Survey

I made a survey to see how people viewed lgbt representation in the media, but only got 4 respondents so far, here is the survey

Queer Fashion

I have been looking at a book called A Queer History Of Fashion: From The Closet To The Catwalk edited By Valerie Steele, which looks at queer history and fashion from the 18th century onwards and how this influenced/ was caused by fashion. It also covers large events in queer History such as the gay lesbian march on DC and the response to the AIDS crisis. It also contains several essays looking in detail at parts of LGBT culture and opposition. This will help to look at queer history from a more arty perspective, as well as help character designs and costumes and what I could use to show different things.

Marvel and DC

These comics have varying panel sizes depending on the flow of the narrative and the significance of the scene being depicted. The boxes tend to fill the entire page and have a high level of detail and colour, which usually is palleted to fit the tone of the comics and add atmosphere. The text is usually in the same font except for a few characters where they come from a different dimension/world eg Vision.

 

Domics and theodd1sout

 

 

Domics and theodd1sout are web comics and YouTube channels. Their comics are usually short comics with a punch line or joke, and are made in square and rectangular panels one after the other. The style is simplistic compared to comics like DC and Marvel. They are still really great. 

 

HoMeStUcK :0)- (one you read it this makes more sense trust me)

Homestuck is a web-comic written by Andrew Hussie. The comic is layed out in a very different way to paper comics, as each screen is something different, and the next square in the layout. It has repeated animations on parts of the drawings and starts off with a very basic style and drawings, which changes throughout. The link to the next page says something different like entering a command in a text based videogame, though the reader can't actually do anything to change it or what happens.

The comic is read as if you are playing a videogame, which the characters themselves actually start off doing. It has a very complicated story, though it is very easy to get sucked in and you never really escape it after.

the comic is full of links to shops, flash games, animations and links to sub comics, which do but don't affect the story line.

the text isn't written on the screens like in other comics, but all appears underneath. Each character has a different typing style and text colour, which makes more sense the more you look into it and find out about the characters. The dialogue appears in chat forum form, and this doesn't change whether the characters are speaking in person or online. There is a lot of scrolling involved.

The art style improves and becomes more detailed and more in colour when the next group of major characters are introduced. The entire comic has a wide range of styles and details, with some being purposefully bad, especially when caliborn takes over the drawing for a bit- who is a character-.

I would recommend reading it a lot but it is also complete and utter trash but once you start its very hard to stop click here to start

Plan ( and cool videos)

I have been looking  at more animation videos and character developments that would suit my project. I need to look more at queer history and maybe pick out some areas that I want to focus on specifically and how I could incorporate aspects of these into my project. I am going to set out a timetable for what need to have researched by when, as well as a practical timetable for when I should be experimenting with different techniques and what parts of the project I should have completed by then. This should hopefully help with completing the project and not putting too much of a work load on me at the last minute

Character and Setting style

I am continuing working on character concepts and design and have begun to think about setting and how that would effect the styling of the characters. The trip to Venice would prove useful as I can gather different city imagery and compare it to other city layouts and decide how I want the world or main setting to be laid out. I will collect reference images for this and start thinking about how these can be used in order to aid in the creation of my concept.

Art stuff

I have continued to look at artists to inspire my character designs. I have found the Final Fantasy franchise useful as the characters have a very androgynous look to them and are really aesthetically pleasing (plus they are reeeeeeaaaaaally good games). I am going to analyze the artists who worked on the games and the artists who worked on studio ghibi and dragon age and make a reference board of images to help come up with stuff. I also got a new book on making sci-fi stuff which looks pretty cool. I'm gonna work more on character concepts and relationships between characters.

Plot

I have been coming up with a plot basis for my concept to help with character development and to start considering what style of artwork would be best suited to the work. I have been practicing different ideas using a character generator in order to try different concepts for possible characters. I'm going to come up with some  more precise character developments for the characters in the story and see whether the plot needs to be changed/altered for the characters.

Character Experimentation

I'm going to continue looking into characters and start to put together character profiles based off of certain characteristics and character tropes as a starting point. I have found some random character generators to practice putting characters together and how to stylize certain attributes which I'm going to start playing around with to find out what works and what doesn't.

