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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This came up under a search for "how to draw comics". I really shouldn't google stuff like that, even when I'm desperate.
I'm amazed. This drawing style thing frightens me. I thought manga-style was unrealistic enough, but nooooo.... It's like they used barbie and ken dolls as a reference. Then added weird shit. Why do only the men have muscles? For male superheroes to be believable they have to be muscled up like, I don't know, a bunch of gorillas tied together, whereas the female superheroes apparantly don't need to be believable, just 'cute'.
Ah, don't get me started...
Needless to say, when I finally get around to drawing my webcomic properly, I won't be paying any mind to any of this. I can only hope it's some cruel joke you made up. Please tell me that's the case?

You have read US superhero comics right? Anatomy like that really gets published. I merely bought the book and scanned some pages. I didn't manip anything. Invest $19.99 and you can see for yourself.

Nah, I believe you ;). I was just kind of hoping you were joking.
No, I don't read superhero comics. Hell, I can barely get through the webcomics on my bookmarks, and they're free.
I suspect drawing styles say something about the culture they originate from, but I wouldn't care to say what. I just find it interesting - American superhero-style comics have the men over-manly but sexless, and the women just over-exaggerated. In the manga-style comics I've seen (admittedly not that many) the men are often drawn to look like women and the women look like children (I am exaggerating here, but you know what I mean). Either way is kind of scary, to be honest. And for some reason, all the comic-drawing tutorials I've found so far seem to be breast obsessed. Should they be big? Or small? What does that say about your character's personality? That's the bit I don't get. Unless you've had plastic surgery, I'm pretty damn certain that breast size is not an indicator of anything other than bra size.
Ah, pointless ranting. I'll be going now...

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

What the hell is this?

Re: What the hell is this?

Re: What the hell is this?