Female Anatomy (written)

source. Tips for the Artist: or, Drawing Women with Square Boobs Isn't a Style I'm no expert at anatomy, not by a long shot, but seeing dumb mistakes in art that tries to emulate the human body annoys me to no end. This seems to be especially true in "realistic" comic art (including anime), where these mistakes have actually become part of the style in some cases. Feet 1. Toes do not go straight across. There are three general shapes, and you should probably check them out: Egyptian (big toe is longest), Greek (second toe is longest) and Peasant (first three toes are the same length). 2. Toes are not pointy 3. Toe knuckles are not all lined up. That means toes do not start in the same place as the ones next to them 4. Women and men have differently shaped feet. Womens are shaped like an upside down triangle while mens are more rectangular. They will never be shaped like a perfect rectangle, however. 5. Each toe has two joints (besides the knuckle) except for the big toe. They do not all bend the same. 6. Toes are oddly shaped and may sometimes overlap each other. Legs 1. The thigh is slightly longer than the calf. 2. If a woman isn't shaped like a 12 year old boy, the tops of her thighs at least will touch. 3. Legs are about the same length as the rest of the body. They do not make up over 3/4ths of the body as some people seem to think. 4. In most standing positions, the thigh bone slopes inward towards the knees. In men, the thigh begins just below the edge of the hips and slightly inward from that in women. Because women's hips are significantly wider than men's, the socket where their thigh bones meet their hips is further apart, meaning that the angle made by their thigh bone compared to the top of their knee is larger. In both men and women, the calf bones tend to be set somewhere near a 90 degree angle when standing straight. Hips 1. Women's hips tend to be about as wide as their shoulders (wider at the top of the thigh) unless she's like me and has "man hips". They're not really man hips, though. Even though my hips are very narrow they are about as wide as my rib cage - wider than any man's hips. 2. Mens hips tend to be lined up somewhere between their nipples and the edge of their rib cage. 3. Men have "taller" pelvises than women. Crotch and butt 1. The crotch cuts the body in half. Stop putting it right below the belly button. No, seriously. It looks awful. 2. Women's back ends have a general roundish shape. The cheeks are soft and round off near the bottom. Men's back ends have a general square-ish shape. The cheeks are generally flat by comparison to women's and are more square than round. Midsection and back 1. A woman's rib cage slopes inward more than a man's 2. A man's belly button is horizontal and lower than a woman's. A woman's is vertical. 3. Women store fat in the upper arms, lower belly, hips, upper thighs and boobs. Men store fat in their lower belly. 4. Women's spine curves inward more at the bottom than men's because their pelvis bones tilt forward more. Arms, hands and shoulders 1. It is much harder for a woman to have prominent biceps than it is for a man due to fat storage. 2. Men have the wider shoulders 3. People have wrists 4. Just like with your feet, the knuckles on your hands aren't perfectly lined up. 5. Fingers are not the same length, and it actually varies by sex and sexual preference. Note that this isn't absolute law, it's just the way things usually are. Men, lesbians and female athletes have shorter pointer fingers than ring fingers. Women and gays have longer pointer fingers than ring fingers, but they are often the same length as well. 6. Fingers are crooked and have joints that bulge out. 7. Fingers usually lay uncurled at mid-thigh. Boobs and pecs 1. Boobs are not shaped like watermelons and aren't round or square. Their general is more like a balloon filled about halfway with sand. Of course, this general shape does not include the (usually gradual) "pointiness" that leads to the nipple. Usually this "pointiness" is only visible from the side or from a 3/4ths view. 4. 99% of the time boobs will not point downwards on young, trim girls 5. Women do not have longer nipples than men. Also they are not shaped like tubes. 6. Breast tissue is attached to muscles in the armpit. "Neckboobs" are impossible because the tissue does not come down from the shoulders like the straps on a bra. 7. It's unusual for a woman with a trim waist to have very large boobs because they are made up of fat. Likewise, it's unusual for a heftier woman to have very small boobs. Muscular women tend to have smaller boobs. Those pieces of hamburger meat guys seem to enjoy drawing would not have noticeable boobs at all. 8. The general shape of pecs is square, although they are never perfectly square and do not have pointed corners. 9. Men's areolae tend to be oval-ish and wider than they are long. Chins and jaws 1. When viewed from the side, people tend to have jaws that curve in slightly from the bottom lip and then out to a slightly protruding chin. Receding chins aren't typical (although they do exist) and can indicate an overbite. 2. Mens jaws tend to be broader and more angular than womens. 3. Womens jaws tend to be rounded and narrow (unless she has a very square face shape). Mouths 1. Your mouth is attached to your lips. I don't know who came up with that bizarre side view with the outlined lips that everyone does, but it looks stupid. 2. Women do tend to have slightly fuller lips than men, but there is not a huge difference. A woman will only have Daffy Duck lips if she's had something done, had an allergic reaction, or is Angelina Jolie (whose dad also has lips like hers). 3. Women tend to have darker lips than men, although this is not always true. It is thought that prehistoric preference has caused women of today to have a higher contrast between their lips and the skin on their face. In many cultures women also tend to have lighter skin, probably for the same reasons. Noses 1. Little triangle noses only work on women and little boys Eyes 1. If you make them too far apart, the character looks like they have Downs Syndrome 2. Gigantic pupils are terrible for conveying emotion. Chances are if you have little to no eye whites, the character will look soulless. Also it makes it hard to tell which way they're looking. 3. There is a significant space between the eye and the ear Head 1. People don't blush all the time 2. People have craniums 3. People have foreheads. The hairline starts at the very top of the forehead. 4. Women tend to have less prominent browbones than men 5. Men tend to have disproportionately bigger craniums than women. This has nothing to do with intelligence. Women's craniums are much more circular, making their foreheads less sloped. 6. There are different basic face shapes - an easy way to distinguish between characters. There's oval, heart, square, triangle, circle and long. These are just the basics...there's a lot more. Body 1. Men have a lightbulb-shaped torso. The rest of them is pretty much square. 2. Any woman who has gone through puberty has curves, even if they're slight. 3. I have never seen a man irl who didn't at least 90% of the male features I've mentioned. There are men who look a little more feminine, but overall a man's skeleton is different from a woman's. Bishies are not their own sex. They should adhere to the rules for the male sex's body. 4. Women store more fat than men 5. There are a few different body types, some that may deviate from the norm. For women these are: apple (top-heavy), pear (bottom-heavy), hourglass (balanced on top and bottom), banana (boyish). With men, it's more broad: ectomorph (chubby), mesomorph (average), endomorph (thin). 6. Girls don't grow at the same time as boys. Most age memes I've seen with female characters show her having a huge growth spurt between the ages of 16 and 18 or 18 and 21. While this definitely happens (my mom, for example), it's not usual. Girls usually stop growing when they are anywhere between 13 and 15. Sometimes 16. This doesn't mean they have their adult body...just their adult height. This is partially why many middle school girls are so thin. But not me. I was fat in middle school