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Notes -
I wouldn't have had the vocabulary to describe it 20 years ago, but I think the uncanny valley element might still have been there. I can only claim a casual familiarity with figure drawing references like Loomis, but the proportions are very male. Waist-to-shoulders, arm length, hand size seem wrong, for example.
But it's not inconceivable that it's just an artist that has different ideal proportions (there is variance: see Reubens), maybe on the basis of their surroundings, or that the classic texts aren't being taught. There is a decent variance within the population, too: serious women's rugby players look different than gymnasts or runners.
Funny that you should say that, because I was thinking of Loomis' references too, and thinking how more stylized current ideals are than in his time.
Let's do a proportion study, * Figure Drawing for All It's Worth * vs Castlevania.
/images/17924337256581552.webp
nearly exact match, especially if you adjust for perspective, and Rose has nearly 1.5x wider hips.
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I suppose I could see that some part of the backlash are people with a very ingrained artist background getting wrong vibes from the proportions. I wouldn't see any difference without side by side comparison.
And in any case, as you said, there is a variance. Isn't it more realistic that a woman with mannish proportions would be better suited to the job of an adventurer?
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