Terry Moore's How to Draw Woman #1

8/4/2019 Terry Moore's How to Draw Woman #1

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Terry Moore's How To Draw Women 20 I ITerry Moore, Published by Abstract Studio. Box 271487,Houston,Texas, 77277-1487, All Rights Reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproducedor transmitted in any form without the express written permission of the publisher. Any resemblanceto actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental. Superman's emblem DC Comics. Peace.


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This is not a book about technique. This is not one of those HowToDraw books that documents human anatomy and ways to measureit with your pencil. That book's been written many times before.The basics are universal, you can learn them from anybody. You don'tneed my version because I'm not doing anything different when itcomes to bones and muscles. Over time, however I've found thattechnical knowledge gives you a correct but sterile drawing. Whatcaptivates the viewer is something else, something they probablycan't describe. but it works evel'y time they look at the drawing.What ISthe dtrFerence?The difference is in what art.sts do with the basics.If we all know where the tibia is and how to measure It why do our'drawings look different from each other'l Because the basic inforrna-nor. used to make the drawing had to frlter through the mind of theartist. The difference is in the mind.This book is about my mindset when drawing women. What I lookfor, how I apply the lessons learned In art class,and real life, to makethe portraits of my women come alive, even when cartooning. Thisbook describes the mindset that stones like Echo and Stranger's InParadise had to filter through to get drawn. This mindset made me abetter- artist. I hope It will do the same for you.

-Terry


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There's an old Japanese children's rhyme:Who has seen the windNeithel' you nor IBut when the trees bow down their headThe wind is passing by

We can't see the wind, only the effects of its presence, but draw those trees and you willalso be drawing the wind. Which is rather Zen when you think about it. So it is with life.We can't see life,whatever it is,but draw a woman and you will be drawing the effectsof its presence. This ISwhy drawing a nude model in art class is called Life Drawing, notNaked Lady Drawing.Think of it as drawing from the inside out. Try to see what's gOing on beneath the surfacefirst, then wrap the body around that, because that's the reality of the situation. Life isthe cause of body language,expressions, emotions and all those external symptoms wesee. Remove the life force and the body changes Immediately and dramatically It's notJustthe loss of animation that marks the removal of life, people look disturbingly differentwhen dead. This becomes more pronounced with each passing hour: I'll never forget thephoto I saw of Marilyn Monroe in the morgue. It wasn't the Manlyn I knew.So it is with a bad drawing ...no life.I bring up this grisly fact because a lot of great artists, Leonardo DaVincl, for one, broughtit up flrst, Leonardo, when he wasn't at his day job designing weapons for the reigningking, conducted hundreds of autopsies in a quest to understand the body and use thisknowledge to back-engineer his art. By that I mean, he wanted to create more accuratedepictions of the human body, so he developed the knowledge to see them from theinside out. Somebody needed to do this because art before The Renaissancewas notknown for ItSaccurate portrayal of the body. *cough! coughl Duccio!"As a result of his gory hobby, DaVlnci knew what was under the skin,what made itstretch and move when It became animated with life. Couple this With a gift for bothart and science (Golden Ratio anyone/) and you have the makings of a master painterWhich brings us to the mystery of the Mona Lisa.Go to the Louvre-seriously, go-stand in front of that painting, look her in the eyes and, I swear to God, you're looking at aliving, breathing human being."How did he do that?" people askNow you know. He knew what was underneath it all.

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An artist should be able to look atclothed people and know, to a fairlyaccurate degree, what IS making thosebulges and wrinkles. For instance, whenI drew Francine wearing this gaudy outfitin SiP #4, I knew what was underneath,because I had drawn the body first, thenthe clothes. Which is penfectly logicalwhen you think about it. isn't it?

Not all artists do this, of course. Cartoonists don't draw their characters naked, then putfunny little shorts on them. They don't have to, they're not trying to be physically accurate.In fact. the mo-e exaggeration and anatomical errors, the better But that carefree rneth-ad doesn't work when you want to draw Wonder Woman. Now you're going for beauti-ful and that means everythir-g needs to be where it should be. Even if-especiolly if- youcan't see it. Remember, wind in the trees.

