Make me the next Fred Moore
December 19, 2010 1:46 PM   Subscribe

I'd like to learn how to draw cute girls, so I'm looking for illustrators who do it well.

I'm looking for stuff along the lines of Fred Moore or Preston Blair. There's also a well known French(?) illustrator/animator who does chubby girls I really like but I can't remember his name. It can be cute guys too but I want illustrators who can draw appealing gestures from memory.

I'm looking for non-skeevy, non-manga stuff. I'm also not interested much in overly realistic pinup art like Vargas or his ilk right for this phase of what I'm trying to do. Honestly, no manga please.
posted by bonobothegreat to Media & Arts (25 answers total) 31 users marked this as a favorite
 
John K
spumco
I love his art in general, but the way he draws women has always stood out to me.
posted by gally99 at 2:01 PM on December 19, 2010 [1 favorite]


http://www.girlsdrawingirls.com is an awesome group of ... well, girls who draw girls. Worth browsing, for sure!
posted by danielle the bee at 2:04 PM on December 19, 2010 [1 favorite]


Chris Sanders, when he's not directing animated movies, draws a lot of cute, sexy women.
posted by darksong at 2:20 PM on December 19, 2010


Maybe Rob Ullman?
posted by leesh at 2:26 PM on December 19, 2010


Jaime Hernandez is one of my favorite cute girl creators.

Frank Cho has a lot of fans, and I do like some of his curvy ladies (He does do some nudes & semi nudes, though, if you're looking to avoid that entirely).

I also really, really love Ross Campbell because he can draw so many different kinds of ladies. As much as I love Jaime, his women can get a bit repetitive. He has started using ridiculous manga-style eyes recently (boo!), but everything else is awesome and you should still check him out.
posted by Fui Non Sum at 2:27 PM on December 19, 2010


Okay fine. R. Crumb.

They ween't all insatiable bird-women, and even those were fully self-aware in a similar way to John K's awareness of the high school binder/pinup aspect.

Also, Charles Burns. Most of those lean toward the bizarre, but I've always liked the way he latches on to those physical quirks that would not always be considered classically beautiful, but often make a girl quite so. Like the shape of the face of the er... woman with a tail in the top row.

But then, I always thought the cookie-cutter female template of Fred Moore was slightly skeevy. Even John K. who is parodying that style draws women as individuals.
posted by cmoj at 2:31 PM on December 19, 2010


This is pretty much all Katie Rice does, and I dare say she's pretty good at it.
posted by eggplantplacebo at 2:40 PM on December 19, 2010


Oooo, you need J Scott Campbell and Michael Turner who is no longer with us, due to an early cancer related death..
posted by Glendale at 2:43 PM on December 19, 2010


Pete Emslie
posted by overeducated_alligator at 2:49 PM on December 19, 2010


Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestions so far. Please keep them coming.

I found that the French illustrator mentioned in my question is Arthur De Pins.
posted by bonobothegreat at 2:56 PM on December 19, 2010


Jen Wang and her blog.
posted by flawsekno at 3:25 PM on December 19, 2010


Response by poster: Thanks again for the suggestions, especially Katie Rice. I enjoy checking them all out.

"It's hard to really understand your specified limitations, so I'm hoping these suggestions don't offend."

Just to be more specific, I'm looking for illustrators that can do appealing gestural drawings that don't look like they rely on photos for anything more than inspiration. I'm not so much interested in the overly realistic pinup/super hero stuff just because a lot of it looks like it uses reference photos as a crutch. I don't mean to offend anyone with that point of view, I'm just looking to refine my own "mental mannequin" and want some fresh ideas about how other people handle it.
posted by bonobothegreat at 3:55 PM on December 19, 2010


Dan DeCarlo and Harry Lucey of Archie Comics! They ought to be a cute girl drawing staple.

I could spend an eternity listing artists. In addition to the great artists already mentioned, I'm going to add Briane Drouhard, Vera Brosgol, Emily Carroll, Clio Chiang, Robin Joseph, Victoria Ying, and Ben Cadwell.
posted by SometimesChartreuse at 6:46 PM on December 19, 2010


Erich Sokol was also in the Dan DeCarlo vein of Playboy cartoonists.
posted by overeducated_alligator at 7:00 PM on December 19, 2010 [1 favorite]


Crap, and Eldon Dedini, too! That's who I was trying to remember before.
posted by overeducated_alligator at 7:02 PM on December 19, 2010 [1 favorite]


I really like Vera Bee's pretty ladies
posted by Ideal Impulse at 7:45 PM on December 19, 2010


Claire Wendling, Terry Dodson, Dylan Meconis, James Jean. In full disclosure, I should probably tell you that Dylan Meconis and Terry Dodson are members of my studio, so I'm biased. But! They know from Pretty Ladies.
posted by TrixieBiltmore at 8:10 PM on December 19, 2010


Thirding Vera Brosgol.
posted by mumkin at 10:23 PM on December 19, 2010


Jamie McKelvie, illustrator of comicbooks Phonogram and Suburban Glamour.
posted by Prince_of_Cups at 10:28 PM on December 19, 2010 [1 favorite]


i love hellen jo.
posted by ultrapotato at 11:52 PM on December 19, 2010


Alex Raymond drew gorgeous, elegant women in his comic Rip Kirby but I can't seem to find any online for you, just this book on Amazon.

I realize you may not have meant women when you said girls, and elegant does not equal cute, but thought I should bring this up to round off your options.
posted by Dragonness at 8:20 AM on December 20, 2010


Response by poster: Thanks again, everyone. It's been a real eye-opener. Some of this was heartbreakingly elegant.

My favourites tended to fall into two groups: the vintage stuff by men (Playboy's Eldon Dedini, Erich Sokol) and contemporary stuff by women (Marlo Meekins, Katie Rice, Vera Brosgol).

Always happy to see more suggestions.
posted by bonobothegreat at 9:40 AM on December 20, 2010


I'm looking for illustrators that can do appealing gestural drawings that don't look like they rely on photos for anything more than inspiration.

In that case, Rob Laro.
posted by martinrebas at 4:41 PM on December 20, 2010


Milo Manara, Frank Cho, and Ross Campbell all come to mind.
posted by Logic Sheep at 6:40 PM on December 20, 2010


Ronnie Del Carmen
posted by millions of peaches at 12:03 AM on August 8, 2011


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