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

yet another random user who googled for how to draw tutorials..

[(Anonymous)]

To: Everyone

------------------

Hello there!

Let's see.. women offended by men, men offended by women, women offended by other women, and men offended by other men. Strange world we live in.

Criticizing and voicing your own opinion is OK as long as it's done right. Apparently, half of the comments I've read contain several F- words and the like, unnecessary bashing and laughable internet slang that makes such arguments difficult to take seriously.

I'm not an artist, professional-wise, but I do draw. Whether my works are good or not, I would love to improve on them. I've read a few comics here and there, but only a few, so I guess my opinion would matter less.

Personally, if I had to recommend just one single comic book series for anyone to read before they die, I'd say go with The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. The characters in it are people. No sexualized women or men, or stereotypical personalities either. If you don't like unconventional reading, then I'll just shrug and leave you alone with whatever comic book you have on your hands.

I don't know any of the artists featured here, so I'm not even going to comment on them.

As for their drawing style, not my thing. It is obvious in my previous paragraph that I prefer something a bit different.

Odd I've actually spent almost 2 hours reading half the comments on this page. Pointless maybe, but I find humor in internet bashing. Whenever I need to confront someone, I do so face-to-face. I believe it's more effective that way, don't you think?

I apologize for my dark sense of humor.

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From: Mr/Ms K.

P.S. I didn't find the tutorial that offensive. Try surfing for How To Draw Bishonen (which I also don't find offensive). Different people sexualize different people. Remember, straight men love naked women, gay men love naked men, straight women love naked men, and gay women like naked women, in whichever form they prefer, and each of which has their own literature.