I've boon looking at videos on YouTube in character design processes and how to come up with ideas and concepts.

Art Styles

I've been looking more into different art styles and I think that the best bet is gonna be a cross between Steven universe and Studio Ghibli with a little bit of DA as keeping the art work stylised would mean that it would be easier to continue and replicate throughout and keeping elements slightly more simple would mean that I can improve other parts more. I now need to work more on the story and characters and am going to start creating protagonist and antagonist characters and a world around them, as I haven't spent much time on that lately.

Initial Research 12

I've been looking at comics/animations to see which type of art style would best suit the type of work I'm planning to produce.

Dragon age comics fit most into the stylization of western comics such as the Marvel and DC universe. This is similar to the style used in the game as it carries a sense of realism. The cover art is more similar to the in game styling as there is a softer feel to it and there are no harsh outlines. This style fits better with action and adventure comics as it is most often associated with super heroes and such.

Although there are panels which show movement, most of the panels look quite posed in this style ,in my opinion, which can harm the flow of the story.  

 

Studio Ghibli uses an Eastern manga and anime style in their animations, which differs quite a lot from the western style. It is a lot softer, and adds more of a fantasy feel to the work as it isn't so realistic. It can be quite simple, but is also extremely detailed in manga, some of the detail is lost in the animated versions as it needs to be animated, but there is still a very high level of detail, particularly in the backgrounds of Studio Ghibli Films, which differs from the western style( and they're all so well written and the art style is so beautiful omg)

Another Art style I reeeeeeeally like is Steven Universe as it fits the story line perfectly and is so cute and pretty and ahh

 

 

 

Initial Research 11

Kids cartoons lately have been pretty good for LGBT inclusivity, especially cartoons such as Steven Universe- which has a whole host of main characters that are, or can be seen as LGBT. One of the shows main relationships is Ruby and Sapphire, who fuse to make Garnet. Peal is also shown to have very deep feelings for Rose Quartz. Stevonnie is shown as being attractive to both genders and there are quite a few characters that Rebecca Sugar has said don't identify with either gender and present in a certain way. Clarence is another good one, as it has a Lesbian couple raising one of the main characters. These positive examples of the LGBT+ community help battle the stigmas the world creates about the community and the people involved. This has caused some backlash, with a petition being started to stop the showing of Ruby and Sapphires relationship as they don't deem it appropriate for a young audience. Gravity Falls has had its sponsors censor LGBT elements out, such as the transgender symbol and a lesbian couple, changing it for just the symbol for male and female and turning it into a heterosexual couple. Adventure Time has a suggestive relationship between Marceline and Princess Bubblegum, and there are at least 2 bisexual main characters in Avatar: Legend of Korra.


Adult Cartoons have a far more negative reflection on the community. Both Family Guy and South Park include LGBT characters- particularly transgender characters as jokes and comic devices, and the majority of the jokes made against them are incredibly offensive and hurtful, playing off the negative stereotypes that a lot of adult viewers have experienced and seen before. This is also seen to some extent in the Simpsons, who show a lot of gay characters as conforming to the feminine stereotype. These misrepresentations prove damaging to the LGBT+ community, as it furthers the views that it's all a joke and something to be laughed at and hurt people. This contributes to violence and hate crimes as it plays to the demographics views of reinforcing negative stereotypes which in turn leads people to believe their actions against LGBT+ people are fully justified.


I need to look more into ways of presenting characters and coming up with my own designs and how I'm going to stylise it.





Ruby and Sapphire in Steven Universe

The top image shows the initial design for cupid's necklace, in the episode, this was edited to only show the symbols for binary male and female, rather than including the trans symbol as well as the others.

