Article Round Up!

Drive-by post! This week we've gathered up a few links to various articles and cool stuff we've seen recently. We'll probably do this again from time to time for stuff that we like that, for whatever reason, doesn't make it onto our Twitter (like when Louisa finds something awesome during the day only to realise she's managed to wipe her Twitterfox settings at work and can't remember the password to the account, for example).


Twisted Princesses: A Darker Take on Disney

We're used to seeing the Disney heroines as glittering, gracious, smiling beauties. Well, some of them may be smiling in this macabre art series, but in a way that is likely to give you nightmares.

Why Strong Female Characters Are Bad For Women

The title is misleading - take Strong Female Characters with a heavy dose of irony and then have a look at this interesting read on how mainstream movie writers still aren't quite grasping the concept of creating a compelling female role model.

Can Marvel-Disney Help Close the Comic Book Gender Gap?

A look at what the Disney buyout of Marvel might mean for marketing comics to women.

Fangirl Invasion, Part One: The Changing Face (and Sex) of Fandom
Fangirl Invasion, Part Two: Hollywood Takes Notice
Fangirl Invasion, Part Three: The War of the Sexes Hits Geekdom

Ok, the use of terms like Invasion! and War! tends to annoy me because it seems to imply that women are forcing themselves in and taking over where they don't belong. I am slightly tired of news articles declaring that Twilight is the new Moses, parting the seas of testosterone and bravely leading thousands of young girls to the Holy Land of Geekdom. Because gee, it's not like girls existed in fandom BEFORE Twilight, right? On the other hand, hey, at least they're finally making it to the party and I do have to (grudgingly) admit that Twilight is bringing more young girls to conventions, the fantasy genre, and helping them to realise that BOOKS ARE AWESOME.

Epic Worlds Without Women?
The Epic Fantasy and Female Characters, Part Two
Fantasy and Female Characters, Part Three

Another three part article series in which fantasy authors Kate Elliot and Ken Scholes discuss female characters in fantasy and how they handle them in their own work.

Two mentions of Disney is kinda of like a theme, right? So I'm going to round this post off with a Princess painting meme that's going round that I think is pretty adorable.


Princess Coloring Book by *Artsammich on deviantART

The challenge? Take a Disney princess colouring book page and colour it in the style of a Masters painting. Ryan Wood kicked off this idea here with his portrait of Belle in the style of an Ingres painting, and Sam Neilson took up the gauntlet with the beautiful painting of Jasmine above. I have a soft spot for the heroines of Disney - they were some of my earliest childhood idols and anytime before I hit my teens you could guarantee that my favourite film was whatever the latest Disney film was. (Well, except for Snow White. No taking candy from strangers, you vapid dummy!) So I was thrilled that a few more of the awesome artists on my watchlist picked up the idea and ran with it. Here are a few more for your viewing pleasure!

Aurora by Katie DeSousa

Cinderella by Lois van Baarle

Belle by Adelenta

If anyone has seen (or done!) any more of these, let me know in the comments? I'm kind of addicted - I may even have to do one myself.

Ninjas, Tutorials, and Masculinity

Hey all. Sorry for the gap between posts lately. Melissa's had the builders in and a bunch of projects to finish up, and I've had a tough couple of weeks at work. So this post is a bit of a pick-and-mix (instead of sugar candy, we substitute eye candy) - just a few things I've been taking notes on that don't quite justify a full post in themselves.

Back in March we pimped out the Ninja Mountain right as they added the first female voice to their podcast, Anne Stokes. Since then Anne has been back and Socar Myles has also been on a bunch of times. As a matter of fact, she's on this week (I'm listening as I type) and let me tell you, if you thought the podcasts were funny before, you will be splitting your sides when Socar joins in. Back when I first stumbled across Epilogue she was The Artist whose advice and articles I read over and over, and I still hear her thoughts on colour theory in my head when I paint. It's even better listening to her in person - she's very smart, very deadpan, and very very funny. Go and listen! The podcast is excellent no matter who is on, but if you're especially interested in hearing Anne and Socar, start around episode eight.

It looks like the post on stock resources and reference for the male form was pretty popular, so for those of you that haven't seen it yet, this might be of interest to you.



Melissa does an hour long live painting session every Wednesday on Ustream and this week she spent some time sketching and discussing the differences between male and female faces. Ustream records her video sessions so you can view it later as often as you like - the male/female face portion starts around 23 mins. She also has a short tutorial on just painting young male faces here on DeviantArt. Have fun!

I recently posted a finished piece of artwork (featuring a guy - this is important) on one of the bigger art forums for feedback. One small comment caught my attention.

"It's more provocative than masculine ;)."

The painting was absolutely provocative and I'm not debating that - it was intended to be. Like we say whenever we get onto this subject - there aren't enough sexy male portraits out there. It was that "more provocative than masculine" remark that took me aback. Since when are the two mutually exclusive? Is it an either or situation? Men can be sensual, in your face sexy OR masculine, but not both?

