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

Did a how to search on Google....

[opaquejade.livejournal.com]

Wow...I just realized why I never read American comic books until now. I ran from American comic books when I saw women of diversity in Manga,and even that is dying out. We need more real wo/men artists! I am studying to become one, but without accurate information on both sexes how can I achieve what I am truly wishing for? So far I have been going off of things I see,and even that is skewed because I am on a college campus and not out on the street!! :(

I do think big wo/men are attractive. If one must be sick to be a societal beauty then I don't want them to be. I'm about to cry because I love people, If I go into comics,I will be doing them for America. I probably won't be able to get many readers though. Accurate women. Logically sized men as well. Maybe it'd be better to just become a writer? :(

Re: Did a how to search on Google....

[opaquejade.livejournal.com]

Oh and thank you for posting this up. It gave me a good idea for a few things to work on/avoid!