Thoughts on Character Design: Huge-Ass Tits

Browsing through the site in my boredom, I notice what surely is a well-known trend: scantily-clad female character designs. It bothers me, yes, but I don't think it irks me for the run-of-the-mill stock reasons you always hear. As I'm thinking this through and typing this out (though not necessarily in that order, mind you), I realize I may be coming off as being a hollow cynic, but as you read this - whoever you are - I hope you can give me the benefit of the doubt for just a few paragraphs.

Firstly, I'm not a raging Tumblr feminist - let me get that out of the way to quell that fury you felt swelling up, or the barbaric "YOU GO GIRL!" you were about to yawp. I'm fairly egalitarian if you must put some kind of label on me. If anyone - man or woman - wants to objectify or become objectified, then by all means, let people jerk off to the sight of you. Other than said jerkers, no one really has any business caring, in my opinion, but this is all beside the point.

I'm not a homosexual either - though I'd have a pretty good laugh at the sight of a half-nude Elf MAN with half of his scrotum hanging out in some outrageous act of almost karmic re-balance, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't get any sexual amusement from it.

Although admittedly I am somewhat opposed to conventional fantasy as a genre, that's a topic for another post, and even though said genre tends to be the largest culprit here, it's neither the sole perpetrator nor the reason behind my frustration with this trend.

I'm also not going to play the realism card. Though it is a pretty valid argument that a woman prancing about a medieval-styled battlefield with little more than her nipples covered would be poorly defended against attacks, not to mention the danger of sexual assault - I won't dwell on either of these points because I do strongly believe in the power of escapism as it applies to fictional art.

Having mulled on my reasoning while penning all the above out, I suppose I've reached a conclusion. The idea of half-naked female character designs with spine-bending breasts, organ-displacingly narrow waistlines, perpetually flowing hair, and absolutely flawless alabaster skin upsets me because it cheapens the idea of beauty itself. I realize that the conveying the entire essence of a character though one still pose, one outfit, and one backdrop can be a very in-depth process with plenty of pitfalls, but this seems to have been boiled down to such simplified process. But the way I see it, human aesthetics offer so much more complexity, more depth. Would you say that literally every girl you've ever eyed up and thought to yourself, "I WOULD SO HIT THAT" had watermelon-sized breasts and a waist small enough to loop your wristwatch around? There are so many other ways to represent beauty and character - ferocious beauty, mystical beauty, dark beauty - than just huge tits and ⅔ of an ass peeking out.

I challenge you to tap into the human element in your character designs. Embrace and use our little so-called imperfections to your advantage. Even if the design isn't human, or of this world in any sense, it's still a driving force to a large number of character designs. You've obviously got some creativity as a concept artist, now go use it to it's full potential god dammit.