How can I design a girl with very subtle sex appeal? I don't want porn, but I want to subconsciously titillate the viewer. My goal is for the viewer to acknowledge the character as sexually attractive, but is still looking at them normally. The best way to describe it is: A young boy who's saw the spark of a woman in his female childhood friend for a split second.Anime like Sailor Moon is a good start, but more blatant with it's sex appeal (long legs, miniskirts, tight clothes, emphasis on thighs, etc.) But does anyone else know anything similar? Picrel is a drawing from AKari on RedNote. The girl is very "healthy" and full looking while not being fat. She's also got a miniskirt with decent thighs and legs. This is probably the #1 best example of what I'm talking about.
Sorry for the flowery language, I took shrooms a couple days ago. I have more examples coming up in a bit
>>8018801I think a good thing to keep in mind is to only make one part sexy at a time. The picture you posted is showing a lot of bare skin on the legs, and it looks natural. But if the artist also gave her a deep cleavage, then the girl would start looking seductive. Another good thing would be making anything sexy make sense "in-universe". For example, a girl having the top buttons of her shirt opened, because it's hot outside and she's sweaty. Or wearing some kind of tool belt, that just happens to draw the eye to her ass. Maybe look up some alt fashion styles - a lot of time, it's a bit revealing, without necessarily intending to be sexual.
>>8018801basically you need a narrative justificationit's swimming class, or track club, or simply a very hot summer dayyou don't even need to expose that much skin, as the viewer will have their own set of memories associated with the scene which can also enhance the appeal
>>8018823>>8018830Naruhodo. Thanks a lot. It's nice to see people who understand my babble
>>8018801Its all about framing. You can have the most scantily designed woman in a show or manga or painting, but depending on how the artists frames the character it can framed as either grotesque, the norm, or full of sexual tensionIm gonna bring up pic related's works cause he happens to have two very distinct series when it comes to sex appeal.The work with blatant sex appeal designs is his ninja manga Tsubaki. Showing of skin, fishnets, implied nudity, all that good stuff.However, all the characters are designed like this, so there isnt any that stand out. Like I was looking up images for examples and in the anime specifically theres all these group shots of these characters and despite the blatant sexual intent of their designs those group shots dont read to the viewer as "this is the part where you get titillated", it just reads like a shot of a crowd. But then he has this other work with Takagi-san. She is literally just a basic ass school girl, and her uniform doesnt even have any unique sexual traits, its just a basic girl. But the series is all about teasing, so how does the artist achieve this? It's all done with pure framing of the situations she is in. Maybe she tilt her head and gives a soft look to the boy character, maybe theres a panel with a POV of the boy character showing her whole body in frame and have it as the central focus. Youd have a panel where we just look at her eyes closely, or she brushes up against the boy character playfully while the boy gets flustered. These drawings/shots are full of way more sexual tension/appeal without the need to reflect that in design.
>>8019031to illustrate my point further let me use some more images. This is the Tsubaki show crowd shot I was referring to. An entire crowd of scantily designed characters, but look how its framed. Theres no real focus on a specific character and everyone reads as concerned, so in this case nothing "sexual" is going on
>>8019037But then you have this frame of the show, and its clear that even without showing any of the typical standard "sexy" design elements like her chest, ass, tummy,etc. that the framing and what it focuses on is supposed to appeal to her beauty. How she literally radiates light, her playful body gesture, a playful smile, how the background blurs as you the viewer focus on her. These kind of tools are more powerful then ANY blatant character design choice.
>>8018801It's all about hiding your effort. For example lets say you have a foot fetish. You put alot of effort into drawing feet and now they have a bunch of lines. It's obvious that you put alot of effort into drawing them, and this makes you look like a degenerate. Instead you have to deliberately draw things simple as if to say "I didn't put any effort into this" but of course still make it look good.
>>8019047Also to move away from loli shit for a second lets take another manga as an example with pic related. Lets just consider this cover in particular, the girl character is a typical sexy design. Short skirt, dark leggings that bring attention to her legs, leather jacket and choker for the more mature factor. Just a hot bitch. But if you were to look at pic related in isolation, nothing about her is in focus. She along with the guy character are treated with equal focus and blend in with the space to capture just a regular moment.
As in, how do you conceptualize the character or what exactly? I'm assuming you're a straight guy so why not draw what you like.
>>8019059But now contrast that with this cover piece. Look how fucking close we are viewing these two characters who now take up the entire frame. Notice how the female character though is the focus, with the guy character being behind her compositionally and being more pushed into the corner. How close her boobs are to the male character almost pressing against his chest. How they are gazing into each others eyes. Waaaaaaaaaaaaay more sex going on in this piece and it isnt necessarily about her design but about framing and composition.
>>8019073And to further drive my point home let me just take your OP image >>8018801 and deliberately cut off her thighs from the pic. I didnt change the DESIGN, I changed the COMPOSITION/FRAMING. And now suddenly Im not looking at the girls thighs, Im forced as the viewer to just look at her and wonder what shes reacting to. She still has those plump thighs, but Im no longer focusing on that cause they are now cut off of frame.If you want to be subtle, then be subtle and draw a normal girl(that still appeals to your specific tastes and what you think looks good) but FRAME her in a way that puts her sexuality in focus
>>8018801Sex things are sex.
>>8019080God I really need to get good at thighs
>>8019080Reminded me of this video for some reason, put in the eng subs, it's a good watch.
>>8019246https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJM0fJfddPs
>>8019080actually, now when i look down my eyes stop on the image border and i can grope her thighs and pussy with my eyes instead of being distracted by those long ass legs
As a follow up to my previous posts, also consider the audience you are appealing to. For example, if you know you have degenerates in your audience like >>8019259it also shows how you dont really have to try that hard to appeal to them. People who are looking for shit to jack off to will find it in a many of places. In that sense makinga design that leaves more to the imagination can be very useful. There is a science to that, a hot bitch in a stripper outfit would look a lot hotter if she wore a sundress.
>>8019470NTA, but I also felt the crop placed more emphasis on her thighs, since they were right there at the bottom of the frame.
>>8019494Nah yeah it was more of a shitpost comment. Since the entire figure aside from her face is a cold color, but the thighs have the same warm color as her face, it makes sense why its still a prominent thing a viewer would notice.Final point for OP, color choices matter also for drawing attention to what you want to focus on
>>8019470Thanks for your help anonI think I'm getting it now
