressing themselves. I can see your point though :)