Thinking on it, apparently so! Do you see many paintings of men sprawled elegantly over silk bedsheets with a come-hither expression on their face? Do you see them standing in the middle of a battlefield pouting, attired and posing in a way that says, "Oh! Hello, miss! I seem to have had a terrible accident and lost all my clothes except for these very fine leather boxer shorts and my sword. Is there any way you could assist me with this? I'd be so very grateful."

No, not usually, but I now know what I'm doing for my next painting.

No, you don't get many male pinups. Men in art are DOING stuff. Manly stuff. Oh sure, you get character portraits, but they generally tend to be fully clothed, or at least mostly clothed, and radiating attitude that's rarely about seduction. On the rare occasion you do see a picture of a man that's purely seductive, he often tends to be...soft. Pretty. Delicate. I'm all for pretty guys but sometimes it's as if the artist has deliberately gone as "feminine" as they can get away with because nobody could possibly deal with the sight of a man as a sex object...unless he looks like a woman.

Women can multi-task while being objectified, you see. According to fantasy art, a woman can topple an army, decapitate a demon, fly a spaceship, rule an empire AND sprawl elegantly over silk bedsheets with a come hither expression on their face or stand in the middle of a battlefield after a terrible clothing-related accident at the same time. It's all in a day's work.

Would you look at a seductive female character and think, "Well, she's more provocative than feminine?" I doubt it. Certainly we all have different notions of what the word "feminine" means to us, but I don't think that's the sort of femininity we're talking about here. I think what we're talking about is sexuality. Breasts and buttocks are sexual in a woman. In men, bare chests and butts are also sexual, but it's apparently taboo to portray them as such - if a guy is showing skin, it's usually in a Rawr, HE-MAN, my muscles-let-me-show-you-them sort of way. To quote someone who was commenting on the portrayal of male and female characters in comic book, "Men are strong. Women are sexy."

Yes, women can be sexy, and they can be Doing Stuff (but only if they look sexy while doing it). Men can either be Doing Stuff or they can be sexy (but only if they look like women while doing it).

Look, female artists deal with having our own gender sexed up to the extreme and thrust in our faces every time we log onto a fantasy website. I'm pretty sure any Real Men in the audience can put on their big boy leather shorts and deal with it too.

Featured Artist: Sam Hogg

Artist Profile
Name: Sam "Zephyri" Hogg
Job Title: Concept Artist
Freelance? Yes, but only as a sideline to my main job
Client/Employer List: Jagex, Bizarre Creations, number of independent authors
Education: Nothing after the age of 18! Interestingly, Art was my lowest graded exam at 18.
Years Experience: Professional years of art experience, about 3, though I have 8 years as a graphic designer under my belt too.
Favourite Medium: Watercolour and pencils and Photoshop.
Specialities: Adaptability... the ability to work in a variation of styles, subjects and mediums, but subject wise, dark romantic images featuring couples.
Accepting Private Commissions? Not currently, no.

Contact Info
Website or Web Portfolio: www.zephyri.com/ www.zephyri.deviantart.com
Email: sam@zephyri.com
Twitter: zephyri
Online Art Communities: Deviantart, Conceptart, Pixelbrush and CGTalk, all under the name Zephyri
Prints: Available through my deviantart gallery.

I've been a fan of Sam's work since before she signed on with Jagex and joined me in the world of the games industry. She first caught my eye over a Pixelbrush with some seriously sexy WIP pieces, and since then I've been in love with her versatility and unpredictability. From miniatures to coloured pencils to digital painting, everything in her gallery is a little different, but still has that touch of something which is uniquely "her". I grabbed hold of her for a brief interview about her work and her life as a concept artist.

Often artists will show a bias towards one gender or another, but you seem to paint men as often as you paint women, and quite a lot of your art features couples. Do you consciously try to keep up a variety, or is it just something you do naturally?

I think it's just something I do naturally - both men and women have traits that I find fascinating. Couples are often a good way of dealing with the contrasts of both at once, and I love the interplay between human beings. A lot of fantastical art focuses simply on the aesthetic, or on the emotions of a key character, and I find that strange, given the subtle emotional things you can work into two people interacting - it's kind of like using a complementary colour scheme, one augments the other

You can go from Luis Royo (disturbingly sexy) to Art Nouveau (soft and romantic), but almost all of your art has some degree of sensuality, even the darker, more tragic or sad pieces. Is it a favourite theme?