Inital Research 10

I've been looking into media portrayals and stereotypes of  LGBTQ+ issues and people and the negative/ positive effects this can have on the viewers. I've also been looking into hate crime types and statistics and how media and news outlets portray these. From this I'm going to look into how having actors play characters that are LGBT when they're not can be damaging and how this can aid in the perpetuating of negative stereotypes towards LGBT. I'm also going to start generating character and world design ideas and images so that there is more to work with in terms of an outcome.
Link to the Stonewall website  Article on LGBT portrayal in the media

Initial Research 9

I have decided that the best theme would probably be more dystopian, or a seeming utopia that actually isn't, depending on who you are. This would provide more basis for a conflict of ideas and people. I have also looked into how to approach characters whose whole story doesn't revolve around their sexuality or gender orientation, as a lot of media bases that as the entire story of the character.although it is definitely a big part of the individuals character development, it doesn't have to be the only aspect of the character that's portrayed. For example, Dorian's (DAI) side quests show that his family disapprove of the fact that he's gay, and were planning to use blood magic in order to make him more "acceptable" so he left. This story line provides an added layer of depth to his character and let's the player discover more about the character and the views of his family and those around him, adding more depth in turn to the world and further immersing the player. This also occurs in Krem's story where it is discovered that he is a trans man. Another game which tackles these issues well is persona 4. These characters are first introduced through different parts of their character-mainly how they fight and whose side they're on, and more is discovered as the characters get closer to them.

Initial research 8

I haven't done as much as I would have liked to have done for various reasons, but have been looking into various things. I feel like if I am going to continue down the game pathway, an episodic format would be easier ( example Life Is Strange which is REALLY good btw) as then i could break aspects of the game into smaller chunks and make it easier to focus on different parts. Ive started a sketchbook to record ideas for characters and concepts but haven't gotten that far with it yet as i need to narrow certain aspects of it more. 
Ive been looking through Let's Play's a lot on youtube, and a game that really interests me is Broken Age, which is a point and click adventure game developed by Double Fine. It has a really nice art style and the story is great at twisting and turning just when u feel like u know whats going on. It has 2 main playable characters who seem to be completely separate until their stories merge in unexpected ways. It is mainly a puzzle game, with one fight scene that ive seen so far and the soundtrack and the art style complement each other perfectly. It gives the feeling of being really simple whilst being incredibly complex in parts which is great. 
Ive continued looking into reserch and articles to do with LGBT representations and stereotypes, but I haven't found many so far, so i'm going to research into articles that LGBT charities talk about on social media an go from there. 

Another approach that Ive thought of for this project is creating a "fleet",where one universe is used for games, movies, comics, books ect. Prime examples of this are Assasin's creed, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect. Dragon Age, personally, does this best, as the assassin's creed books are basically just narrations of the in game cut screens and main actions that are set in the game. Also this could act as a back up if soem stuff goes a bit wrong in the programming department.

DORIAN!!!!!!

ship them so frikin hard

this game is so aesthetically pleasing

lil bbies

Initial Research 7

I've been looking into concept art and digital art techniques used in game and film making, and how the designs go from ideas to final character profile. I've also been reading up on myths, legends and lots of stories in general to inspire ideas on what the narrative could be and character and story development. i've also continued looking into lgbt issues, characters and stereotypes.

character designs from mass effect 3 art book

Initial Research 6

i've been looking into more aspects of video games and have started to look in more detail into LGBT characters in gaming and the response to them.
Bioware appears to have the best representation of LGBT characters so far, with multiple romance options and inclusion of transgender characters. Certain characters can only engage in certain types of romances, such as Dorian can only have a successful romance with a male inquisitor, whereas other characters such as Iron bull and Josephine can be romanced no mater the gender of the inquisitor. There are also characters that can't be romanced with as they have other aspect to their characters story that are more pressing to the story and their development.

I have been watching Extra Credits on youtube, a channel mainly dedicated to gaming and games development- i need to take notes on some videos.
I have been playing through undertale as it has fun and good game play, and resembles an jrpg with it's graphics and menu fight mechanics. The art style is very retro, and seems easier to replicate than going straight into trying 3d graphics and animations, which i am still working on.

i have started to look into articles on JSTOR about LGBT representations and will go through them thoroughly at a later time. 

I intend to do more work on unity and blender, as well as trying to learn how to use game maker, as it has a simpler coding base and seems like a good starting point.

this guy is so fun

sans being sans-y

hes so cool

adorable goat mom

where the feels struck... again