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

[anthegreat1.livejournal.com]

what do the women here want to see from a female character? it is mentioned that they all look like porn stars. In some cases thats needed. Believe it or not there are very sexy women that exist. I agree that comic book females are exaggerated but it's a comic book! Isn't the basis for superhero comics exaggeration? they are an ideal. I'm not saying that this is right but it's how it is. get out there and create the comics you'd like to see.

[ratcreature]

The problem is that women are a sex object in that kind of exaggeration while the male superheroes are wish fulfillment for male readers with the exaggerated muscles etc being a power fantasy. I mean, geeky Peter Parker gets to become Spider-Man, geeky Clark Kent is secretly Superman etc. so the nerdy male comic fan gets to identify with the normally hidden heroic exaggeration. The nerdy female comic geek doesn't get such a plethora of characters, not even if you claimed that being "sexy" in that way was "powerful" because it's not as if the female geek in a comic is secretly hiding her DD cup size to fight crime. That is the difference between the exaggerations when on

[ratcreature]

Somehow I hit post before finishing the last sentence of my reply. That was supposed to say:

That is the difference between the exaggerations when one looks at many superhero comics.