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Okay, so now we're getting down to thebare facts.The lady on the left has been wart-ing patiently for us. Let's call her Evebecause it's mo-e respectful than anobjectified "her" Put Eve in front oftwo artists and you will get two differ-ent looking drawings. Imagine that oneof the artists was me and the other wasPicasso,or Norman Rockwell, 01' AndyWarhol, or Charles Schulz. Not onlywould their drawings of Eve be very dif-ferent from mine, they would also differradically from each other-and we're alldraw.ng the exact same person III thesame pose. You can almost picture eachartist's version just by their name alone.That's because every artist has his ownstyle, his own look. My drawing of EveIS the essentialTerry Girl, She's not asfamous as the Vargas Girl, but she's mine.Think of your drawings the same way.Be proud of your work, it distinguishesyou from the crowd.Eve IS the basic woman I draw everytime I need an attractive female charac-tel' in my comics. All my other femalecharacters spawn from Eve's look. I canmake her tallee shorte-; heavier thinner,trashy or chaste, pretty or plan .. it allbegins with Eve. Sound familiar)If you start measuring EveWith yourpencil you Will see her torso is a bitcompact, a little short-waisted, with legstoo long for her torso. Believe it or not,this uneven ratio does exist in real lifeand these women tend to look terrificin skirts, pants or whatever they wearEve'storso to leg ratio helps my drawngids look appealing before we've evenseen the face or figure. With so manyother artists competing for your atten-tion, I'll take that advantage evel'y time.Eve'sgOingto get dressed now.


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Looking at Eve,dressed and ready for work,you can see how the figure on the otherpage fills the clothes on this page. It wouldnot be possible for me to draw Eve dressedand looking like this if I didn't first have thenude body In mind. All the details that givethis drawing form and balance come fromknowledge of how Eve is built. For instance,notice the distance from chin to collar bone ...even though it is covered by her collar, I knowthe line of Eve'sneck and where It blendsInto her sternum.The same with the breasts. Knowing Eve'sbreast type and size, I know how to drawthe drape and cling of cloth over them, plusaccount for the weight of clothes, like a busi-ness Jacket,and how they may flatten thebustline.The elbows fall at a transition point in awoman's tOI-SObetween ribs and pelvis. Thisdistance varies among body types, but theelbow always aligns to that indentation.The great arc of the spine from front to backmeans the bottom is not directly beneaththe stomach. There al-e functional reasonsfor this, but we men were created/evolved(all beliefs al-ewelcome in art class) to findIt beautiful. Looking at the way Eve'sclotheshang,you can tell where her stomach andbottom are, and how they are aligned, eventhough you can't see them.Can you see why it's mo-e useful to "see"the body first, then drape it, rather than drawa draped figure and guess what made theforms) Or even more confusing, see a drapedfigu-e then have an art instructor talk aboutbones and muscles,which makes you wonderhow a skeletal zombie makes all those beauti-ful bulgesWind in the treesSo here you might say,"Okay, I can draw awoman standing still. But, what if she moves)"


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I s ometime s thi nk the dfference betwee n a pm and ama teurartist IS:T he a ma te ur d ra ws w ha t h e w on ts , w he n h e w on ts . T hep ro d ra w s w h at n ee ds to be d ro wn w he n s om e bo dy e ls e w on ts It.Not for a sec ond would I d efend this stat ement, but I f indin t hat si tuation more times tha n I c an count. Even wnti ng myown comic stories, I find myse lf ha ving to draw poses I n everwould have thought of as an a rti st , And-you guesse d It-thereISnever a re fe rence photo. WhichISwhy you want to learn the body andha ve the knowledge in your hea d, so thatno ma tter how your fema le cha ractermoves, you know what went where andwhat that did to all t he other parts.If you know what's underthe skin,including where the fatty depositste nd to be , you'll also know howthe sk in expands and cont ractswhen stretched or compressed.So you have two basicthings in mind with themoving figure: what theinternal structure isdoingand how the externa lsurface reacted.

