If there's one thing I'm good at, it's drawing attractive women. So I thought I'd write this little guide on how to draw women - all types of women.
This isn't about basic human anatomy. It's more about learning how to expand your figure design vocabulary, so you can draw more interesting and intentional female characters.
I've also included some basic suggestions for Google image searches for some types. Because the best way to learn to draw women is to look at lots of them. Hopefully this guide gives you some references for what to look for in female figures.
EDIT: Thanks for all the fav's! I am surprised by the response this is getting. I don't plan on doing a male version anytime soon, because I'm not very good at drawing men.
EDIT AGAIN: This is a generalization of body types, based on common stereotypes. You can get pretty much any body type by mixing and matching the ones listed. There's no "right" or "wrong" body type for a woman - there are overweight teens, model-thin moms, plus-size models, etc.
This is meant purely for illustration purposes, and illustrators often have to communicate in stereotypes. If your client asks you to design, say, a soccer mom character, they're probably expecting something like the "middle-aged" body type. If you drew the character with the "model" body type, your client might be surprised and say "no, make her look more like a mom." So you have to be able to know what that looks like and how to draw it. It's not always politically correct, but it's the reality of the business.
That "Google Search: your mom" thing was pretty funny, too!