ratcreature | how to draw female comic characters (according to Wizard)...

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:

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*head is so very desky* ARG!

So, lemme get a few things straight here (since I'm too pissed off to go into furthur detail than that):

1) WTF about any of those absudly muscular men says "grace" to these people?!
2) WHY is there no section on sultry men?
3) WHY are there no mentions of men in the "Sex Appeal" section?
4) NO human's body could possibly curve into several fo those positions.
5) WHY is there so much more emphasis on the face and hair of the women than the men? They talk about the eyes alone in several places!
6) WTF is up with these jerks pointing out how very feminist-friendly their art is when it totally fucking isn't? "Don't overpose! That's bad. Just bend them in crazyily uncomfortable and unnatural positions. Don't ever let the women have correct posture, either. We all know women's spines are curved in a natural 's'-shape that doesn't allow them to stand up straight!"
7) Best of all, HOW can they think a skimpy bikini leaves anything to the imagination?

WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?

I have honestly no idea why they think these things. You know, in the book about "Character Creation" they have a section on "Super Men" (mostly about muscles) and "Super Women" (mostly about boobs") as is expected, but what what threw even me (and my expectations wrt women in Wizard publications are so low I thought I couldn't be surprised anymore) was that in the other chapters "Costumed Vigilantes", "Brutes", "Armored Villains" and "Sidekicks" not a single woman is to be seen, they are in the chapter titled "Vixens" (which funnily enough despite its title features examples of the smallest breasts I have seen in Wizard and the "vixen" is fully clothed with no skin showing anywhere but in the lower half of the face, as the artist in this chapter stresses that "slinky sexy super-chicas need to look good, but that doesn't mean they have to look like they're at the beach"). The only chapter on character archetypes featuring both men and women is "Acrobats". And okay, I can see that the stock character "brute" isn't typically a woman, but sidekicks or costumed vigilantes? Incidentally the only clearly black character in the whole book is in the "Brutes" chapter as well, right next to the gorilla villains...

Next to the gorillas?! Ack.

Yeah, something I've noticed wrt the superhero genre is that women do get separated like that. Recently the tv channel BRAVO did this trio of hour-long countdown programs for the superhero genre. The three categories were "Greatest Superheroes", "Greatest Supervillains, and "Greatest Supervixens". The men get two categories but the women, as they clearly serve no purpose beyond being beautiful and "vixen-y", are all shoved together onto one list. After all, what does it matter if they're good or bad? They're all HAWT. *shakes head* I can't stand that. By making a "vixen" list they basically strip away all of the characters' motivations and identity, reducing them to nothing more than pin-ups.

So there are men and women in the "acrobats" section? Why do I get the feeling that not one woman in that section is built like a real gymnast?

Actually the style of the acrobat chapter isn't a typical superhero style at all. It's by Adrian Alphona and not offensive at all. It doesn't have any big boobs or bizarro muscles, just stuff abot scribbling and making characters dynamic and flowing and about expression via body language.

Well, that much is a relief.

Wow, so much hate. Are you unfulfilled artists, or where does all this bile come from? if you don't understand the reasons behind the conventions of a certain community, blame yourself for your own shortcomings.

Complaining about overstated musculature and sex appeal in what is essentially an action movie on paper, really? Grow up. Admit you are basically vegetarians going to the butcher's to bitch and feel morally superior; the medium is the message, and you don't like the message that being sent. So what.

You people are probably the type who watch cartoons flatten like a pancake, then pop back into shape and then complain about the "unrealistic physics". For pity's sake. Honestly, just keep an open mind and mature a few years, and with a little luck all of your angst will be resolved.

they are in the chapter titled "Vixens" (which funnily enough despite its title features examples of the smallest breasts I have seen in Wizard and the "vixen" is fully clothed with no skin showing anywhere but in the lower half of the face ...

Okay, I had to look up the term "vixen" on urbandictionary.com, and apparently vixens aren't just sexy women, but also a little bit on the "evil" side, like... femme fatales, maybe? And in this context it really disturbs me that it's them who get the most sensible clothes and proportions, as if being a "good girl" meant you are always willing to show the readers some T&A (in a cute and bubbly way, of course *rolls eyes*). I know that's probably not... directly related... but from my viewpoint the association is there, and I don't like it.

P.S.:

Incidentally the only clearly black character in the whole book is in the "Brutes" chapter as well, right next to the gorilla villains...

OUCH >_

OUCH

Yeah. I'm actually waffling between thinking that they should have included more variety in the character's ethnicities and being grateful that they didn't because undoubtedly it would have been really awful at least half the time.

my guess which is almost certainly right is that the word sultry applies only to women, 99% of the time. but to sexy men? strong and brave is generally the archetype for sexy men which is covered.

the other reason is that it is a book written for a predominantly male reader base by a male. wonder who he'll cater too...

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.

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.

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 :)

how to draw female comic characters (according to Wizard)...

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