Here’s a positive example from “The Dragon Prince” on Netflix! On the left is General Amaya (who is also deaf, v cool!), and on the right is Lieutentant Gren, her second-in-command (and sign language interpreter). This scene in particular is from s1e5, about four minutes in.
Took us too long to finally post this positive example. General Amaya is basically best character in the whole show: high-ranking soldier woman in great armor, reasonable authority figure, nonapologetic representation of disability and, last but not least, caring aunt for the main characters.
It really says something about fantasy art that the thing people seem to remark most on in my work is the fact the female armor I draw is ‘functional’ with out and sexy bits out there showing. Something I just think of as “well you wouldn’t want to get stabbed in the navel… so lets put some studs and leather there” is so foreign to some that it sticks out. But, it really shouldn’t stick out. People shouldn’t even notice that. And that kind of pisses me off about the other artists out there. Look I am not saying every character has to be all covered up and armored, if it is a female/male rogue who uses her god given talents to subvert, distract, and get what s/he wants by all means show some skin.. .but if it is a paladin, warrior, anything that needs to be heavily armored then put some damn good armor on them! And despite what some art directors think, a girl can look pretty damn hot in some nice, functional, armor with out her tits flopping about. And if you are an artist and the only way you can make a female attractive is by showing her ass or cleavage, you are a BAD ARTIST, go practice.
Bolded for emphasis.
It’s really a painful realization that bikini armors are so ingrained in the collective consciousness that actually protective female armor stands out as novelty.
Which also proves just how bullshitty the “skimpy costume design is creative” excuse is. If it was so, people would be more surprised by it than by costumes that do provide cover. Yet here we are and no-one’s shocked by the sight of bikini armor anymore.
This kind of double standard really points out our culture’s idea that (White) Man is the norm, and is thus allowed to be other things than just Man. Meanwhile, Woman is like its own all-encompassing descriptor. Once you’re a Woman, you can’t be anything else, so everything about the Woman has to point out how Womanly she is.
And we can’t give her armor that doesn’t accentuate the fact that she’s a Woman, because then she’ll be like the Man! We can’t have that! And then we end up with Bingo material.
This is obviously not a functional armor design, but it’s a cool concept for an idolized historical figure, or perhaps even a parade armor. The shapes work really well together, and I’m glad that the artist didn’t engrave the entirety of her breastplate. It’s hard to tell apart the metal from the cloth textures in some of the shots, but I like the contrast of the materials against each other. I do wish the color scheme was more than just 90% white and grey, but that would suit a depiction of a saint or similar figure.
My big gripe is that cincher-shaped detailing on her breastplate.
I thought to showcase this as a good example of how one can design even a nonfunctional feminine armor without having to expose the Tiddy, or give her 4 square inches of fabric.
The link to the artist’s gallery above is broken, so here is a new one. They’ve got some interesting costume designs, and they include their process, which is really interesting.
-Icy
Posted on
Angela and the layered armor (+ a cozy cardigan)
Marvel’s Angela redesign is still one of the favorite ones I streamed.
Maybe one day we’ll get to stream fixing that winged monstrosity.
Back to the redesign, tho: My priority, given that now she’s an Asgaardian warrior, was giving Angela actual armor, with lots of layering. She got some undershirt and pants, gambeson and mail tunic (painted vaguely, so it can be either chainmail or scalemail), then on top of that a believable breastplate instead of two half-spheres that barely connect at her sternum.
I disliked her generic huge belt design, so looking for inspiration in costumes of her father, Odin, I found this custom figure with really cool belt (unfortunately, source ungooglable):
So I based Angela’s belt buckle on his, as well as on the pattern from her magical ribbon thingie. Now that I look at it, I might have also taken some shape and color cues for her breastplate and gambeson tassetts from Odin.
Other little details: got rid of the pointless butt cape, made shoes not go thigh-high (how is she supposed to bend knees in metal thigh-highs anyway?) and gave her stockier built.
I’m really satisfied with that color scheme. What’s funny is that it was already there. Each color I used was sampled from some minuscule part of her costume that was drowning in the sea of dominating gold and flesh tones.
Proper layer-by-layer female* armor designalways deserves more love and exposure. For many reasons, including non–boob-shaped breastplate and the inclusion of gambeson padding. Always ready to be looked up in our reference and resource tags!
