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

TNX

[(Anonymous)]

i just wanted to say thanks for posting this and that i found very useful the information. I think that most of the female drawings where exactly what men think of sexy but i see lots of comments written by girls that seem to be against beauty. Women are all the same, when they find a girl that's better than her, the first thing they do is to point out the bad things of the other. Remember that drawings in comics are not intended to be as real as a picture, they are cartoons and that the artists of wizard showed how to draw based on their own style, if you don't like the way an artist draws, just learn the basics and find your own style.

thanks again for posting it :)

Re: TNX

[ratcreature]

Well, personally I don't think superhero comics are the appropriate place for images that work just as porn for some of the male, heterosexual parts of audience, while costume and bodybuild make no sense in terms of the character, powers, plot or just basic anatomy. Why not go for porn directly then for wanking, where there's no need for outfits and people to make sense? I'm not against beautiful women, I'd even love to see more women I find hot in comics, I just don't go for the broken spine type myself.

Re: TNX

[brownbetty]

Actually, I choose to believe that meaning can be found in art.

Re: TNX

[(Anonymous)]

Women are all the same

Oh boy, this ought to be good...

when they find a girl that's better than her, the first thing they do is to point out the bad things of the other.

Wow. So you're telling me over 50% of the entire planet does this? Fascinating. You can, of course, back up this extraordinary claim with extraordinary evidence? Because I'd like you to prove your claims. Besides, are you really so dense as to believe that everyone in this thread is jealously trying to impugn imaginary women? Worse yet, do you really think that everyone in this thread who's complaining is a woman in the first place? Wow. Just... wow.