Understanding how a character looks is pretty important when you set out to make a comic. People’s outward appearance are how you(the reader) first interact with the character. That seems like a stupid simple thing to say but we have a habit of seeing a character’s insides before we have a thought on their outsides.

Anyway, writers can learn a lot by studying an artist’s process.

Below are examples from What Are You Doing with an extra link from Intergalactic Messages on photo references.

Character line ups:
Ladies | Guys | Wallpaper | Olympic Photo models

This is a photoshoot of various Olympic athletes by Howard Schartz and Beverly Ornstein titled “The Athlete”. Like many others I tend to fall into the trap of drawing the same body type over and over for athletic characters. This photoshoot serves as awesome reference reminding us artists that strong bodies come in all kinds of shapes and sizes and muscles show up in different ways. It also helps us keep in mind that not everyone who is fit is also lean. There’s often a layer of fat over the muscles, making them less visible for some.

via intergalactic messages, what are you doing