May 2013
7 posts
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Disney: Say No to the Merida Makeover, Keep Our... →
Merida was the princess that countless girls and their parents were waiting for — a strong, confident, self-rescuing princess ready to set off on her next adventure with her bow at the ready. She was a princess who looked like a real girl, complete with the ‘imperfections’ that all people have. …
Thanks for the heads up, perpetuallurkernazanin, I definitely signed this one.
I invite...
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nealdk asked: This blog should be the basis of a course taught at the art schools that have a cartooning major. I attended the School of Visual Art for cartooning years ago, and it's aggravating even today to remember all the young guys (and sometimes girls) who entered drawing classes with a preconceived notion of what women should look like, because they'd grown up on DC and Marvel, and that's...
Anonymous asked: It's less about the exaggeration, but more about how they exaggerate it. While yes the muscles on comic guys are pretty insane themselves, it's for guys to have an awesome asskicking figure that's ideal for them. When they exaggerate females its for eye candy, not for a good role model.
Anonymous asked: Other Anon obviously didn't see your Harley Quinn or Star Wars redraws. So much more dynamic than the originals! Better story telling right there.
aniseshaw asked: If an artist needs to draw something unnatural to make the dynamics of a character illustration work, they designed the character wrong. Fix the real problems, bandaid solutions make for pretty mediocre cartooning.
Anonymous asked: Did you know that when artists draw things, they can exaggerate them? Did you know that the hyper-muscular men in comics are also unrealistic? Did you know that wearing spandex actually doesn't highlight every contour and muscle on the body the way it looks in comics? Now, I'm not saying "oh, you're totally wrong and it's fine to make women real sexy all the time,"...
April 2013
9 posts
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mycurrentinsanities asked: I just read your post about sex not really selling, and I had a vague memory of an article that suggested sex only sells sex. That is: Even if it's easy to use boobs to get a guys attention, he only remembers the boobs and not the product they're selling. I know this is true for me. There was a recent video game that was notable for the huge breasts on the sorceress character....
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Anonymous asked: I just found this blog today and have been having a blast going through it. And, I saw claims on here saying that T&A hurts sales and I was wondering if you have any sources/articles that say so that I can read. I tried to find it myself but my google-fu is weak today.
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FYI.
There are times I wish I could heart the replies to my posts in tumblr, but it doesn’t work that way. It just hearts the original post and doesn’t credit the individual additions.
That said, I really appreciate all the feedback and discussion, guys. I so missed this!
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unyieldingsteel asked: Where'd you go? :(
December 2012
3 posts
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Studio Technique Is Offering Online Classes!
Interrupted storyboards time!
You all know how much importance I give to practice and learning of proper anatomy, and how much I learned when I took life drawing classes, about movement and anatomy in detail. Well, the training studio where I took my life drawing classes and taught a storyboard class is now offering classes online! Samantha Youssef is an amazing artist and experienced animator...
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July 2012
17 posts
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Sure, let's give this a shot.
eschergirls:
muffinfarming asked you:
Hey, first time poster here! Selkiesiun’s post, specifically the part about “nobody wants to read a comic with a fat female protagonist” made me think: would it be possible to come up with a list of people who WOULD like to see a ‘fat’ superheroine or at least a ‘normal’ one? How cool would it be to pull that list out the next time such a ‘critique’ was...
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Drawsh: A Free Figure Drawing Ressource →
I found this is one of the LinkedIn groups I’m in. Josh Reed shows by example, using both art and photos to explain figure drawing concepts, both in life drawing and imagination-based art. Concepts are taught, like how the muscles work and how the bones move, and then techniques are illustrated, like line quality, composition and gesture drawing.
Artists, I heartily recommend visiting...
Dear Anonymous Posters of Asks
Hi.
There are times I receive questions, comments, arguments and disagreements in my messages from anonymous posters. The problem is that at times, these are either not relevant to the content of the blog, or they would be suited to a private conversation as I don’t think it’s a good idea to pursue a conversation/discussion/disagreement/debate between two people in full view of...
Anonymous asked: Sorry, but, about your last post, not everyone is in a place comics other than those from the Big Two reach. I'm in a country in South America and I only see Marvel and DC's comics here. Of course, some graphic novels get there but they're so amazingly expensive; I didn't knew about most non-superhero-Marvel-DC comics before I got into the comic-y part of the internet. Not...