Most definitely. Sensuality, contrasts and balance are the big themes in my work and myself as a person. Emotion is what my life is governed by, be it good or bad, and art is the main outlet I have for dealing with it. It's one of the reasons my subject matter is so diverse - it's reflecting the myriad of emotional states I go through. I get most joy out of a piece when I can sit back and look at it and still feel the base emotions that sparked the piece in the first place. And being a realism artist means that sometimes emotional content can be diluted by the need to make sure everything looks right, be it anatomy, or composition, or finding the right reference. Having said that though, getting the same emotional responses from people who view my art is one of the reasons I keep doing it. I'm a romantic at heart, but I'm also very much a pessimist, and grounded in real life, which is why many of my images seem to hold a melancholy undertone to them. A moment of happiness can be made so much more intense by knowing that tragedy might follow, or has gone before, and trying to capture that little piece of story telling in an image of the emotions between two people is something I take great joy in.

I believe you write as well as draw and paint. Is storytelling a big part of your artwork too?

Writing is something I'm less confident about, in terms of sharing with the masses, but it's something that seems to come more easily to me than art, weirdly. It used to be very much something that inspired my art, and vice versa, but with working for others a lot more lately, it's showing up less in my art. However, having said that, when I work on personal pieces, I find images weave stories about them, or stories might spring from random things I see or hear during the day that in turn spark imagery in my head. Sometimes I find the two are almost blended to one... that telling a story with an image is just as important as painting pictures in someone's head with words.

The games industry in the UK isn't the biggest to begin with, and so the number of women who work in it is even smaller. Has being a woman ever been a help or a hindrance to your career?

This is very true... I'm one of only two women in a 60 strong graphics team at my company, and our overall female to male percentage is 15/85%. However, having come from a design background, where it's less of a contrast, but still a mostly male-run industry, it was never a big shock, or something unexpected. Being a woman can be both a help and a hindrance. For one thing, we're something of a curiosity, and that can be turned to your advantage, as it can make you stand out in a crowd of guys. I have also noticed I can get away with a little more than my male counterparts do when things go wrong... not that I don't get held accountable - I'm usually the first to hold up my hands, but the backlash can sometimes not be as blunt. In terms of how I'm treated with the work I do, I don't think it's ever been an issue that I'm a woman. It's more to do with how you conduct yourself, and being professional and approachable is more important that your gender. The only downside I've found, oddly, is on the whole social bonding thing. One thing I'd never considered going into a wholly male environment was that I might not be seen in the same social light as the guys in the office. Sometimes I get the feeling they don't invite me to play games, or hang out because I'm a girl and I don't do guy things, or because their other halves would have an issue with it. Both of which wouldn't be an issue if I were a guy.

I've found that as a woman, I'll approach concepts/design differently to how my male coworkers would have. Do you find the same thing? Do you think having a female influence makes a difference to the direction the artwork takes?

This is a tough one! On the one hand I'd say there's not that much difference, but I notice it most when it comes to creating both male and female characters. I think we're both hormonally bound to approach these things differently.. my male counterpart's women always have a very sexy bent to them whenever he gets the chance, and are about the way she looks, whereas when I'm concepting for women, it's more about the kind of personality they might have which will dictate how they look. I definitely err on the side of confident, strong women in my art, rather than the brainless sexy type. Same with men, I'm bound to design guys I find visually appealing when given the choice, whereas guys will generally revert to the stereotypical brawn strength. I guess it's a case of both sexes projecting what they want to be or are attracted to.

Doing the concepts for Bizarre has really pushed me to think about how I concept for guys though, as they work I'm doing for them has involved a variety of male characters, from your typical gung ho confident type, to something much more refined, to the nervous everyday-looking guys. Interestingly in this particular modern genre, I feel there's much less of a divide between a male and female concepter, than there might be in the more exaggerated types of fantasy characters.

Finally, as someone who has worked both sides of the fence, how much of a change was it to go from a freelance illustrator/designer to an inhouse artist?

This one's a no brainer for me. I'm rubbish at planning my own time when I'm working solely freelance, and I have no business sense, so freelancing was hard, even though I really enjoyed having my own time, picking my own projects and being able to arrange my own schedule. It was a little bit of a shock to have to suddenly get up so early in a morning, but I'm super lucky in as much as I work for a company that's strictly 9-6, and we rarely if ever do overtime. I love the structure of having to work in an office, I love the social aspect of it, there is seriously nothing better than having other artistic people around you giving you feedback. And I get way more done in an office than I would have done at home. It's tough sometimes on the days where you just know you're not going to get anything done or anything you do do is going to be crap, but that's vastly outweighed by the sense of team accomplishment when things go right.

