so I’ve been thinking a lot lately about armor for people with curves and big breasts, and a trend I’ve noticed among “anti-boobplate” circles where the positive examples highlighted tend to work best for people with flat or smaller chests. It’s definitely a conversation we should be having, since most boobplate looks ridiculous, and as it’s been pointed out by many, many people all mostly quoting the same article, could kill you if you fell forward. However, I worry sometimes that people take these arguments to their logical extremes, and lump breasts and curves in with the problem, or make boring outfits in the name of “practicality.”
So I wanted to draw some armor that is at least believable, if not practical, and works with a curvy figure without sexualizing it. Would this actually work in real life as real armor? Probably not? But I’m not sure that’s the most important thing to focus on, unless you’re making a gritty, realistic, historically-accurate work. For fantasy? COOLNESS is what counts. I’m all for seeing non-sexualized, diverse ladytypes with functional armor, as long as the coolness factor doesn’t get lost!
edit: Forgot to add commentary:
As always, gingerhaze is there to offer us a sweet design!
As bonus, she adds some food for thought on female armor and priorities of fantasy design (finding a line between ‘cool but believable’ and ‘cool but absurd’).
Considering the “same article” line, BABD offers a big collection of articles by different authors on the matter of boobplate (some cross-referring to each other, some completely independent) linked and/or quoted under boobplate, article and commentary tags. (Yes, I’m very proud of that collection, how can you tell? ;D)
And at least a few of them do say that significantly bustier ladies may need a customized singular bulge on their breastplates, which is far from what’s usually called ‘boobplate’ (twin bulges with a dangerous crease between them).