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

Hrm, Interesting.

[siouxmoon.livejournal.com]

Hah, three pages of hate and ranting, though yes most of it is justified ranting and hating.

I don't know about it all, like one of the entries stated, it is just fiction in the end. You choose to be bothered by such things.

I am an Art Student studying to be an animator. I tend to draw like this here and there since I like the various styles and I grew up with Comic Books so it kind of spread to me and my drawing abilities. But, I do try to do more believeable anatomical drawings then alot of the Comic Art anatomics since I have to learn to draw in all possible ways being an animator and a drafter/Illustator.

I stopped reading comics last year but, I do remember one comic staying sort of true to the right anatomical positions of both Male and Female bodies and that was "Ultimate Fantastic Four." Or at least, I thought they did, my Artist's eye has expanded since then being in my first year of Art School and all.

But yeah, I do see the problems with it in the end, but I don't find it so extremley sickening. But, that could just be my whole point of view on this being an upcoming male art student. <_<;;

Re: Hrm, Interesting.

[ratcreature]

See, the thing is, I like superhero comics. I collect superhero comics. I wouldn't do that if I didn't get things I like out of them or didn't enjoy some of the art. I would have stuck with reading and collecting European comics and American independent comics, like I did for the first two decades of the comic collecting I indulge in. I mean, I have avoided superhero comics for many years because I thought they would all suck, because I thought that superhero comics were the comics for stupid teenage boys (also they just aren't such a dominant genre here). Then some fellow fans pushed superhero stuff at me, and it turns out I like them after all, and they are far more interesting than their image. But I would like them even better if art styles and portrayal of women I enjoy was more common. So I post about what I like and dislike with other fans and not least to show that the fan audience for superhero comics isn't all teenage boys ogling T&A or something like that.