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As I said before, this isn't a book about skeletons,muscles and measuring the body with your pencil. Butthat doesn't mean you shouldn't have a few of thosebooks on your shelf You should, absolutely. Use them,learn from thernl But where those books give you theWhat and Where, I want to know the Why. It's easier forme to learn if I know why I am doing something.For instance, the sketch of Eve dancing at right... look-ing like a twisted puppet adually. I like it because she isswinging her body ft'eely,which shows that one part pullsanother Right arm goes back, It pulls the shoulder withit,then twists the torso which pulls the left shoulcer/arrnaround. All this moves the body's balance off-center sonow the legs have to compensate and re-establish newanchor points. Because the tOl'SOmoved forward, a legneeds to move forward to hold it up. Because the hipshave been turned right by the spine twisting nght, the leftleg naturally moves forward to be the new anchorIt's so logical how it all works. If you push this, It pullsthat. Not SUI-eabout the pull-my-finger thing though.10


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Things get complicated when two or more bodies interact, but the basicprinciples still apply. You have to put on your engineering hat and workout the mechanics, because if you thought it was hard to find reference foryour typical poses,try finding a photo of this. (That's not a challenge, I'mjust saying.)Once you have the anatomy down, and you've worked through the me-chanics of the body in motion, then drawing images like this are possible.When I look at this "snapshot" of Francine and Katchoo changing a light-bulb, I see Katchoo, sitting on FranCine'ships and legs because that IS theplace to put extra weight without hurting Francine's back. When Katchooleans back Francine has to lean forward to _~~ ~balance that or else the combined weight will m0Z4:e d "1 A~behind the center of balance In Francine's hips ~iP: ~ ~and pull them both backward ~' " me J I! I / ~ ~ ~ n J " '~ f / [~ I I - v V '~.rf,

NEWTON SAYS-I(it le an s w ith ou t ( allin g,

something is holding it up.

I\ ' ) . 1 f (

Notice that Katchoo's left leg has to go back to h~lp ~eep he~ on Francine's hips becauseFrancine's arms are not enough. In fact, Francine's hands are working more like hinge pins,holding Katchoo's hips to her own, but Katchoo still hasto keep her own balance. Whenshe leans back, she needs the help of her leg to prop the weight against Francine's hips.

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The center of balance for a woman islower than a man's. Women can lean \over farther than a man without falling. \

\ \ \I .~ \/ , ( : 1 . / < )t 1/" 1/r , . " ,";:


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Have you ever noticed pregnant womendon't lean back to compensate for the extraweight ahead of their hips? That's becausethe spine of a woman is different than a

man's, bending backwards in the lower partof the spine to correct the growing imbal-ance.This is possible because the vertebrae

of the lower back are more wedge-shaped inwomen, making the adjustment possible. Thisis Justone of countless differences betweenthe structure of men's and women's bodies.

With all this talk about knowing the body before youcover it, hopefully it's not too hard to see that If you candraw the bodies on the left page, you can easily drawthe figures of Francine and Katchoo below, carousingin their little black party dresses. All you have to addto your body knowledge is that awareness of balanceand leverage. Katchoo is leaning right by leveraging onher right leg and holding Francine. Francine's weight ison her right knee and right elbow, and she's arcing thatuniquely different spine women have. A man cannotassume the position Francne ISin. The lower half of aman's spine will only flex back so far ..not this far

/ If you special.ze In draw.ng men, youmay struggle to get your women tolook right, and you may wonder ifthe problem is the face or the softparts or ..what? By now you knowthe truth is more fundamental.Women don't move, flex, bend orlean in the same way as men. Fromspine to organs to the way thebrain fires and moves these parts,a woman is unique and not at alllike man when you get down to thematter You're drawing a completelydifferent kind of human being.So you, the artist, go to a lot oftrouble to learn about this, thenyou wonder: Why? Most art Iovers/comic readers don't know this. Whybother)Because,you don't have to knowthe details to know it looks wrong.You do need the details to make itlook right. It's all in the details.

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I draw haw and ponytailstoo thick It looks better.

\In general. children have shortnecks, adults longer necksIWomen In comics, even mine.

have thinner necks than reality

/The bent back ISnot aare, there is7 spot at

the rib cage, one above thestomach and one below. Thedepth and width of the creasesdepends on weight

calf muscle compresses,rises and shortens

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When you draw a woman,she is not a man withbreasts and biggel- hips, so

don't begin her drawingthe same way you would a

>-_"~.""'an's. don't even make thesame stick ftgUl-e,becauseyou will be wmng fromsqua-e one. The dl-awlng

of the woman at right usesonly two lines and two dotsfor her body, but they imply

evervthir-g you can't seeand the visual message

is c le ar: woman .

