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

*extremely late, but here anyway*

[baaing-tree.livejournal.com]

It never fails to surprise me how people can explode on this site. Man, people might thumb their nose at DeviantArt, but I've never seen vitriol like what you just got! (And I only read the last PAGE of comments!) Man, you have my profound sympathy and apologies.

I myself think it's cool that you've posted this... even though I'm six months late... and I'm adding this to my memories.

I still worship Kevin Maguire, though. At least his women in street clothes look like women in street clothes, and not women in body paint.

Re: *extremely late, but here anyway*

[ratcreature]

Well, most comments just had issues with some of the drawing styles Wizard advocates, so not really aimed at me.