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

[niqaeli]

I... I know I should be angry. Enraged, something. Mostly, though, I look at it, and I feel *tired*. I feel like, we've fought this so much, so long, and it's still here. Still ingrained into the culture.

I have to remind myself that things *are* better than they used to be. I have to tell myself that. I have to remind myself that giving up and hiding in a corner *won't* change anything. Won't make anything better for me or for other women.

But there are days I *wish* for the isolationist lesbian colony on Mars. Or maybe Pluto. Pluto's far enough away. And I like men, honestly. I'm engaged to one I love very much. *sigh*

[ratcreature]

Well FWIW I don't really feel angry about this anymore either. I mean, I didn't read superhero comics for the longest time because of their sexism and other ideological problems I have with them, and just stuck with European and alternative US comics (which can of course also be sexist and appalling, but there's a larger variety of styles and genres), but in the end fan pimping on LJ got me into superheroes after not having read more than half a dozen in my first two decades as comic fan. And I made a decision beforehand to mostly just ignore what makes me unhappy, as I was fully aware of all the problems I'd have before getting into it.

[(Anonymous)]

bloody misandric women. why the hell can't you leave it alone? you've got all your power in areas where men can't get at it anyways. You're not better or worse than us, just different. Jesus Christ. I get so sick of this.