# "You draw like a girl"



## Mark (Sep 20, 2010)

I just got this remark from someone. I do not know if I should be flattered or upset because I am a man.
I do not understand how exactly girls draw, and how men draw?

What is your take on it?


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## Zseliq (Sep 20, 2010)

You should have just asked the person what they meant by the comment.


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## Tycho (Sep 20, 2010)

Just tell them to fuck off.

Worst case scenario, they were complimenting you (in their mind) and after you tell them to fuck off they are butthurt and whine and bitch about you being a jerk.  And then they go away.  Yay.

Best case scenario, they were insulting you, and you simply delivered a passable retort.


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## Glitch (Sep 20, 2010)

Yeah, I draw like a girl.
So does my best friend, Karen.
Just like we swim like girls.

Let's see you keep up.

(But Karen always says I swim like a lesbian.  :I  I usually outdo the other girls with manly-man strength.)


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## Tycho (Sep 20, 2010)

Glitch said:


> But Karen always says I swim like a lesbian.


 
Quite apropos.


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## Glitch (Sep 20, 2010)

Tycho said:


> Quite apropos.


 
Oh, hush up.


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## 3picFox (Sep 20, 2010)

Have any examples OP?
Might give us an understanding as to why your friend would say that.


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## Jude (Sep 20, 2010)

Drawing styles vary from person to person, female or not.

They might just mean cutesy or something. I wouldn't necessarily take that as an insult.


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## Tycho (Sep 20, 2010)

Well, it could have been worse.  He could have said "you draw like cutterfl".  Those would have been fighting words.


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## Mark (Sep 20, 2010)

Yes, I asked them, and they said "They are very flowery for a guy".

Flowery can mean beautiful and good because there is a stereotype that "girls draw better", but it can also suggest..


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## Taralack (Sep 20, 2010)

How on earth does one "draw like a girl"? Perhaps a sparkledog might qualify, idk.


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## Zydala (Sep 20, 2010)

I guess subject matter will get a response like that out of people. Just ignore it I guess.

Kinda reminds me of on deviantartsnark, there was an entry where someone asked if someone was gay because there were rainbows in their art. and that there were a lot of colors so it "looked gay". People are just silly sometimes - pay no heed


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## Stratelier (Sep 21, 2010)

I wouldn't pay it any mind.  (As for me, some of the best artists I watch happen to be girls.)


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## Gavrill (Sep 21, 2010)

Depends, do you draw a lot of gay yiff art?


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## Valery91Thunder (Sep 21, 2010)

I've been told that girls usually draw rounder shapes and softer lines while men use a stronger and more definited style.
I don't think that this statement is true for all the female and male artists, but this is what I heard from people and when I saw your post I thought about this.
Though I agree 3picFox about the fact to show some examples of your drawings to see what the person that commented you actually meant.


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## Gavrill (Sep 21, 2010)

Valery91Thunder said:


> I've been told that girls usually draw rounder shapes and softer lines while men use a stronger and more definited style.


 
Even though this is not true all the time, I find it to be true often. Thinking about people on my watch list, males tend to like strong, usually earthy styles while females draw softer, sketchier things.


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## Shark_the_raptor (Sep 21, 2010)

As a compliment imo.  Girls tend to be better at the arts.


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## greg-the-fox (Sep 21, 2010)

In my experience girls tend to pay way more attention to detail than guys and are more patient. Also, every art class I've ever been in has been mostly girls


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## SirRob (Sep 21, 2010)

I have girly handwriting... 

But yeah, I've heard that comment a lot in the past. It does have a bit of truth to it though, like people have already said.


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## Mark (Sep 21, 2010)

Sample: http://childmars.blogspot.com/


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## SirRob (Sep 21, 2010)

Mark said:


> Sample: http://childmars.blogspot.com/


Yeah, I would think a girl would have drawn those. For the most part, it's a combination of the subject matter and... I dunno, lightness?
It's unique though, I think. Clearly you're very skilled.


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## Jw (Sep 21, 2010)

EDIT: you did post something!

But building off of what others say, women tend to include a lot of movement and emotion in their drawings naturally, and men prefer to have fairly schematic and stiff yet technical "blueprint" style of art naturally. At least in my experience, and of course this varies a great deal form person to person.

But for anyone to make a good artist, you have to strike a balance between the two in order to improve. If you have a lot of movement and emotion, but cannot distinguish what the thing is supposed to be, then what good is the drawing if you're going for semi-realism or full blown realism? What about a drawing that is rendered perfectly, but comes off as dead and puts the viewer to sleep? See, there's "feminine" and "masculine" requirements in any good drawing. 

