So, ever wanted to know how Land draws - with words and pictures from Land himself?

Here you go!

(To read the text, bigger images for Page 1, Page 2, and Page 3 are available. Note that the Photobucket account is not mine, apologies.)

Highlights:

“Comic book artists are often asked to draw beautiful women. Because the female form is inherently beautiful, this may seem like an easy task. Yet capturing the subtleties of the way women stand and move can be challenging. A good reference photo will help you to understand how to capture the nuances of the female form.”

“In this case, the final image will be a beautiful jungle girl, so you should find lines that make the model look as slender and athletic as possible.”

“Since this is a glamour sketch, go for the aesthetic of the “ideal” female form. Draw longer, thinner limbs.”

“Draw the kinds of features readers expect to see on this sort of character, including full lips, a petite nose, and eyes that have a nice darkness around them to draw the reader’s gaze to the pupils.”

”[…] but in reality, I have deadlines, so I use photo reference to get the realism I’m trying to achieve.”

I’m not bashing Greg Land for writing a tutorial - honestly, I think it’s very nice of him to describe how he draws, explain his reasoning, and hope to teach fellow artists how to improve their technique - but his comments are rather revelatory about his thought processes. Have at them, brave Admin.

Dear.

God.

I have honestly never read such sexism in my life.

I can’t—

I’m trying to find the words to rant about this, which I know I will later….

But I’ve just woken up…

And…

I can’t quite parse what I’m reading.

You bastard, Greg Land.

You absolute bastard.

Perpetuating this kind of ideal horrifies me, and the fact that Land’s idea of a Beautiful Human Woman is a figure and a face that not even the real Beautiful Human Woman he’s traced over can achieve is just ludicrous.

The best way I can say this is by quoting a friend of mine who recently looked over the ‘OH LOOK AT THESE REAL CLOTHESOF CGI MODELS’ campaign that a clothes shop had.

“Hey, you know who can’t wear the clothes for real Human women?”

“No, Bob, who?”

“Real Human women.”

“OH MY GOD, YOU’RE A GENIUS.”

(Also, you’ve got to love the way he thins down her hips and embiggens the boobage).