Image Credits:
Above: "Colours of the Wind" ©2006-2009 Sam Hogg
Below: "Underneath It All" ©2008-2009 Sam Hogg
Bottom: "The Prince's Dance" ©2006-2009 Sam Hogg
All images used here with the artist's permission

Featured Artist: Christine Griffin

Artist Profile
Name: Christine "Cris" Griffin
Job Title: Illustrator/Portraitist
Freelance? Yes
Client List: Fantasy Flight Games, Alderac Entertainment, Ellen Million Graphics Portrait Adoptions, WhiteWolf, Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Loose-Id Publications, Liquid Silver Press
Education: BFA Marshall University, MFA(painting) George Washington University.
Years Experience: 10+
Favorite Medium: Currently digital (but that could change at any moment)
Specialties: Portraits in the dark fantasy style, be it historically flavored or contemporary
Accepting Private Commissions? Yes

Contact Info
Website or Web Portfolio: http://griffingirl.epilogue.net and www.quickreaver.deviantart.com
Email: alizarin_griffin@yahoo.com
Twitter: quickreaver
Online Art Communities: Epilogue and DeviantArt (as listed above)
Prints: Available through EllenMillionGraphics.com

For the last few years I've been a fan, and then a friend, of Cristine Griffin. One of the hardest working women out there in the industry, Cris juggles (well!) the pressures of being a full time mother and a freelance artist. Her bold male and strong female characters, mixed with a dark fantasy style, are uniquely her own--and her client list just keeps growing. I asked Cris a few quick questions about her work, and her thoughts on being a female artist in the fantasy industry.

There are a ton of gorgeous guys in your gallery. What made you decide to focus so often on painting male characters?

The chainmail bikini. I marveled at the number of hot babes in fantasy, and was a bit befuddled by the lack of attractive men that tickled my particular fancy. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against strong, sexy women depicted in fantasy/scifi/goth art, but as we all know, it can easily degrade into sexually gratuitous and vapid imagery. There was…and still is…a conspicuously lopsided ratio of hot male-to-female figures in the genre. The male characters are typically fully clothed and tough as nails, whereas the females are barely dressed and frequently passive. Sure, the Tarzan/Conan muscle-bound hero has become iconic, but I prefer a man with the gleam of feral intelligence in his eyes. The thinker, not the brute. I quickly realized if I wanted to see that, I’d have to do it myself.

How do you feel being female helps or hinders you in the fantasy art industry?

A great many of my ‘fans’ didn’t realize, for the longest time, I WAS female! So I have to say being female hinders me only in that I’m also a wife and mother. My job as a freelancer is secondary to my husband’s profession, which brings home the bulk of the bacon. I’m the one that must cook, clean, play Florence Nightingale, etc. Now I’m not complaining, per se…I CHOSE this path…but this is the way it is in a great many occupations. I can’t attend the big conventions or out-of-state workshops, nor spend money upgrading my programs or equipment, because the family would crumble and with three kids, finances are always stretched thin. My career is simply not a priority for anyone but me. Such is life!

But I’ll tell you, to my observation, women really do get the same opportunities, and make the same pay grade (at least as far as freelancers are concerned) as men in the industry. Good work is good work, period, and most Art Directors understand that. The quandary arises within juried art situations, such as annual art books and exhibitions. The subject matter becomes woefully skewed, in large part because the jurists are mainly male. They select what they enjoy seeing and frankly, a heterosexual man isn’t quite so appreciative of a male depicted for titillation, as he is a female. And let’s face it…a lot of fantasy is geared toward titillation. That’s why, in part, it’s called ‘fantasy’.

If you could change one stereotype associated with women and the industry, which would it be, and why?

I thought long and hard on this, and honestly, I couldn’t come up with a stereotype that wasn’t backed up by anecdotal evidence. By the same token, it wasn’t easy to come up with stereotypes either! Some of the best ADs out there are women, and I really think the reason we don’t see more incredibly successful female illustrators in the field is the fact women must split themselves into umpteen different people on a daily basis, instead of having the luxury to focus exclusively on one ‘job’. Art takes FAR more time and effort than anyone realizes, from research to execution to all the many adjustments we must make to accommodate the clients’ wishes. It’s crazy.

So here’s what I CAN say: it seems to me that women tend to be less receptive to criticism about their art than men. We take critique of our work far more personally. This is especially telling in the niche affectionately known as ‘The Fairy Artist’, which is predominantly female. This sub-group indulges in art more frequently as a hobby, so they’re typically coming at it from a non-academic background. For them, the very act of creation is the joy, not necessarily accurate perspective or color theory or ‘The Golden Ratio”. They encourage self-expression and positive reinforcement, so being told “Your anatomy is way off; take life drawing courses.” is usually met with irritation and hurt feelings. I suppose if you’re female, and paint any sort of fae, you’ll get lumped in with this group, and that may be a less-than-ideal stereotype to wrangle.

Image Credits:
Above: "The Woad Blue Sky" ©2006-2009 Christine Griffin
Below Left: "Devil Inside" ©2008-2009 Christine Griffin, first published in "Kobold Quarterly" magazine, #6
Below Right: "A Patient Wolf" ©2007-2009 Christine Griffin
All images used here with the artist's permission