The discussion below might get a little mature, to avoid getting in trouble, anyone under the age of 15, please go back to playing with Legos. Visit this article when you’re 16.
I had another article in mind for this week, but after seeing Tantz’s article yesterday, I was hugely inspired to do a different one instead.
And that is, drawing what YOU want and using the fictional world to your advantage.
I’m a firm believer that you should create what you want, not what someone else wants, but I do also think there are some basics you should know/do but that doesn’t mean “don’t do what you want.”
Such as, it’s always a good thing to learn basic human anatomy. (or really basic anatomy of everything.)
Now… why should you learn basic human anatomy? So you can exaggerate it without it looking messy.
As Tantz’s pointed out in her article, someone attempted to “fix” a piece because… whatever their reasons were, anatomy, the amount of sexiness that MJ was clearly oozing out of that piece? Whatever.
Personally, I don’t think there’s anything really wrong with the anatomy, I can sit in that position (it’s definitely uncomfortable, I tried it before doing the article, not fun BUT not impossible) it’s just not gonna look as good because I’m a real human being… Not a FICTIONAL character in a FICTIONAL WORLD of SCI-FI FANTASY where you CAN LITERALLY DO ANYTHING TO AND WITH THE CHARACTER’S BODY SO WHY NOT DO IT??? ← that may sound bad depending on what you’re thinking about… but seriously, if you’re given the opportunity to exaggerate some things… why not do it?
If you have a super realistic story, okay, no problem, but please don’t crap on other people who want to have fun.
I draw my characters the way they are because I think it’s fun, I like their designs, I think my characters are cute AF, I’m not gonna change their designs or their anatomy because someone out there thinks I’m ‘sexualizing’ the women/men of my comic. If I want to draw my characters in crazy positions or exaggerate some features, OH BOY, you know I will. I AM ALL FOR THAT. I LOVE exaggerated poses, I love exaggerated anatomy, I LOVE art. I love art of every kind! (except that banana duct taped to a wall, that was wrong.)
I’m not gonna go over to Picasso’s paintings and PAINT OVER his paintings because the anatomy is wrong, am I? NO. I love that. I live for that. I love seeing artists with different styles, I love seeing people put out different energy into their art works. This is something we should cherish. Why on Earth would you want to “fix” someone’s art or bash the way someone draws women or any of their characters? So what the women look sexy AF in a cover art or in a comic? Who cares? Why do you care? What’s wrong with drawing sexy women? As someone who believes in empowering women, I also believe letting them feel sexy, look sexy and act sexy is SUPER empowering.
Personally, I feel like when people have issues over the physical appearance/anatomy of a character, it’s because they have some deep insecurities about themselves, trust me, I’ve been there… when I was in my teens, as a grown woman now, I acknowledge these characters aren’t real and as someone who tends to draw very curvy women, I don’t have a main attraction towards just curvy women in real life, I actually find all different kinds of women attractive and I also find men attractive too. I know there is a huge difference between fictional characters and real people and how I draw doesn’t affect how I view people in real life.
Also, since when has big breasts been a strictly sexual thing? Breasts in general can be very appealing, but please don’t go around saying that women with big breasts are just sexual items because YOU look at them that way. They are REAL people and they are more than allowed to be represented in media. Same with tall women, you ALL know Lady Dimitrescu by now… and while I have not seen a woman over 8ft tall ever, tall women exist and apparently the tallest woman to have ever lived was 7’7” soooooo, y’know, these people have existed. Also if you come at me with the “Men talk about tatas all the time and how they like huge tatas and treat them like sexual objects.” - I mean, don’t you treat what you find attractive as a sexual object? You can still value them like a human being, but are you telling me you don’t have ideas or fantasies about them and the features you find so attractive?
Some people are indeed horrible to those who don’t give them what they want, but they’re just not respectable human beings then, but that doesn’t mean everyone who enjoys drawing well endowed characters aren’t genuinely good people.
Anyway, I’m kind of going on a tangent because I’m super passionate about this subject. I’ve often been asked why I draw my girls so thick or do what I do and that’s because I want to, I enjoy it, I think curves are fun to draw and I think everyone would be a little happier if they just did what they want to do when it comes to art instead of what they think they should do.
There’s nothing wrong with realistic, cute, sexy or exaggerated art. You do you.
Have you seen Matrix? Remember those crazy moves that Keanu Reeves aka the best human being in the world does in the movie? Realistically, no human can really do that, they used wires and in some scenes it was people in green suits with like a green table helping them out, you know how boring and unappealing it would have been if someone was like “STOP, this isn’t realistic guys! The anatomy doesn’t work like that!!! We gotta be real!!!!!!!!!” that would have been so boring.
