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

[(Anonymous)]

Getting offended by the artist's perspective on how to draw women is absurd. It is "his" perspective, this doesn't make it real or for the most part entirely false. There is some truth in his guide, like the person a few posts above me pointed out: Women being around 7 1/2 heads tall is correct, though of course they could be 8 as well. But that isn't the point, the point is their is some truth to the guide.

If anyone becomes offended with the guide, then they have to be offended with american culture. Because for the most part this is how a mass majority view women, why do you think its done that way? Because its appealing. If it wasn't aimed towards a majority then it would never had been done this way.

Truth be told, the last time I seen art that really captures women is the renaissance era. Women consists of more than just big breasts and unrealistic S shapes. Most artists can't capture the essence of a woman because they believe that breasts = woman. Nothing really to get offended about, its absurd. I guess men should get offended how marvel draws men too. Since they are usually super muscular.

None the less, if you want a change to how women are viewed then it has to be changed in society first. There is nothing wrong with wanting to have women captured in the proper manner but until things are changed they'll keep doing art work that appeals to the multitude.