So tberc she is. Whatdoes her expression say?

The angry lady to OUI-left takesthe wind In the trees plus bodymechanics theory to a newlevel: body parts you can't seebut can tell where they are andwhat state they're in, such asflexed 01- looseIn this case,you cannot seethe arms, but you know wherethey al-e by the shouldersand the one visible hand. Ifthe hand-to-point-of-sword ISone side of a triangle, and thepoint-of-sword-tc-shou.deris the 2nd side,those invisiblearms are logically the 3rd side.The lunging body throwing itsweight behind the sword, thepower-stance legs,and Visibleleft hand's iron-gnp on the han-dle, all give us the Impressionof speed, power and violence.The blood flying up against allthis one-way motion is the onlything not In alignment With thecollective force, (therefore thetarget aka victim).

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Somewhere between your brain that says smile and the mouth that awaits instructions, isa complex array of muscles strapped to your skull, twitched by electrical stimulus to push,pull, hold, release, scrunch, stretch, lift, lower and perform an almost endless combinationof all these tasks. The result: facial expressions designed/evolved to help us communicateand get along with our fellow man. Much to the famed ar-thropolgist Margaret Mead'schagrin, these movements were proven to be universal and not culturally determined.Even the most isolated tribe on the planet understands what the facial expressions of thebanker on Wall Street mean.So) Why on earth should you, the carefree comic book artist, care) That universal partYour character can touch the hearts and minds of anybody on the planet with her ex-pressions alone. If her heart is joyous or broken, we will see it-and get It-before she'seven said a word. Expressions are that Important16


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The girl of your dreams can look youright in the eyes and tell you what youwant to hear:but if you don't see it in herface you won't believe a word she says.If she's reading a scnpt and can makeyou believe it with her expressions, she'seither a skilled actress or a well drawncomic book character Either way,they'reJust imitating what you and I do everyday...live with OUI-heart on our face.The pidure of Katchoo and Francine atleft pretty much sums up their relation-ship for most of the story in Strangers InParadise. You can see in one "snapshot"what took me 2200 pages of story toexplain.That's the power of art.When I draw a moment like this, I couldeasily turn the girls into "bad actors" bydrawing them with the same flat expres-sions common to bad actors. Actuallybad actors aren't bad at anything, they'rejust not gifted liars. A bad drawing is likethis as well. A character without greatexpressions is a bad liar Unless...When you want the reader to see acharacter as lying,you might draw herexpression somewhat flat on purpose.That's the signal we all look for in liars...and bad ading: expressions not matchingthe words or emotions of the moment.For you, the artist, to keep this flaw outof your work, you need to watch peoplecarefully. Watch how people interact witheach other Every person you see, fromold photos to the line at Starbucks, is achance for you to learn one more detailabout the human being. Keep these im-ages In your mind. They will re-emel-gewhen you need them, pencil in hand.So,expressions. Important.

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I learned how to draw expressions from cartoons on tv and all the cartooning I didgrowing up. Watch anyWylie Coyote/Road Runner cartoon and you'll see every majoremotion on that poor coyote's face. I never saw that range of emotions in a superherocomic book. The hero types were always tight-lipped and grim. When the 6 Million Dol-lar Man was on tv, critics used to Joke he had only two expressions: grim and grimmerThis ISto be avoided In YOUl-drawings, please.InThe Strangers In ParadiseTreasury I wrote about drawing comic strips for yearsbefore I began my first comic book. All of these strips featured female characters.wanted these girls to look cute and likable, but I also wanted them to deliver big timewith emotional range and physical comedy. It didn't take long to realize that meant I hadto do more than learn to draw the cute face, I had to then stretch and distort it to getthe broad emotions I wanted to portray. I worried about distorting these faces and stillmaintaining the character's look. How do you draw a pretty girl, then yank her jaw downto her collar bone with astonishment and still keep her cute)One day I was looking through a box of photos and I noticed that the faces of familial-people looked different in every picture (unless of course, they're JUstgiving the cam-era the portrait smile). Try it. Look at a series of pictures of a woman talking or doingsomething physical, or better yet, arguing, and you will see her familiar features move andchange to the point that she could, at some points, almost look like someone else. Thepoint is,don't be afraid to distort the features of that beautiful woman you just drew.Here's a great example of what I'm talking about: load up a dvd movie with Alyson Hanni,gan-Iet's useAmerican Pie-and watch her scenes by mlling through in slow motion,frame by frame. At full speed you don't realize how many expressions her face ISgOingthrough, you only get the impression she is lively and enthusiastic. In slow-mo. you willbe amazed at how the features of her face fly around. The scene where she talks aboutband camp ISa prefect example. D,-aw every expression she uses in that scene and youcould fill a book. With that In my head, I am never afraid to squinch and stretch the facesof my female stars. Once I got used to it, the rewards were very gratify.ng, as the close-ups from SiP.at left, show.People don't wear their hearton their sleeve,they wear iton their face. The expressionsare as important asthe words.If they weren't, radio would bemore popular than movies.

