Drawing Female Characters

[warriorsfan1812]

I am in the process of starting a web comic, and I am creating the characters. I already have successfully drawn the male characters several times, but the female characters are where I mess up. Whenever I draw them, they end up looking like dudes! I have tried increasing eye/ear size, and rounding out he eye shape and decreasing the blockiness, but it hasn't really helped much. The same goes for adding hair, which always ends up looking weird. Another issue is that I don't want to make them look "stereotypically" female and completely incapable of holding their own. How do you guys handle this?
Here is an example http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/322234_128780590572707_100003223003076_127666_2121600371_o.jpg

[Foxpup]

Females (generally) have wider hips, smaller waists, and more rounded shoulders than males. As long as keep that in mind, you can't go wrong.

[warriorsfan1812]

Ok thanks! I was trying to avoid insulting any women or girls by making my drawings look too stereotypical, but I guess it's really about balance. Is this one better? http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/412895_129406313843468_100003223003076_129245_114853693_o.jpg

[Foxpup]

It looks... exactly the same, to be honest. I don't quite understand what you mean by "stereotypical". It sounds like you're trying to avoid portraying females as "different" from males, when in fact there are very major differences in body structure that you need to take into consideration.

[warriorsfan1812]

It looks... exactly the same, to be honest. I don't quite understand what you mean by "stereotypical". It sounds like you're trying to avoid portraying females as "different" from males, when in fact there are very major differences in body structure that you need to take into consideration.

Ok, I'm going to try again. Sorry if I seem confusing...

[warriorsfan1812]

Alright, here is the same drawing, but I tried to make her body structure more female. Please don't mind the lack of shading and general ruffness. Thank you for helping me out. http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/330237_130683237048890_100003216438423_148123_490102243_o.jpg

[Foxpup]

Much better. Shoulders are still a bit too angular, but otherwise okay.

[Old Rabbit]

I would suggest a thinner neck..  Remember females
generally have a light roundish build, and the human eye is
going to be looking for familiar keys. showing breasts,
small to average size, also a female hairstyle helps a lot too.

Just keep working at it. You will do ok.

[warriorsfan1812]

I would suggest a thinner neck..  Remember females
generally have a light roundish build, and the human eye is
going to be looking for familiar keys. showing breasts,
small to average size, also a female hairstyle helps a lot too.

Just keep working at it. You will do ok.

The hair kind of trips me up, I need to practice with it a little more. Thank you for the ideas, that is really helpful.

[Hoagiebot]

I remember when I first started trying to draw the female form back in high school.  I was drawing anime-inspired neko animal girl characters at the time, and I used to always draw their shoulders too broad.  That in turn would cause me to draw their rib cages too big so that the size of the rib cage would match the overly large shoulders, and then I would end up giving them really large breasts to that the breast size would correspond to the overly large rib cage size.  It was a mess.  This chain reaction of compensating for one anatomical mistake caused people who looked at my artwork to accuse me of liking to draw girls with breasts the size of bowling balls, but honestly, that really wasn't the case!  (I swear!)  It was because I was unintentionally giving my ladies linebacker shoulders, and everything else turned out like it did because I could never get my ladies' shoulders drawn right.

It took a lot of practice and a little help from some art instruction books before I started drawing my ladies to where they really started to look right.  My favorite art instruction book for learning how to draw the female form was actually How to Draw Manga: Getting Started by Graphic-Sha.  The book is out of print now, but you can still buy it new or used from Amazon.com here: http://www.amazon.com/How-Draw-Manga-Getting-Started/dp/4921205000/ref=sr_1_35?ie=UTF8&qid=1326298520&sr=8-35

When I am having horrible trouble getting one of my furry female characters to look right I will still on occasion actually go back and consult this book for a bit of a refresher.  There are a lot of furry artists out there that like to think that they are way too "cool" to use art instruction books, but on occasion I have found some of them to be genuinely helpful, and keep several good ones on my book shelves so that I can refer to them if need be.  They can sometimes give you tips, techniques, and pointers that you may have otherwise never have thought of, and at the very least the art in them can be inspiring.  So don't be afraid to consult books, and I hope that my suggestion helps!

[Old Rabbit]

I had a few minutes and thought perhaps a quick touch up of your drawing
might be helpful. I know examples always help me.
 


Hope you didn't mind.

Old Rabbit

[aspect]

I don't know if this would be helpful at all, but,

link

[warriorsfan1812]

Thank you aspect, the problem you were having is exactly what I wanted to avoid. I will have to check out that book. Oh and thank you for the example old rabbit, as you said, examples always help. Its always fun to try new ideas and styles.

[Mylo]

I don't know if this would be helpful at all, but,

link

Wow. That is really interesting!