Like the subject says. I recently discovered that I’m much better at drawing women than men. The reason none of the guys I drew looked right was I’d been giving them all female hips without noticing. I think it’s because being the typical 20 year old guy that I am I look at womens bodies a lot more than mens – or at least I remember women better :).
Also, does anyone know of some good fantasy artist sites? I like looking at fantasy art, but hate anime and REALLY hate chainmail bikini art. Any suggestions? I’ve tried www.elfwood.com but at 1200 galleries there’s a bit too much for me.
I think it depends. I’ve always drawn females better, because I am female. I think a lot of us draw “ourselves”.
However, in your case, you draw women better than men. I am guessing it’s because, as you say, you spend more time observing women!
I don’t think there is a simple answer to this. I still maintain that we draw “ourselves” in our art a lot of the time. (I have a short nose and wide mouth, and if left to my own devices, I will draw people with short noses and wide mouths, for instance.)
We also draw what interests us, and if the female form interests you, well, you have your answer. I’ve attended a multitude of Life Drawing classes, and there are always a few male artists who can barely draw the female model’s face or extremities, but BOY, do they draw the breasts and nipples incredibly well and in great detail! And then there are the artists who draw the male model’s penises incredibly well… well, you get my drift. Sometimes, what we draw shows where our true interests lie!
As far as fantasy art sites go, hmmm…I think there’s http://www.eatpoo.com (check out the forums, strongly into fantasy) and http://www.deviantart.com (I don’t know much about it) and a few more. Those are good starting points. They may or may not have chainmail bikini art, I wouldn’t know.
I haven’t done any live drawing classes in a while, but I was always generally better at drawing males. (although I mostly prefered to draw females - more flowing work, especially in charcoal).
I think the final drawings depended a lot on the individual subject - muscle definition / curves, larger / smaller frame etc…
I liked large rough-form draing rather than detailed studies.
I still can’t draw accurate faces to my satisfaction (even if my Christmas presents to friends and family all through Uni, when I was skint, comprised of portraits of them or their children. The time spent was always appreciated).
Generally speaking the male body frame tends to be squarish as compared to the women, thus as an amateur it may qualify as facile and thus a tendancy to work less on the fairer sex.
Geez, I hope not!. Do I look like that??? Please no! I don’t wanna look like any of the figures I draw!
I will agree with yosemitebabe though that our comprehension of “face” has a lot to do with what we see in the mirror.
My Male:Female drawing ratio is probably about of 5:1. I’m very rarely interested in drawing the female figure, but I’m a queer gal, so the female figure is one that I like very much.
Twelfthsign’s post was weird but kind of accurate. Male bodies tend to appear as if they have more linear elements and the female figure tends to have curves that have very subtle shading requirements. Depending on your style of drawing, you may find one easier than the other.
E.g. My primary drawing style is very harsh, hard and “pointy” – it can be a pain in the butt to sort out female curves. My friend draws loose, loopy and curvy and even the manliest of men looks effeminate in his drawings.
Oh, how annoying – GeoCities apparently doesn’t want people linking to sites they host from message boards. Rat-bastards! All you have to do is click on the address bar and hit “return” to make the images load.
Now that I know this, it’s time to move my (long-overdue-for-an-update) site to another host.
I have to agree with ** yosemitebabe** - I feel that I draw women better than I draw men, because I’m more familiar with the shape of my own body (a female one) than with anyone else’s.
I personally find that I like to draw women/girls better. Probable reasons: my time spent at an all-girls school (we drew each other in art a lot), girls have easier hair to draw, and I draw little “self-figures” (like, if I feel depressed, I’ll draw a female figure sitting in a chair, wrapped in a blanket, hunched over and miserable looking, in the middle of some desolate landscape. She’s supposed to be me.)
I wouldn’t say that one is inherently easier to draw/paint/sculpt than the other, but I do find the female form a far more interesting subject. I tend to get bored doing men.
(No, not that way. Get your minds out of the gutter, people. This is about art. )
Hmm. I find men easier to draw over women. I can never seem to get women’s faces to look right especially. Probably due to a lack of talent on my part.
Or maybe I just read way to many comic books when I was younger…
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