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

Seriously

[(Anonymous)]

First of all, this is not a comment to downrate anyone or what have been said...but I think a lot of people are out of context. As someone stated further in the comments, this is NOT reality, the artists in their are not force-fedding you the image of what a woman or a guy should look like. They are talking towards the drawing itself!
I don't either want to make assumptions but I don't think a lot of the people who flamed this article actually ever lifted a pen to draw. This guide is really helpful as tips for proportions. They are obviously exaggerated but the real proportions are there...7 and a half head for a female 8 and a half for a guy...the rest is just sprinkles...And as someone else stated, this is about superheroes with supposedly superpowers so it is normal that they look over exaggerated in every way possible, big breasts, accentuated curves for the back, the "S" shaped back...We know nobody can stay like this for hours in real life but that is the point. It is not real. Nor realistic.

Also, the article and the artists as well are clearly not trying to put this as "A guide on how the perfect Man and Woman should look like". It is clearly on a drawing and art state of mind, not reality. It frustrates me to see that even a drawing on a piece of paper can cause that many reactions. Most of us a confronted with violence in the media, at work, in schools, school shootings, racism, exclusion, poverty and the list could be long about the flaws of society.

And don't get me wrong, I am definitely not defending the hypersexualisation (sorry if the word is wrong but I am french) of women in our society, I participate in an anti-rape group and activism towards equality between men and women but this, is really least of a concern...You will agree with me that the majority of comic readers, I am sorry if I offend anyone, are majorily masculine, in between the age of 13 to 35 probably still living in their parents basement and don't really take those kind of figures as models...Plus, besides the look, comics actually give sort of good values(except some cases obviously), by example, justice, equality, not to steal, not to be violent (even though more than never, violence is the way of resolving the problems), acceptance etc.

The looks are just shiny...recreating on paper what can't be done in real life...The point is to dream, step out of the ordinary.
There is no man flying in between buildings in red and blue stockings nor a woman flying in an invisble airplane or a guy with metal claws at the tip of his hands. It's food for thought. Fantasising. And don't try to take this out on me, everyone fantasise. It's part of the human being...

I'm sorry for the book but these were my two cents...I draw an awful lot and this guide was really helpful. Too bad people can't see past the images and see the technique and the work involved in this.

Last thing, this is my angry comment: If you hate those comics and the image of woman displayed like this so bad, go out and take actions on parents that dress their little girls like street workers, people who horribly display their child as meat for the eye in shows like "Toddlers and Tiaras" on TLC. THIS is disgusting. Live images of REAL little girls and parents showing them off as they were meat on the market.
Go burn down magazine buildings like Cosmo and such that try to dictate how thin a woman should be. These are drawings FFS. Not tengible stuff that is in your face every freaking day.
This culture (i.e. comics and such) are relatively marginal compared to what we are shown everyday in publicity and in the media.
Like I said earlier, I am for the equality of men and woman and against the abuse of sexual image of woman in society but geez...calm down, those are only drawings.