The fictional world grants the creators great power. It’s up to you to use them however you want.
P.S. I'm sorry if you felt attacked at some point during this article, but this is just how I view the world and I can't change the way you felt about this article or about the things I said, but if you're offended by someone saying they enjoy all kinds of art and they believe you should do what you want, then I think the problem is you, not me.
SEE YOU NEXT SUNDAY :D
Drawing What YOU Want and the power of the FICTIONAL WORLD
damehelsing at 12:00AM, May 23, 2021
10 likes!
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Socratatus at 12:19PM, June 1, 2021
Haha. the power of drawing. I remeber as a kid just drawing soldiers and robots killing eachother ad-infinitum. Then one day it dawned on me that I could actually draw BOOBS! All under MY control! Muhahahahaha! lol! Looking back at those pics now they're pretty bad. the anatomy was all wrong! That pretty much cemented me drawing for life! Anyway. I have no problem drawing women with big boobs, though I enjoy the full form of the female. The trick is NOT to get so focused on that, that the story suffers and you forget about every one else!
cdmalcolm1 at 8:46AM, May 24, 2021
You know,I have the same issue with ppl talking about bigger women being just a fetish for men. Men have all types of flavors when it comes to the type THEY are into. I like bigger women because I like the way they look. I don’t see hardly any plus women in comics as a main character. That’s one of the reason why I draw them now. Those who find bigger women unattractive are simply not into plus size women. Just like how I’m not attracted to thin women. This don’t mean that I can’t exaggerate any of my characters to have an attractive body shape to my liking. Now don’t get me wrong, I love drawing women in general as a sexy person showing her stuff to the world. I like big butts, big breast, bellies and shapely calves on a plus size woman. I also like those same features on thin women too. This attracts me to look at a woman. I’m not into boobs, but bigger breast will attract me to look. Just like how damehelsing drew the image above. I was drawn in to read.
cdmalcolm1 at 8:37AM, May 24, 2021
As far as drawing exaggerated features on a woman, we do the same thing to men, with the bigger muscles, The uncomfortable posters they make and so forth. It’s called eye candy. If you don’t like how an artist draws exaggerated men or women don’t read it. Not everyone is going to agree with your opinion oh how an artist draws a well known character. I can find the same famous characters from ultra sexy, normal realistic type, exaggerating muscle type, chubby and plus size body men and women. As far as I know, I just like drawing comics with different body types. Female or male.
damehelsing at 8:37PM, May 23, 2021
Hey, I'm so glad all of you liked my article! All of you have great replies and great thoughts, I'm happy many of you agree with my thoughts, totally thought I would have had quite a few disagreements here lol
Banes at 6:59PM, May 23, 2021
Powerfully said! Great article
bravo1102 at 10:47AM, May 23, 2021
Great article. Great replies.
Soda-Pop at 8:18AM, May 23, 2021
I can't add anything that hasn't been said far better than I could have. Love that, pretty much across the board, the message is 'you do you' - I'm oversimplifying, of course. There absolutely is a weird, quite sinister puritanical movement occuring, and I think as artists, whatever our skill set/level/standing, we can really only please ourselves and hope that some folk come along on the ride with us. Indignant, uncreative, narrow-minded people and their groups can screech and stamp their feet all they want. We just have to remember that their rage is usually impotent and rarely coming from a good place. They don't 'do them, because their whole identity is built on reacting negatively to others. It's probably quite a miserable existence. Wonderful article, fantastic responses.
PaulEberhardt at 6:59AM, May 23, 2021
The most ridiculous thing about it is, showing some chutzpah won't actually ruin your life any more than it did in the day before the web, at least not in the long run, but with the way everyone gets a disproportionally large voice, it's much harder to realise. So please allow me to screw up my life for good by saying that I'll take awkwardly sitting comic characters with huge boobs any time over the brave new world of stuffiness that some misguided people seem to want because they think they have to.
