Strong but sexy
Women with muscles are sexy. But don't overdo it and make your heroine into some massive female bodybuilder. Avoid building up the typical male bodybuilder muscles, like the biceps, triceps, pecs, and
lats. Instead, give her overall tone and increased definition and size. Concentrate on her delts and quads.
In this sketch, the figure is being conceived with vanishing trace lines. These are the lightly drawn horizontal lines that are sketched across the figure as a reference guide for the artist to draw in perspective. As the figure recedes into the distance (the bent leg is farther from us, and therefore recedes; the straight leg is closer to us, and therefore advances), we must make adjustments for perspective.
You've no doubt noticed how a row of street lights seems to get smaller as it recedes into the distance. The human figure is affected by the same principle, although to a somewhat lesser degree. Objects that recede into the distance start to converge toward a single point the vanishing point. The figure is being compressed ever
so slightly as it recedes, and expanded ever so slightly as it advances. Your characters will become more powerful if you draw them in perspective. (See "Powerful Perspective," pages 76-91.)
Add contours with darker lines and shading. It's a good habit to define all of the muscles at this stage. Once you costume the figure, you'll want to retain the definition
of the "show" muscles and decrease the articulation of others, but you can't make those decisions until you see how the costume actually looks on the character.
The cape hangs like a piece of drapery, folding and curving. It expands as it travels down the body and crushes along the creases.
Here is a tighter version of the same drawing with boots, gloves, and short, form-fitting pants. Folds have been added to the cape, and shadows help give a feeling of volume to the form. We've gotten rid of some of the extreme musculature that was used to first construct the body. But the form retains its feeling of strength.
And the final version. It has cleaner, bolder lines. We've added a mask and lost the short pants in favor of midthigh boots and long gloves. Now this character is ready for whatever destiny awaits her!
a hint about skintight costumes
Skintight costumes are popular and easy to draw.
The body itself provides the outline for the costume. You only need to draw the lines where the costume ends, as in this example, in which the line of the costume follows the contours of the torso.
ENTION THE WORD “PERSPECTIVE” and you send chills down
the spines of ordinary men. Never fear. This chapter is easy to understand, but even more important, the information in it is easy to use. Remember, we're drawing pictures here, not designing spacecraft. Stay tuned. This will be short and painless.