Anonymous asked: Technically any crap can make it into printing. The problem is that for example the two giants, DC and Marvel OWN their complete universes thus there is no other option than to buy whatever THEY offer. As long as the writer/story telling is good enough, the readers won't drop a story for the art even if it's terrible. I'm the opposite but most people put story above art.
tokusatsumadness asked: It's amazing some of the crap out there. I mean, how can editors let these anatomical errors get past them?
rdnatpel asked: I find it very interesting that in an effort to make the women sexy, they make them look contorted. Then, in a realistically possible interpretation of the same general pose, they're suddenly sexy! Sexy AND powerful!
blamerades asked: I have to ask, about the Spidey/Hope Summers page - isn't the flow of action going from left-to-right? To me it looks like they're coming in off the left of the page, & when I saw Hope's original pose, I assumed it was a "knees first because we're breaking through a glass window" type pose. It's horribly contorted, yes, but it reminded me of a baseball player...
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More insight on the ever galling subject of B&B...
keyboardsmashwriters:
I’ve seen a lot of valid arguements circulating tumblr, both for and against the boobs and butt poses. On the “for” side, there are times where it makes sense for both genders. I saw the baseball bat example used, which is a very legitimate reason for both ends being visible to the camera.
But, there are facts that need to be considered.
I’ve studied different forms of...
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from-thailand-with-love asked: Do you have any recs for good anatomy books? Thanks! ^__^
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Wonder if DC would feel comfortable with this...
So there’s been a lot of talk about the ridiculous Catwoman zero cover. I doubt DC put much thought into this, so I made a parody.
This was sent to me a while back by castlecloudcat— I’m trying to catch up with my backlog. Enjoy! It certainly amused me!
Anonymous asked: Are you familiar with Japanese manga at all? I certainly see a lot of poses like this there, and I was wondering if you felt like manga was better or worse about these kinds of things than American comics (as a whole) and/or American superhero comics specifically.
animalswithfancyhats asked: I think what's happened to comics is a prestige bias. the better selling comics had small waists and big boobs, so the other artists saw that and figured if they exaggerated those characteristics, they too could sell well. not saying its a good thing, just what happened I think.
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Is there a good reason to use a boobs and butt...
There’s a debate on tumblr about whether boobs-and-butt poses are doable or not, because they are labeled as impossible by some people. Photo reference was offered to show that it is a possible pose, and a lot of the backlash this post got was due to the actual overuse of a pose that is just that: a pose for the camera. Sometimes, the pose is used simply as a pinup pose. It’s all over...
June 2012
22 posts
mmemento asked: Hey love the blog. I have trouble drawing arms,in terms of length, mass and how they bend, any tips?
Anonymous asked: Um, so I kind of wanted to ask if maybe you would be willing to take a look at some of my art and give me some hints/redraw some of them? Like, if I gave you the links to where I have them posted her on my tumblr, could you mail me or redraw them and put them on your blog maybe?
Anonymous asked: This may be a little outside the anatomical accuracy focus of your blog, but why do most female comic characters seem to fight crime/evil/aliens/[insert villain here] in what amounts to fetish wear or stripper gear as opposed to women's wear from 5.11 Tactical or Blackhawk?
psowill asked: Have you heard of the comic robyn Hood by zenescope?
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havecrayonswilltravel asked: For everybody who's frustrated with the lack of variety in body types, check out Ross Campbell. He doesn't have a lot of superhero work, but he's the current artist on Glory, the revamped Leifeld title. He's also doing a scifi/superhero webcomic called Shadoweyes that has a fantastic range of body types and ethnicities. Seriously, I can't plug this guy enough, he's...
stewartcook asked: THANK YOU FOR THIS BLOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anonymous asked: Your blog has teached me a lot. Now I'm less afraid of drawing dynamic action panels without fucking up the anatomy. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
eschergirls:
2-5-9 submitted:
Have the newest Skull Panda comics been submitted here? Because they really should be.
http://skullpanda.com/post/24971164855/comics-are-stupid
http://skullpanda.com/post/25109039633
Original links are there and there. :)
I’ve never noticed the dog bone thing… I’ll have to go back in the archives and see how many fit that description!
This is...
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Finally, a Recommendation for a Good How-To-Draw...
Submission from evalilith:
Inspired by the previous post recommending titles, I realized this blog would be a great place to share one of the most inclusive and least sexist how-to-draw books I’ve ever seen. After all, we’ve spent a lot of time commenting on awful ones, so let’s have a good example!
Now, the title will sound ridiculous, but bear with me. It’s called...
Anonymous asked: To the other anon: classes and tutorials are great for basic body ratios and skeletal structure, and you were given good advice on that, but what you need is to practice like crazy. The key component of drawing is training your critical eye. So that if a ratio is off, or you need to deviate from the ratio, you know what looks "right". Use your own body as a double check. As an aside, I...
Anonymous asked: I really like this blog, and I'd just like to ask you this: how do you feel about the lack of diversity of body types in comics? Most female characters I come across are tall and chesty, and I rarely see short women while reading them. Have you had the same experience?
