im a lesbian and the vast majority of characters i have and draw are girls. i suck at drawing boobs though and i really like drawing muscles tho so i don't think it has anything to do with romantic/sexual orientation. i think it might have more to do with what you drew when younger... like what kinda anime characters you drew as a young weeb for example :U iirc i drew way more girls than i did guys so girls tend to be my go-to. strangely enough i dont like rly feminine designs. i hate drawing feminine clothes most of the time.
Do you prefer to draw the gender that you like/are attracted to?
My friend and I couldn't come to a conclusion on this. She was certain it was based on attraction. However, she recently read a post here where everyone agreed that most people prefer to draw their own gender because that's what they're familiar with and was was surprised to see such a consensus. My friend and I prefer to draw men despite being women attracted to multiple genders including our own (although I do find myself crushing more on men).
Let me know how it is for you (or take the poll if you're a lurker). And let me know if you'd like to be notified when we post the results!
edit: i just want to note that by attraction i dont strictly mean sexual/romantic. it can be aesthetically too.
edit 2: i'd also like to note that the purpose of this is not to make assumptions, everyone has their own reasons as to why they may choose to draw a gender. we'd just like to see what it might be like for the majority of people!
edit 3: i am back with poll results, we had a total of 161 participants from here, the artistlounge subreddit, gaiaonline, deviantart, and artfol. You can see the tables with the results and nifty charts here!
Highlights:
Straight women: 50% prefer to draw men, 43% prefer to draw women
Gay women: 77% prefer to draw women, 15% prefer to draw men
*Bi women: 69% prefer to draw women, 28% prefer to draw men
*Other women: 50% prefer to draw women
Straight men: 79% prefer to draw women, 16% prefer to draw men
Gay men: 92% prefer to draw men, 8% prefer to draw women
*Bi men: 69% prefer to draw men, 13% prefer to women
*Other men are split equally between men and women
There was hardly enough data for the non-binary category so I'll include the biggest here
*Bi non-binary people, 40.00% prefer to draw men, 33.33% prefer to draw women
*Bi refers to anyone with two or more attractions and Other mostly consists of people who said they had no preference. There weren't enough responses/similar answers, to divide any Other category into anything meaningful.
Also! many people stated that they draw their preferred gender for the opportunity to create better versions of themselves, because they preferred characters of that gender in media, because of an inability to draw another gender, because their preferred gender possesses certain trait seen as limited to that gender (ex. long hair), or because they related more to their own gender (these respondents were mostly writers). Several straight men, in particular, stated that they drew men as children but preferred drawing women when they grew older. There were more common ones, but I don’t recall them at the moment.
I can relate to this somewhat. I have more interest in women than men but find men more aesthetically pleasing. Though I wonder if it's because I always draw typical feminine women and not the more androgynous/masculine women that I'm actually attracted to. Since there aren't many people who do draw that type of woman, I don't have the same creative backlog to think one up without putting in effort. It's something I'm trying to fix actually. Maybe then my gender ratio will be more even.
Do you feel that way at all?
Well I'm aroace so... I guess I don't like to draw anyone? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Jokes asides, for me, it has less to do with the actual gender of the character, and more with their appearance and what I'm the most used to draw? I prefer to draw characters with a relatively androgynous appearance, since details like facial hair, breasts, or "masculine" faces etc can be a bit hard to pull off in my style sometimes.
Most of my main OCs are guys but this has more to do with the fact I'm a trans guy, rather than my orientation; in other words I like to draw them because I relate to/project unto them, not because I'm attracted to them. When it comes to art I make for other people, I have no preference as long as the design fits my tastes and is simple enough for me to draw.
Bisexual cis dude here.
I think I like drawing men and women equally, though based on my portfolio it looks as though I do draw men a lot more frequently. I don't mind drawing non-binary folk either, but I don't have much reference point for that, as most characters I draw stick to the binary. With all that said, I do tend to prefer drawing characters that I find personally aesthetically appealing.
I will also say that I think men are a little easier for me to draw, possibly because I myself am male, but I have never really thought about this.
It doesn't matter to me! For either aesthetic attraction or sexual/romantic (I'm pan and... i guess... NB...???? Idek). I definitely follow more with what i have learned thru the years rather than what """interests""" me? Like i just want to draw what I've gotten better at. Haha
huh this has been pretty interesting to read :0 i'm a bisexual trans guy so i'll give my thoughts
i remember my highschool art teacher saying "people tend to draw the bodies they want rather than the bodies they're meant to draw" so for example having a slim model but a male student ending up drawing them more broad. it was a few years ago but i could be wildly misremembering/ misinterpreting what she said lol but i remember it that way because i was starting to open up to the fact that i'm trans in highschool and hearing that made me go like "huh i do tend to make a lot of my figures more muscular than needed". i mean, me drawing "big, scruffy, buff men" goes either as deep of "wanting my body to look different" or just because i think they look sexy lmao. my whole experience of being trans and my feelings towards my physical image is a whole other can of worms that i'd rather not open lol so guess in a way it's mostly because of aesthetic reasons? ... but at the same time i do like drawing body types outside of typical skinny the most regardless of gender so it's hard to say 100% say for me
i am an ace man i like drawing masculine people. it doesnt matter what gender they are/represent. most "feminine" traits are hard for me to draw too.
WhiskeyWorks I can relate to you because I can draw any character that gets thrown at me, I've drawn non-binary and trans folk as well, and if you were to look at most commissions I do its mostly femboys so it would look as though thats what I do more frequently. However, the ones that i usually enjoy drawing the most are fit men because theyre the ones that i find the most appealing. I also like to draw myself though and im a woman.
CanineKing huh thats interesting, i also would not know if its me wanting my body to look different or just finding them sexy, because....if they look good of course id want that for myself too regardless of gender lol