In all fairness the poster creation was not something I was looking forward to completing, but with tasks like this I was able to set myself a target to complete and to ensure that I gathered the required information, take a step back to reflect and ensure I was on track.
I began to do some additional research into a few issues with female characters, not just in games, but books, videos, etc.
Below are three of the articles I came across when researching, though they may not all be recent posts, for example Latoya Petersons article (Link 1) was posted in 2011; whilst seven years old, it is still relevant.
Link 1 - Latoya Peterson an editor of racialicious.com discusses her opinion from a panel titled "East Meets West, Art Direction for a Worldwide Audience" that was endured. Covering their responses of
'Do designers put more thought into female lead characters, or are they illustrated in the same way as characters who are intended to be eye candy? How does that presentation impact their playability?'
without going into to much detail about the article; it wasn't until I read the comments that I laughed. In relation to looking to comics/games/movies/books etc for how to be beautiful and powerful one person commented that...
The truth is simple and my apologies to comics and games, but people, do not look to these mediums for these self-truths. Look to them to laugh. Look to them to cry. Look to them to get excited or scared. Don't use them to form who you are. You'll only be disappointed in who you are not. I love comics and they have their place but if you're using them to define yourself by comparison, you're screwing up.
Why does it have to be all about what I want to be 'when I grow up/in the future' etc. Sometimes it is just an escape from the pressures of life. However this article got me sidetracked and it was time to move on, though I had so many questions to look into at a later date, I needed to focus!
Link 2 - A post by Dan Jolley; a writer who was on the writing team for Techland's action-horror game Dying Light.
"I have always tried to include capable, independent, thoroughly-imagined female protagonists in my stories."
Talks about his initial role in the Techland world and how he worked with them to Americanise the game initially to make sure the story would work the American audiences as it made up half of their market. He talks about one character in particular 'Jade Aldemir, who whilst the character design was discussed as being ' a thing to behold' no heavy makeup, pink frills or ludicrously exposed skin, though was for a brief stint was a beauty pageant queen and ended with her being a renowned kickboxing champion nicknamed 'the Scorpion' was impressive. Ending that with a detailed backstory, that put her on the same footing as any male character.
Link 3 - George RR Martin had a brilliant response when asked how he writes women. Contains a video to an interview with George RR Martin that had the most inspiring answer, when asked where does that come from in regards to writing his women really well and different. He stated 'you know I've always considered women to be people'
This led me to wonder about my project of over sexualised female characters, and where it may not be the entire conclusion to my project, it was something I just took a step back from and thought, why does this have to be the focus, why can't the book just be a complete positive aspect of female characters. As such this would not change the project completely, but just ensure that the wording of my 'how to draw' guide was amended slightly.
Amongst the rest of the articles looked into that were posted as references in the finalised poster, I had gained a few finalised aspects to include and some that would need reworking as a result, overall the information and knowledge gained from this has been great.
