Foreshortening for Kicks

One of the things I rail against with current artists is their use of poor foreshortening. Before the Image Comics styles came into prominence, when an artist drew a character (Superman, for example), flying right out at the reader, we still saw that character’s legs and feet — a complete figure, but with exaggerated foreshortening to make it dramatic.

Since the ’90s,however, too many artists have kicked parts of the character’s legs up and back behind them — and the result, frankly, looked like characters whose legs were amputated at or above the knee. It meant less to draw, but the shortcut proved harmful to the art.

To a casual reader, it looked misshapen and obviously wrong, yet the artists themselves were oblivious to how ridiculous it looked on the page. I’ve long used a Greg Land Spider-Woman #1 cover as one of the worst examples. (See the image on the left.)

Now comes a new Spider-Woman #100 cover from Greg Land, which gets it right. (See the image on the right.) Thank you for paying attention!

My job here is done. 🙂

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