Our impromptu Red Sonja themed week continues, with this piece by Roy Cover. She’s a bit disproportional in the chest region to really swing a sword, but the hair and face rendering more than makes up for that.
Stephen Schleicher
Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment. You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...
10 Comments
The thighs are a bit better in proportion to the waistline than some other examples. Her face is drawn in a way that makes me think she’s attractive although, from an anatomical standpoint, her face is a bit narrow, her eyes a bit close, and her lips a bit botoxed.
I like the piece well enough though. It has a mix of dignity, power, and physical appeal. The penciling, particularly shading and variation in line weight, is very nice.
For as long as I’ve known, Red Sonja has always been “a bit disproportional in the chest region to really swing a sword”.
It’s a nice drawing with some nice details, but the right arm is bugging me. It looks like it is dislocated.
The fur and all reminds me of Larry Elmore, the awesome TSR artist.
Larry Elmore’s art was a favorite growing up. I’m rereading Dragons of Autumn Twilight right now. Sonja could almost be Goldmoon here, with different accessories.
Her arm does look slightly off. The ball and socket do not seem to align quite right, even though the joint is obscured by her … um, sword-swinging muscles.
Yeah the chest is a bit much. I wonder what these artists think sometimes. Do female artists draw a female character the same way a male artist does? Another question I would like to pose is do different ethnic artists draw the same character different than other ethnic artists? How many female artists are there in the comic book genre? And why does it look like her hair is eatting her head? We all know the hair is always just perfect in comics but how about making it look more real and believable sometimes. That would be such a refreshing change? Besides if Red Sonja is that strong her chest would not be that big? Look at female body builders.
Eric: in regards to your comment about female artists drawing female characters the same way, take a look at Amanda Connor. She draws a most excellent Power Girl that has plenty of cheesecake and good girl poses.
~eric: You don’t want to compare strong women to female body builders. Body Builders, especially women, have to take a lot of testosterone supplements in order to get their muscles that big. These supplements cause lots of other changes that make them look less and less feminine.
What extraordinary pencil work! The subtle shading in the cloth around the calves, the fur cape & the hair. I wonder how many hours it took to do this piece (?). It is obviously a labor of love.
I think it is a difference between reality and artistic license. Heroes, men or women, are purposefully drawn in heroic proportions. They are aggrandized versions of their gender to better emphasize their heroic qualities.
“How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way” by Stan Lee and John Buscema (page 46) compares a muscled man to Captain America to show how much larger-than-life Cap is. In the same regard, Red Sonja is built like a goddess and is ultra-feminine, including her breasts.
The same is true of her hair. It is painstakingly detailed and looks fantastic in the picture. I really like it.
However, I don’t think I have ever seen a woman in real life with that much hair that is that thick and that well-layered. If a woman had that much hair, it wouldn’t be blowing in the wind (as in the picture) unless Sonja was standing in a hurricane.
Any wind that strong would have ripped away her cape and shield already and our picture would be reduced to Red Sonja holding onto a doorframe for dear life.
Thanks for the compliment. This drawing was just a sketch of another Sonya drawing with a different background and legs. I’m too cheap to throw away good paper.