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Artist Tom Nguyen is a friend of ComicAttack.net who has worked on numerous comic books as both an inker and artist, including Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern, Superman: The Man of Steel, The Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters (Dynamite series), JLA, and Major Bummer to name a few. Recently he published an awesome art book entitled Incredible Comic Book Women with Tom Nguyen: A Kick-Ass Guide to Drawing Hot Babes!, in which he provides a step-by-step process for comic artists, displaying different techniques on how to draw the hottest dames who can kick your ass, and the sexiest damsels in distress.

His book is over 120 pages long, and it’s broken up into 3 chapters which show how to color, ink, draw fine curves, face detail, clothing of various styles, and of course, bazooms.

The book begins at the beginning, with a “Drawing Crash Course,” explaining what type of materials the artist will need and showcasing a variety of different poses, an anatomy guideline, plus some dos and don’ts for hair and facial features- like noses, eyes, and lips.

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned…” reads a headline as Tom then goes into detail about drawing different expressions on your ladies. From the traditional “yearbook smile,” to sadness, to sultry sexy- he runs through the whole gamut of emotions. Next is probably one of the most important parts of the book- how to draw the female body. Again, Tom begins with the basics, breaking the process down in easy to follow steps that artists can copy with their own style and at their own pace. He covers various attractive positions with which to draw women, anatomy relationships, perspectives, and the effects of gravity on the female form.

Once you’ve got the body down, you’re ready to move onto the appendages like hands and legs. Lets face it, if you’re going to become a comic book artist, learning how to draw a hot leggy blond is a must! Once you’ve mastered these techniques, you’re ready to put it all together and move on to the more challenging portion of the book.

The second section is entitled “Advanced Techniques,” and in it Tom showcases how to use real life models as references for your work. Besides being an artist, Tom is also one helluva pin-up photographer, so he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to this stuff! He provides some more dos and don’ts for the photography session, like positioning and lighting. One of the cooler sections I enjoyed reading about was how to capture a specific woman’s likeness for a character, and how to draw ethnic groups that aren’t your own. His number one rule? Avoid stereotypes! It should go without saying, but it seems harder to do than it sounds.

He then goes into detail on how to draw younger women and older women, pointing out key attributes for each. For instance, it’s important to not make your older women look too agile, and contrarily to not make your younger women look too sexy. Both typically aren’t good things. The next angle that’s covered is adding a sense of style to your ladies via their clothing. Tom gives pointers on how to make clothes that are baggy, wrinkled, flowing, stretchy, whatever! He covers’em all!

He even provides a section of inking and coloring tips to help with shading and lighting the clothing, which helps to better show how the clothes lay on your woman.

In the final final chapter of the book, entitled “The Assignments,” Tom provides some do-it-yourself projects which put all of his techniques to practice. He provides 4 separate exercises, each portraying unique types of ladies with different styles and attitudes. It’s the perfect way to wrap up the tutorial!

So if you’re an aspiring comic book artist, or just want to create your own hot pin-ups, check out Incredible Comic Book Women with Tom Nguyen: The Kick-Ass Guide to Drawing Hot Women! and learn how to draw yourself some funky sexy ladies!

You can purchase the book on Amazon.com or on NorthLightShop.com.

Another great art book to check out that features Tom is How to Air Brush Pin-Ups! To visit Tom’s blog, which is absolutely hilarious with his featured ‘camel’ shots, and various art images, visit this link. His other, more “professional” website, can be found here!

Andy Liegl
andy@comicattack.net