Sprite Jam Jan26-Feb16 | Attractive Female Villains

[Misj']

Ha ha, we really have to find a better place for this, but until that time...there are of course a few things to keep in mind:

1. Attractiveness is in the eye of the beholder. I am attracted to other people than you will be, and people that are considered attractive can really put me off (quite a few actresses (and actors) that rank high on those lists by the way). In my case, I think the green Geisha is a more attractive women than Malefecent (by far).

2. I specifically didn't want the attractiveness to be a personality trade. The personality - to me - had to come from the villainous aspect, which is contrasted with the attractiveness (and dare I say: beauty). This is a contrast that I wanted to explore. There is a reason why villains tend to me more interesting than the angelic faced hero(ine)...they have more character, while the beauty is often presented - as you said - in a very bland way (lack of character). So I was actually looking for this friction between outside and inside, and how to convey that in a single design. It's a bit Dorian Grey-ish in that sense.

I'd love to enter a sprite jam (or actually character design jam) where you get a description of a character's personality and then you have to design from that, similar to last background workshop.

I did this once, and it was so unsuccessful that I decided never to do it again (as in: if I remember correctly absolutely no entries). Maybe I should revisit the concept.

This Jam actually originated from such an idea for an extended character-design-jam that has yet to see the light, where everyone would be designing three characters in a story using such a description (a male protagonist, a female antagonist, and a male side-character who's allegiance is unclear (antagonist and protagonist could be gender-swapped)). But I was afraid people would feel a (somewhat detailed) description would undermine their creativity, so I decided to keep the rules very loose this time, especially since the Jams are slowly starting up. I also wanted to have very few rules, because I tend to have too many, so besides colour (and somewhat size) I didn't add anything related to the character's exact appearance (for as I said: attractiveness is in de eye of the beholder, and can - as a result - not be enforced as an actual rule).

Now should I have said 'non-stereotypical female villain' in stead of 'attractive female villain'? - Maybe, but I specifically didn't want the witch- or demontype, because, well to be honest, I find that uninspiring and too easy, and non-stereotypical can also mean just about everything. So maybe there's a better way to describe my intentions...and I'm pretty sure it's somewhere in the five-thousand word essays I've shared with all of you in this Jam

Additionally as you were willing to address everyone else publicly I felt it strange you singled me out to PM.

Yeah, I also had some PM contact with cat and Scavanger (just because I wanted to stick to the Jam itself here), the latter of whom made some excellent points that - while I disagree with his interpretation - did show me why he did interpret things that way. To give an example: I said in the first post (paraphrasing) Women are every hero's weakness (because they are better than men), he interpret this as all hero's have a weakness for women thus enforcing a stereotypical (heterosexual) view on men an women. I never intended that, nor did I even think about interpreting it that way when I wrote it. But I can understand why someone would - with that in mind - interpret the rest of the post as conveying traditional (cliché) relationships, boxes, etc.

They are both sexy and attractive. Just because they are also sexy doesn't detract from their beauty which is what you seem to imply.

True, but just because they are sexy they are not by definition attractive (Izma from the emperor's new groove is presented in a low cut evening gown, big eyelashes, a very slim waistline, and several other 'sexy' attributes, but I really wouldn't call her attractive by design (the opposite is true)). I didn't want to imply that they are mutually exclusive, just that they are not synonyms. And I specifically didn't want to focus on the sexy-aspect. And in several of the examples you provided the focus (of the artist) was on sexy/sexual, and that didn't appeal to me (for this Jam).

I am just not (yet) willing to change the original post. Maybe I should (probably), and maybe I'm stubbornly clinging to my original words because I still believe that - while hugely oversimplified and open to (or maybe even inviting) the wrong interpretation - the idea and heart behind it was in the right place. Plus, at least you guys now understand what I intended

[Mandle]

I personally think Cat and Myinah are crazy not to enter this contest now: They are shoe-ins!!!

I mean, which of us guys would have the balls not to vote for their entries?! I know I sure wouldn't...

Spoiler

Disclaimer: Posted in jest to lighten the mood now that a bit more of an understanding has been reached it seems...

(And they are both good-lookin' sheilas as well )

[close]

[Jack]

[Scavenger]

Okay, so, I have no gauge on whether a woman is attractive or not, but my friend does. I asked her, what an attractive villain would be, and she drew this:



And using her design, I sprited this:
[imgzoom]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/50882197/art/drosera.gif[/imgzoom]
She's based off of the Sundew, so she's definitely an attractive plant-person.

[Stupot]

I must admit I am somewhat drawn to that lady. Can't deny dem curves.

[Myinah]

Scavenger that's really cool! I really love that design! I think she's attractive. I think like Misj said beauty is subjective so really there can't be any objections to this lovely creation.

Edit:

I decided even though I don't really have much time I could scribble something over lunch to be a good sport. I'm not really an artist and I don't have any real time to spend on a design but regardless I present "Mushi".

Spoiler

[close]

Mushi is a mushroom girl who uses her spores to turn her victims into mindless drones.



I think the Sprite is 154px as I would generally work with a largish background, but I don't really know. Sox is the artist of Dropped Monocle Games, I'm just a writer who dabbles. I whipped this up on my iPad this afternoon when I took a break from dialog writing.

I still think Selmiak's knife nipple bitch is the clear front runner of all the designs though. I simply cannot compete with the elegance on that concept :'(

[Misj']

It's time to find out who's the winner. Now personally with the SpriteJams I prefer the host to choose (as opposed to the BackgroundBlitz where I prefer voting). But I have the feeling most people like voting, so...

Select your top two contestants (in no particular order). People who entered multiple entries may be voted for multiple times. I will not vote myself unless there's a tie; and then only as a tie-breaker between those.

Here are the contestants:

Grok:




Selmiak


Mouth of War


Jim Reed


Jack Lucy


Scavenger


Myinah

[Mandle]

It's a toss-up for me between Jim Reed and Scavenger, so I'm actually tossing a coin:

Heads: Jim Reed
Tails: Scavenger

And the toss: HEADS!!!

Jim Reed gets my vote.

[Misj']

Select your top two contestants (in no particular order).

It's a toss-up for me between Jim Reed and Scavenger, so I'm actually tossing a coin:

But...since you have to give your top-two...you get the whole coin

[Mandle]

AH...oops...I failed at reading...

That's also a huge relief:

Jim Reed and Scavenger are my votes then!

[Danvzare]

I vote for Grok and Scavenger. Mostly Scavenger, but it's your top two... so.

[kconan]

1. Jim Reed
2. Scavenger

Lots of good entries this round to choose from, much more than the previous SJ which had e-tumbleweeds blowing through it...Should do an attractive male villains next SJ comp.

[Myinah]

Scavenger and Selmiak

[cat]

Myinah and Scavenger

[Jack]

Jim Reed and Myinah

[Funkpanzer]

Myinah and Scavenger.

[Cassiebsg]

Scavenger & Grok

[[delete}]

JimReed and selmiak

[Grok]

Jim Reed and Jack Lucy

[selmiak]

Jim Reed // Scavenger