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

Sexist?

[(Anonymous)]

Can I just point out to everyone crying 'sexist' here that the representation of males above is just as unrealistic and objectifying as the representation of women?

This is because 'basic training' is a book on how to draw COMICS that, by definition, feature exaggerated and highly stylized drawings of both men and women. Comics aren't supposed to be realistic.

Yes, I wont argue that the above women have bodies that simply wouldn't be able to exist in real life with double-D breasts and 18 inch waists. However, in the examples above, Daredevil has wrists that are bigger than my thigh, a six pack you could strike a match on and an impossibly masculine square jaw.

Long story short, there's nothing 'sexist' about the above for the simple reason the men are as unrealistic as the women. Most men could mainline steroids and spend every waking second in the gym and we'd never even come close to Superman or Batman's physique.

Long story short, the women have impossibly big breasts, impossibly tiny waists and wear a postage-stamp sized costumes...but the men have slab-sized pecs, eighty-inch biceps and wear spandex costumes that look like they've been sprayed on.

Re: Sexist?

[straitwaistcoat.livejournal.com]

Check out the mens' cocks. Or lack thereof.

Yeah, it's sexist, pal. Muscular does not equal sexually objectifying.

Yaaaawn, when will you losers come up with some NEW strawmen? This one is ancient.