Space Paladin prints go up for sale next Sunday, 4/21. I’m going to keep orders open for a week, and print as many as people want, then close the edition. I’m partnering up with INPRNT, who I’ve worked with for a long time. Heavy-duty cotton paper, great ink quality.
18x24” for $50, 12x18” for $30, signed, numbered, plus a little doodle or something. I still have to calculate shipping. I’ll post some reminders throughout the week.
Maya made an awesome warrior Zelda design and the Wind Waker art style is my absolute fave so I had to combine them!! I love how Maya’s interpretation allows Zelda to remain a feminine princess while also being a hero/adventurer/warrior.
SCREAMS
Sometimes women warriors have lives outside of slaying beasts and decimating armies! Not often, though.
This is one of two pieces I have in the WOMEN WARRIORS ZINE that I have been putting together along with my two mighty collaborators Abby Boeh and Julia Scott! This FANTASTIC BEAST OF A ZINE will be debuting at MoCCA and include the artwork of over 25 truly excellent illustrators, so please check it out come April 6th & 7th in NYC!
Making a big zine like this has been a truly amazing experience. I’m blown away by the amount of interest in the project, but above all, I’m truly humbled by the variety and sheer talent of everyone who’s contributed.
Princess Zahara:
A fearless princess, destined to inherit rule of the Five Kingdoms.
A gifted warrior and a tech savvy teen, to her, formalities have always been in the way of getting things done. Still she has a bit more trouble relating to common people than she’d like to admit, but she hopes to soon be able to see her nation first hand instead of from behind the palace walls.
She’s equipped with an ancient familial magic staff and a multipurpose tool strapped to her wrist that has gotten her in and out of a lot of trouble.
Responsible and brave, she hopes to one day be a great queen, and command the same presence as her mother..
Today, I realized the need to make Spider Stories a reality is stronger, especially after this one Kickstarter story about a stereotypical comic started popping up. I’d rather see positive storytelling rather than more tales of people ignorant of a culture willing to mock it for profit.
Make the Spider Stories animated film a reality. The brothers Agbaje need your support in these last two weeks.
So psyched to be in the Lady Knights//Women Warriors zine, all the contributions look RAD. Thanks to Abby, Julia, and Roxie for putting it all together—they’ll be selling at MoCCA!
I’ve always had a thing for mysterious heroes, and my recent love affair with motorcycle ladies continues. (this one is a bosozoku bike!) When I was asked to be in the zine, I was already thinking about making a book of my own women warriors…I’m even more excited now, so we’ll see!
Since people often ask “Alright, well this is fantasy! Why can’t we have boob shapes in plate armor?!” I decided to make a post about it. My frustration has nothing to do with historical inaccuracy and I’m all for imagination and freedom— but I’d like to (very quickly) illustrate this for you:
I purposely over-emphasized the shape of the two spheres in the armor so you can really think about this.
Look at the shape of the blue cups and the green line, think about the form of that on some beautiful ornate plate armor. A female warrior is charging into battle. In the midst of this, she trips! Or is pushed over, or takes a blow to the chest! So long as the force is on the front of her torso it really doesn’t matter for the conclusion:
She feels a sharp pain in her chest and hears the cracking of bone! Oh no, what’s gone wrong? Well she doesn’t have time to think about that, because she is now dead.
Her sternum just fractured, take another look at that green line, that’s where all of the pressure from any front impact is going to go because of the shape of the two blue cups made for her breasts. The rest of the armor slides around your body, but because of the two cups for breasts that are often made in fantasy female armors, the pressure point is directly on the sternum. The breasts are not going to stop the force of you falling onto them, and because of that the metal is going to push in and bash you in the sternum.
What does a fractured sternum do? Why it goes right into your heart and lungs of course.
(that was the sound of all of my followers inhaling a sharp breath between closed teeth at once)
Here are three great solutions to the problem:
GREAT EXAMPLE OF FANTASY TORSO ARMOR THAT IS FEMININE BUT FUNCTIONAL:
It is usually possible to bind the breasts when fighting if they really are far too large to fit into regular looking armor (there’s padding anyway), but most women can actually fit into a similarly sized male counterpart’s armor quite easily. Even if that’s the case, the armor can be made to have a curve to it without putting all of the pressure in one area, which was actually a style of armor for quite some time as shown here:
And don’t even get me started on the dreaded “Cleavage Window”
The “Cleavage Window” defeats the purpose of having any armor on your torso because it means you’re just going to be leaving open the vital organs the rest of the armor is trying to protect.
If people are going to protect themselves and not have much torso protection, invest in some blocking lessons, because the best defense is to not get hit at all. There are also advantages to not having plate armor, and plate armor was often really expensive anyway.
— Edit —
supaslim replied to your post: “Why do you hate the shape of breasts in plate armor so much?”
I’d also like to add that boob bulges direct blows straight to the sternum as well, rather than making them glance to either side. Good post.
One of three fashion warrior ladies for my advance illustration class. I was a little bit nervous that I had lost touch with my illustration / drawing skills, but I think it turned out pretty good. Two more to go!
