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

[etain-anders.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I could live with this--the blatant sexism, the complete contempt for women as characters or anything other than sex objects, the fact that the spine-snapping poses they show off women in are the same as they used to force women into a few centuries ago, etc...

I could accept it. If they just out and out said, "We are in this business to make money. We will most effectively make money by pandering to the desires of pubescent boys and grown men who are still pubescent boys inside because they make up the majority of our readers."

So it'd still be despicable and wrong. At least it would be honest. But instead, they say this:

I fear there are more artists out there who merely wish to pander to the masses than those who wish to create very attractive, yet very three-dimensional and believeable feminine comic book characters. --Yep. And you're one of them.

The Scarlet Witch and the Wasp are powerful women in the Marvel Universe. Adam Hughes... had nothing to do with any of this. Honest. -- Powerful? Not the way you draw them. And as for that last bit, what are you, feeling guilty?

...when I think of sex appeal, the word sensuality springs to mind. In fact, I like to think of it more as "sensual appeal"... sensuality can be much more elegant... -- It's just like in the morning when my dog runs up, with big eyes and her ears down, looking extra-cuteand I know it means I'm gonna be finding crap on the floor somewhere.

...it's body positioning that makes this piece so appealing... By focusing on the female form itself and not just a woman's assets... By leaving it up to the imagination... less revealing in terms of what you show of the actual body... It has more of a natural and realistic curvature to it. -- Wow, he is really laying it on thick. Why doesn't he just hold a big sign up above his head saying "NOT A PERVERT" in neon lights and jump up and down?

Mystique is one of my favorite characters because her natural form is very appealing. Even with all the action scenes she had in the "X-Men" movies, there were never any blatant shots portraying her body in any type of gratuitous way. -- I... am not even going to touch that one. Was Turner watching the same movie I was?

Indicate the muscle masses in the arms, but try not to overemphasize them... (Yes, I know--a woman can have well-defined muscles and still be feminine-looking! So I better not recieve any letters from angry female bodybuilders, okay?) -- o.0 ... The sheer arrogance is unbelieveable.

We all know that breasts come in many different sizes, and one size is no better than the other. Nor do larger breasts on a character make her any less intelligent than characters with smaller breasts. Shut. Up. I am not brain dead, nor will I cry if you suggest that my size isn't the "best" one. (patronizing, lecturing, *grumble, grumble*)


AAUUGGHH! Would it kill them to admit the truth?! Because their condescending, half-hearted, one-line afterthoughts that attempt to appease any female readers (or discerning male ones) really just says to me that they know what they're doing is completely shitty, and they're trying to cover it up (and cover their asses).

Or maybe this is just me. After all my number one pet peeve is people insulting me, and then adding on, "but, y'know, no offense meant," and expecting me to accept that. An insult straight out I can handle calmly; it's when some asshole tries to tack on a disclaimer that I start having visions of ripping open jugular veins with my nails.

Because that's more than just being generally offensive. When people (like the above) try to tack on a freakin' disclaimer, a sop to PC concerns to distract from the real "screw you" message, all it really says to me is that they think I'm either a complete idiot to buy their pathetic little "apologies" or that I'm bright enough to see the insult, but too spineless to speak up and tell them where to shove it.

And that is where I move from frustrated and disappointed in society in general to utterly fucking FURIOUS. You want to objectify and demean my entire gender? Fine. That's your right. But don't you DARE try to justify it.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, the same thing pissed me off a lot as well.They know they're doing sexist shit and at the same time try to pretend it is not sexist with those partronizing and condescending disclaimers.

[etain-anders.livejournal.com]

Yes! So glad to know it's not just me. And sorry for taking up so much space with the huge rant. The more I wrote, the angrier I got, and so on.

I like the icon!

[raptorinblack.livejournal.com]

I would love to meet one of these guys on the street and just punch them in the face.

And in response to the con-side trollers around, yes i understand i shouldnt judge their entire character on one short piece of work and theyre proly fine fathers/boyfriends/taxpayers blah blah blah... But reading this was like a punch to my face and i feel compelled to do likewise.

Cause arrogant assholes like this arent going to listen to reason or have a nice debate. theyre gonna roll their eyes and smile and nod at the beautiful woman in front of them who is cute in how shes trying to have an intellectual discussion with them.

's happened before.