The lesson in this comic isabout the Why of drawing

women, so I don't have momto go Into the mechanics ofexpressions-that's anotherlesson-but I do have one

more piece of advice:Hove fun with it!

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Okay, time to study, stare at, and discusswhat we must not study, stare at, or

discuss in polite company ..the breasts of a woman.

Unfair as It may be, women with attrac-tive breasts hold a certain power Menhave gone to war for an ample bosom,as well as spent all their money on con-

dos, Corvettes, Jewelry and divorces.It ISthis almost hypnotic power that

you, the artist, tap Into when you drawa woman with a pretty figure-don'tunderestimate the power But don'tgo all sleazy on us, either There's abalance required here, and It'Sbased on

respect. Treat this subject with respectbecause that will be reflcctco In yourart. Respect is the difference betweenthe nudes in a museum and the naked

i n porn. L- ~

Comic books are notonous fat- featuringlarge breasted women. As an Indepen-dent publisher I have stood at many aconvention table and seen the public's re-action to this. Usually the reaction is notwhat the artist was hoping for especiallyamong the gene,'al public and womenwho do not read comics. I'm includingmyself in this scenano ...I 'm Just as guiltyas the next artist. For several years Iattended the major library conventions.I knew they would like my story, butwatching the sexy cover art turn someaway was a lesson Iwon't forget AndI'm not talking about exposed flesh here ..Just Franc.ne in a sweater was enoughto solicit the "Church Lady" look andcomments from many women i n sensibleshoesOf course, in the comic book world,those covers were "Great!" To the restof the world they were "Good gne~."Which makes me wonder: what must thewell-endowed real women be putting upwith?

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On the left, you have the stereotypical comic book breasts. This ISnot what your circletemplate is for I have more jokes, but let's build up. not put down. In the middle is amore realistic depiction of the same woman, and at I-ight.the same breasts without theinfluence of clothing. There's a visual softness to the real deal that is beautiful to people.22


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When It comes to beauty-and breasts-size doesn't matter It's the woman we

respond to, and what she does with whatshe has that makes her so irresistable.

When it comes to beauty, size does notmatter Oh sure, I used the words "ample"and "well-endowed" when talking about thepower of the breast but the opposite canbe equally attractive. Above is a sketch ofFrancine that screams, "Look at mel" and

It's sexy. To the right is a sketch of Katchoowearing one of Francine shirts ...and It'Ssexy,too. By sexy I mean, feminine, attractive andall those good things that make you want to

propose marriage on the spot

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Well. that's the general overview of Why I draw women the way I do, or at least what I'mstriving for In the lessonsto come, I will put all this theory Into practise and show youwhat I do and how I do it. With pencil in hand, I'll get Into the techniques and details Ilearned over the years, drawing mo-e than 4,000 pages of published comic book stones.And to tell you the truth, I can't walt to get started'

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"Terry Moore does an acre more straight-up memorable stor::Jtelling inone black&white issue of ECHO than either of the two comics 'giants'in a ::Jears' -worth of their prolix, boring, barren crossover 'events'.This, ECHO, is what we long for, would die for."

-HARLAN ELLISONAbstractStudioComics.com


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Terry Moore's How to Draw Woman #1