These differences are down to the balance of powers in between the brain hemispheres, where females tend to use the right brain much more than the right brain due to allowing for emotions, which is commonly discouraged for men, who are supposed to be stoic. All this crap has to deal with socialization. And life's not always cut-and-dry, black and white like this, but this is what I've seen in my own life. 

I realized that about my stiff drawings and set out to do literally thousands of drawings emphasizing flow and movement. Doing so helped me out a lot. Maybe you should focus on building technical skills, like refining lines to be a little smoother? You have great control over color, something I'm a bit jealous of, so don't get yourself down too much, haha.

As a side note that's somewhat unrelated, I wish more women would get into animation. Expression and emotional processing is their biggest strength, and I think that would play well into making very expressive cartoon characters.


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## Runefox (Sep 21, 2010)

How appropriate, you draw like a cow?


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## Stratelier (Sep 21, 2010)

jwmcd2 said:


> But building off of what others say, women tend to include a lot of movement and emotion in their drawings naturally, and men prefer to have fairly schematic and stiff yet technical "blueprint" style of art naturally. At least in my experience, and of course this varies a great deal from person to person.


That's probably the worst criticism I've ever been given about my art, is that it's too neat, too _precise_.  Really hard thing to shake.


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## greg-the-fox (Sep 21, 2010)

jwmcd2 said:


> I realized that about my stiff drawings and set out to do literally thousands of drawings emphasizing flow and movement. Doing so helped me out a lot. Maybe you should focus on building technical skills, like refining lines to be a little smoother? You have great control over color, something I'm a bit jealous of, so don't get yourself down too much, haha.


 
Yeah I have this problem too. Not quite as bad as I used to be, figure drawing REALLY helps you loosen up.


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## Smelge (Sep 21, 2010)

Glitch said:


> (But Karen always says I swim like a lesbian.  :I  I usually outdo the other girls with manly-man strength.)


 
I assume this means that the very nature of Lesbianism repels the water, so it parts in front of you and closes behind you, allowing simple principals of pressure and displacement to propel you through the pool?


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## greg-the-fox (Sep 21, 2010)

Smelge said:


> I assume this means that the very nature of Lesbianism repels the water, so it parts in front of you and closes behind you, allowing simple principals of pressure and displacement to propel you through the pool?


 
IT'S SCIENCE!


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## Mark (Sep 21, 2010)

Funny, people complain I am too stoic. Maybe my feelings are spilling out through drawing?


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## Jw (Sep 21, 2010)

Mark said:


> Funny, people complain I am too stoic. Maybe my feelings are spilling out through drawing?


 It's a strong right-brained activity, which is associated with emotions. You're just tapping into what's really there on that hemisphere, which might be less used than the left side, which prefers logic and words. I've always had difficulty with expressing some things in words, but art was much easier to use in my case.

To me, drawing's kinda like comparing your mind to a water bottle. You turn it upside down, take off the lid, and let what comes out flow naturally. 


So yeah, it's totally possible. I try to instill grace in lots of my serious drawings, which is totally unlike my clumsy nature.


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## Arrow0 (Sep 21, 2010)

I love how everyone on this thread is pratically a woman except me.

i mean "LOL LESBIANS CUS WE'RE MANLY" are u fckin srs


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## Jude (Sep 21, 2010)

Arrow0 said:


> I love how everyone on this thread is pratically a woman except me.


 
how do you figure?


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## Arrow0 (Sep 21, 2010)

DrumFur said:


> how do you figure?



Either that, or you're 12 years old.


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## Taralack (Sep 22, 2010)

Arrow0 said:


> I love how everyone on this thread is pratically a woman except me.
> 
> i mean "LOL LESBIANS CUS WE'RE MANLY" are u fckin srs


 
You registered just to say this?


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## Cosmus (Sep 23, 2010)

you do kind of draw like a girl.
but in this case, it's a good thing. see, as previously mentioned, most female artists tend to render more organic shapes, pay greater attention to detail, and draw with softer lines. that isn't to say that male artists can't also have these attributes in their work, but they are more recognizably girly traits.
but don't worry about it. you're very skilled.


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## lostfoxeh (Oct 13, 2010)

Just draw a big gun, or a car. Even better a car with guns and reclaim your stereotype label.


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## Bir (Oct 14, 2010)

I would then retort by saying "That's because I'm awesome."


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