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:

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well this is something. No one is forcing anyone to read THIS, rather than pick up a comic book. When I read this and responses to this, I felt my own type of RAGE. (funny that word is used) The way I draw my female characters is actually quite different than what you see here. With that being said, Turner is an ass but while Tuner is an ass he is a professional ass. When I browse the web for female artist, the portrail of women is actually kind of what you see here. Then again, If they or even you saw my drawings you'd say "That's a femine looking man with female clothes on) I draw tooo realist (ex: realizing gravity, small athletic breasts, female sized muscles and tones, various sizes/shapes, different races..) And surprizingly, Women were offened by my art, they asked me where are CURVES? hair, lipstick, etc. Hearing this made me feel crushed, then I see this and now I'm confused, what DO people want?

Well obviously different people want different things.

I want the way female characters are drawn have some measure of anatomy/realism/plausibility fitting with the chosen style, and the body type and clothing of a female character be plausible for that character, tastes and occupation, rather than just being justifiable solely as visual porn, unless it is a porn comic. I have no problem with porn comics, if someone wants porn poses above all else they should just buy a porn comic that is to their liking rather than demanding that superhero comics should function on porn principles rather than action-adventure ones with some eyecandy as extra. I get the concept of eyecandy, but actually I think that the drawings should serve the story in a comic.

I want the fighting and standing poses of women in comics fit with a plausible movement rather than look completely artificial just so that both tits and ass are displayed for optimum effect. Choosing a pleasing angle is one thing, I like eyecandy as much as the next person, but to make jumps or merely bending over look utterly bizarre is something else.

Personally I'm turned on by androgynous somewhat butch women, so I certainly wouldn't mind those, but I wouldn't complain about normal looking largish breasts on a heroine either (unless every woman in a comic comes with large breasts while male characters are allowed to have different types of bodies rather all having to be "standard heroic basic"), as long as they still look like breasts or maybe even breasts in a push-up bra rather than huge balloony things attached in an implausible manner to the chest looking worse than a freak accident of cosmetic surgery gone horribly wrong. Just people looking different from each other rather than mannequins with different wigs and clothing would go a long way (and often often a bad one at that).

I'd like women to have actually recognizable faces and facial expressions rather than having all the same face only once with blond and once with red hair (to a lesser extent that's true for male heroes as well), if for no other reason than to being better able to follow the plot.

Well thats also true but for people saying anime has better proportions, that just funny because in reality they have BIGGER BREASTS THAN THE SUPERHEROINES..its just hilarous....

Well, I have never said that, I'm pretty sure. For one, I don't read manga or watch anime because I hate the style in general, before even getting to issues like sexism. (I realize it is not one "style" and that here are some variations that don't look like typical manga etc etc. but I hate the features that make manga look like manga.) So actually I couldn't care less how mangas handle female bodies, seeing how I'm never going to read any.

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

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