Andreas_Helixfinger at 6:52AM, May 23, 2021
@Furwerk studio - In there lies the problem to so many things I feel. Human beings since the beginning of time have been obsessed of ideals. And pretty much every ideal and ideology and quest for "purpose" or "meaning" boils down to a simple word. CONTROL. We must CONTROL the future. We must CONTROL behaviour. CONTROL our minds and our bodies. CONTROL the commerce. CONTROL the enviroment. CONTROL art. CONTROL as in FORCING things to go, or be, in a certain way! And the more we struggle to CONTROL or FORCE things to always go a certain way the more out of control they get. Look at us!!! We are micro-managing ourselves to oblivion!! If somehow we could all, people everywhere, collectively, just--LET GO! I can't shake that the solution, or at least part of it, lies right there in those two words. In the end you just gotta do what Elsa from Frozen told you in that song and just "Let it go!" (Sorry if this comment looks weird or incoherent, I couldn't hold the awkwardness back today^^)
PaulEberhardt at 6:51AM, May 23, 2021
The way I see it, drawing whatever you want to see on your pages is really the one and only way to do it, because somebody will always complain, and usually for negligible reasons at that. There have always been self-appointed moral guardians - just think of how puritanism managed to set back English theatre for a century once upon a time, to name but one example - and unfortunately the internet seems to give them the same voice that gives to every half-baked idea. I can't even really blame the young generation for trying to outdo each other at being prissy. Growing up having to be constantly wary of what traces you leave on the web, especially on social media, basically means growing up under constant surveillance by everyone else - like living in a small, hardcore conservative village, only worse, because you can't leave when you're older. Go with the flow, never do wrong or lose every chance for a good life - bonus points for picking apart others, before anyone does it to you.
Furwerk studio at 6:07AM, May 23, 2021
@hushicho I honestly believe the rise of youths engaging in this "pass time" of censorship and madness comes from the very misguided fear that the new generation after Gen X would be worse and tried very hard to get them involved in politics, and like many, many aesops they gotten it very heavy handed and too broad it caused a whole lot of new problems. Basically, it is a case of the road to hell is paved in good intentions.
Jason Moon at 5:41AM, May 23, 2021
:) It would be lovely to see some real life impersonations of the Mary Jane picture. Damehelsing saying she modeled the pose made me think of it*
Tantz_Aerine at 5:20AM, May 23, 2021
Love this article. So honored for the shoutout and having caused a rant with my rant that is so rantishly glorious :D
dpat57 at 5:11AM, May 23, 2021
I haven't read the article yet, I just liked the picture, that LOOK on her face lol.
giovanni at 3:34AM, May 23, 2021
theres a word to describe those that scream at sexiness and that want to "correct it" : SJW. its part of that mentality that, "to be respecting, everything must be toned down". so no sexy because of "muh patriarchy" or "male gaze" or any other reason of the week that wants to take away people's enjoyment of things. heck its because of that mentality that in some countries, animes have been classified as pedophilia. ALL anime and thats very stupid
Andreas_Helixfinger at 1:46AM, May 23, 2021
All this puritanical hysteria today almost makes me wanna go out and shout "COME ON, PEOPLE!!! Don't tell me you haven't spent lunch breaks at school drawing big dicks, or giant tits or vaginas or whatever part of the body, that society for some weird reason has decided to label as "naughty", in your little drawing pads that you keep hidden in your backpacks. There's nothing naughty about them really, in almost all cases they're as perfectly okay parts of you as your eyes or your fingers. In some cases in real life they might perhaps be burdening in some form, but then it's up to society to provide understanding and medical aid for that. It ain't a problem in the world of fiction anyhow, that's the beuty of it"^^
Andreas_Helixfinger at 12:53AM, May 23, 2021
Awesome article👍 I do believe that people who attack and/or hijacks artist's work like this and for these reasons are in the bottom fearful and insecure people who wants other people to be just as fearful and insecure as they are (like my dad always say, "everyone wants a friend in their own hell), or, even worse, people who capitalize on those insecurities by validating them and using it as a cheap, dirty way to garner clout, when really, if they truly care about the well-being of the public, should help those people overcome that fear and that insecurity. Really, I think this article is way more helpful in that regard. Encouraging people, telling them NOT to be afraid of expressing themselves however they want (To NOT live in fear of the huge tatas and the huge wangs of the world, especially not in the world of fiction where those things can be so huge its just fun), instead of pushing people around, telling them how and what they can, or CANNOT, express by "fixing" their art.
hushicho at 12:46AM, May 23, 2021
PREACH! There's been a very weird and puritanical tide -- most bizarrely among the rather young demographic -- in recent years that seems to be concertedly opposed to having fun, and I'm against it. I do wish people would do their thing and, if someone else is doing something they aren't into, oh well. To go out of one's way for the purpose of ruining someone else's enjoyment is less time and energy one could have been putting into enjoying oneself. That just doesn't seem like any sort of worthwhile exchange to me. Shouldn't we concentrate on the things we enjoy, instead? The hullaballoo people make over boobs is like the one they make over dicks, and each fuss is nonsensical.