Request HALP! I can’t Draw Female Characters...

[Alice The Maid]

I cannot. Should not, and have never Drawn a good female figure or character.. I need help learning, Ive thrown quite a few sketchbooks away because i hated the drawings in them, and a few were burnt... But i really need help, so if anybody could help me, or even give me a lesson, i would be SUPER Thankful! Please PM me if You want more context, or Are willing to help..

 

[Daisie]

The best thing I can recommend: references. Always reference. Reference until you can't reference anymore. You might want to start by drawing directly from realistic figures; don't worry about making it look like a real person, just practice on the anatomy. Take notes, compare body parts' sizes to each other, like the chest to the hips, hands to the face, ect...

Now, I've found that a lot of people like using cartoon or anime references first. The reason I suggest looking at real people first is because I believe it's wiser to first learn how to draw realistic anatomy before learning how to stylistically bend the rules into a more anime or cartoon-esque style. It's just better to have more knowledge of the basic rules before you experiment with where and how to break them.

Also remember: everyone makes mistakes. With my most recent piece, I screwed up one of the torsos by making it freakishly long. I didn't notice until it was too late and I couldn't go back. Don't fret! Take breaks if you need to! Don't push yourself too hard! Even if it doesn't feel like you're making progress, you learn more from your failures than you do your victories. Keep plugging along, and if you get too frustrated, take a deep breath and grab a glass of water. Come back at it when you're in a clearer headspace.

Cheers!

 

[Alice The Maid]

The best thing I can recommend: references. Always reference. Reference until you can't reference anymore. You might want to start by drawing directly from realistic figures; don't worry about making it look like a real person, just practice on the anatomy. Take notes, compare body parts' sizes to each other, like the chest to the hips, hands to the face, ect...

Now, I've found that a lot of people like using cartoon or anime references first. The reason I suggest looking at real people first is because I believe it's wiser to first learn how to draw realistic anatomy before learning how to stylistically bend the rules into a more anime or cartoon-esque style. It's just better to have more knowledge of the basic rules before you experiment with where and how to break them.

Also remember: everyone makes mistakes. With my most recent piece, I screwed up one of the torsos by making it freakishly long. I didn't notice until it was too late and I couldn't go back. Don't fret! Take breaks if you need to! Don't push yourself too hard! Even if it doesn't feel like you're making progress, you learn more from your failures than you do your victories. Keep plugging along, and if you get too frustrated, take a deep breath and grab a glass of water. Come back at it when you're in a clearer headspace.

Cheers!

Oh my goodness thank you! I appreciate this, very much! I really do! I’ll start doing that. And yeah, I’m a bit temperamental...

 

[Daisie]

Oh my goodness thank you! I appreciate this, very much! I really do! I’ll start doing that. And yeah, I’m a bit temperamental...

Of course! And if you ever need a bit of blunt critique, I'll be around. I'll try my best to spot the flaws and let you know which parts are good, and which parts could use improvement.

 

[Alice The Maid]

Of course! And if you ever need a bit of blunt critique, I'll be around. I'll try my best to spot the flaws and let you know which parts are good, and which parts could use improvement.

Thank you, I’ll need it

 

[Winter_Wolf]

Definitely use realistic reference pictures. I also suggest "cutting" your reference picture (not physically) into pie/pizza slices, by drawing multiple lines through a center point. Cut it in eighths, say. So one vertical line from the person's head towards their feet, one cutting horizontally, then two diagonal lines from their shoulders down towards their hips/thighs/legs. Obviously it depends on what stance the person takes in the reference pic, where they are located on the paper, etc, but in any case the idea is to split up the reference character's body into multiple parts that are easier to focus on individually. Then lightly trace the same lines on your drawing paper, and start going slice by slice. You'll probably amaze yourself with how accurate it looks. Because you can match up each individual slice, so proportions typically look right. It's not 100% foolproof, but it helps tremendously.

Here's an example of this method in action, in the early stages of one of my old drawing projects:

Spoiler

and different but related one, in which I used the same method (reference was the cover of the first movie, Saints and Soldiers).

Spoiler

 

[gingira]

Can you post or PM me an example of how you draw girls? I can give you some more streamlined advice that way :V

As far as general advice goes, like what everyone else said, pay close attention to the human anatomy and use references!

We can usually distinguish sex by just a look at a person's face. Women have more fat deposits on their faces, so you want to draw them rounder, particularly around the cheeks for that soft appearance. The mandible is equally important. A woman's jawline and chin tend to be more narrow compared to a man's, so when drawn they have more of a v-shape coming down from the cheeks. Beside those two bits, personally, I like to emphasize the eyelashes when I draw animu gurlz. Just looks nice IMO.

As for the body, women have thinner frames, but are curvier. Honestly, I barely have an idea of how to draw a girl's body and just go through a lot of trial and error until I settle on something acceptable. The best advice I can give you here is to focus on the hips. Wide hips are the base of feminine figure and it all just kinda works off there. Other than that, I guess you should make the shoulders, hands and feet narrower than a man's?

idklol

 

[idyll]

Using real life references is always number one, stylization can only be done properly after knowing how the form and body actually work.
Additionally, do quick sketches and give yourself a timer. Real life people who can model for you is better than pictures but use what you got. Start out with trying to get the silhouette and basic shapes down in 10 minutes, 5 minutes, 60 seconds, and 10 seconds. It's not needed to be done in that order, but it might help you feel like pressure if you get used to drawing with a timer. This is a very basic practicing technique that almost every art class I've been to has had me do, I believe it's usually called figure or gesture drawing.

When you get bored of that, take an hour+ on a drawing trying to get the anatomy perfect, use medical references of muscle and bone structure, and images of real people. Fill whole pages with just hands, legs, torsos, facial shapes, etc until you have a good grasp on all of them.

There are some general differences in male and female anatomy, but there's also naturally androgynous people, and studying what minute details help people subconsciously differentiate between an androgynous male and an androgynous female will give you a better understanding and ability to draw more body types than just "men straight and angular" and "women hourglass curvy." There are soft lumberjack men, and you often see female runway models to be very slim and rectangular. A lot of it also has to do with body language (which you can read in still images) and facial structure.

Also, searching up "basic drawing tutorials" on google and seeing what the results have in common can be very helpful as well. There's just so many common knowledge things (like how most people are about 6-7 head lengths tall) that are impossible to explain in one post.

Lots of people see art as an illegitimate area of study, so many people say things like "anyone could do that," or attribute masterful paintings to talent someone was born with, but it very truly takes lots of hard work, time, effort, and study. Don't let that scare you though, it means that "talent" or a lack thereof doesn't impact your potential much, and you'll become very good at it if you just keep at it.

 

[fufflebutt]

a lot of people have already given advice i was going to say, so im gunna share a resource i use all the time! i use this website all the time when i need to do a warm up or just study anatomy. it lets you customize your sessions, and u can choose from faces, figures, hands/feet, and animals! its really helpful

 

[Alice The Maid]

Thank you all SO MUCH

 

[h2h0e]

I can't draw male characters for the life of me, maybe we can help each other out?

 

[Alice The Maid]

I can't draw male characters for the life of me, maybe we can help each other out?

Sure! I’ll pm if you’d like?

 

[h2h0e]

Yeah, go ahead!