The Amazing Woman-Man!

[Automatic Kafka]

I was sketching a bit in class and the result was.. mystifying. I just suddenly realised that I wasnt sure of the gender of the character I was drawing, it was supposed to be a woman but now its.. a woman-man-thing :\

I passed it around for the rest of the class to have a bit of a laugh at, but noone was actually able to tell me exactly where I went wrong, and took that plunge over the gender-border. They did persuade me to put this under the scrutiny of the expert eyes of the ladies&gentleman of this board, though.


So, can anyone tell me what I did wrong and what I need to correct?
(I appologise for the shoddy scan, and am I in the wrong subforum? Should this be in sketches&wip?)

[MephistoLV]

A couple of things pop to mind right away:

1) On females, the hips should be a bit wider than the male compared to the shoulders and ribcage.
2) The top of the pelvis should be higher up, more in line with the navel.
3) Your character seems to have well defined male pectorals, and is lacking any hint of female breasts.

[Arne S.]

the biggest problem, as i see, is, you start drawing detail befor finishing the form of the body. try to start with somathing like this:

[Automatic Kafka]

Ill see if I can do anything with this tomorrow morning, thanks a million! :D

[Jason Rainville]

Remember to put the pubes in, as Arne S. illustrated, as it's VERY important to the form of the figure :P

[Seedling]

You didn't do anything wrong. The "problem" is that in many forms of art we are used to seeing peoples' genders so emphasized that it is glaringly obvious if they are male or female. Rreal people actually run the gamut from being hyper-sexed in appearance, to being very, very ambiguous.

Try watching some anime sometime, and keep an eye out for the characters with ambiguous gender. For some reason they're not as scared of that ambiguity in Japan.

[Automatic Kafka]

Heh, everyone in Anime looks like 10yearold girls in various stages of constipation to me :-"


Im not sure its such a great thing to show it at this level or progress but I put it in Painter and retraced the sketch and put on a flat colour so I could see the form better, and now its without a doubt female.

[Seedling]

Heh, everyone in Anime looks like 10yearold girls in various stages of constipation to me :-"


With a single sentence, you have eliminated the possibility of learning from decades of artists across multiple genres. If you want to make art professionally, then you better get used to the idea of seeing all forms of art with a good deal more openness.

[Automatic Kafka]

I wouldnt say that, I think I have sufficient range in other styles to safely leave Anime to the ones who appreciate it.




p.s

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Anime :wink:

[Seedling]

I wouldnt say that, I think I have sufficient range in other styles. . .

Care to back that assertion up by posting more of your work? Judging by what little you have shared here, you don’t yet have a sufficient range of anything.

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Anime :wink:

Amusing, but how is that going to help you grow as an artist?

I notice in one of your other threads that you are heading for a job in the games industry. You might, perhaps, be interested in the “games industry” link in my sig. But then again, if you are in the habit of rejecting branches of art wholesale, maybe not.

[Automatic Kafka]

Anime just isnt my thing, and thats it. I dont wish to get in on this old argument again.


edit: Ill just say that both me and my teacher believe it would be best for me ,at this pont in my evolution as an artist, that I stuck to regular anatomy etc. and not try to adapt a heavily stylised form of drawing such as manga. And you're right, I dont have much range in my drawing style, Ive still got years before I could even begin to hope to accomplish anything decent. But I do have a lot of "mental visual range" in that you'll find everything from books on German Expressionism to swedish underground artcomics that make visitors doubt my mental health.

[Seedling]

Ill just say that both me and my teacher believe it would be best for me ,at this pont in my evolution as an artist, that I stuck to regular anatomy etc. and not try to adapt a heavily stylised form of drawing such as manga.

Thanks for clarifying that.

Yes, lots of artists, especially young artists, fall into the trap of copying style, particularly when that style is popular. However, learning from a form of stylized art does not equate to copying the style. Your teacher is so overcompensating for the failures of other students that he or she is teaching you to be biased.

Consider for a moment that there are examples of anime both high in quality and low in the “big-eye” stylization that your teacher objects to. As an example, I’ll point to the movie “Spirited Away”. Seriously, don’t let your teacher share his biases with you. As a teacher, that’s unethical. Go see this movie. You don’t have to like it to find things in it worth learning from.