Opinions on nudity please. NSFW 18+ Topic and imagery

[ratique]

Ah, yes, that in mind it makes more sense. Thanks!

[Banditt]

I totally see what you mean @gateofselidor and I can't thank you enough for the positive vibes! That's the support this community is famous for
There is half a page drawn, no text; I can't help but feel it's premature for folks to be judging what fits or not. I believe I'm a victim of preconceived notions :/

I'm rolling out the rest of this page and a second soon. I might wait to post anything until I've got 3 or 4 done so that some semblance of story can be gleaned. Then fair judgement can be rendered. Again though, I'm totally flexible; if I need to alter it, I will.

Yes @KaiLynx!! you do totally get it!!
Ancient mixed with lost technology. Thank you for seeing the other side of the coin. You are also fair enough to recognize there isn't enough presented to make any sort of accurate judgement on what is appropriate to the setting or story. I haven't presented either, so by what basis is it being judged or compared? I don't understand

[Banditt]

My appreciation for this community is boundless. Thank you all.
@GlanceReviver gave me the PERFECT suggestion on bridging the gap and making the story flow properly and give credence to the character. So please everyone stand by, Ill make it right in the end.

Im also still struggling with my medical issues But I see why Im coming off as such a jerk and hipcrit I totally dont mean to and I apologize. Allow me to give a better explanation of my mindset regarding smut.....

Please dont think Im an ass becuase of my statements about smut. I dont want to get confused smut with erotic art. Its not the same. Where Im coming from, Ive been a professional illustrator since 1999. Im published by companies in 6 different countries. Ive struggled like every artist. I worked the comic book industry during its downfall in the late nineties and the gimmicks they used in the 2000s to save their billion dollar corporations at the expense of thousands of simple little comic book stores. I have seen the all mighty $$$ destroy everything. Ive seen artists struggle and I myself even went under when the economy tanked.

What I mean by smut is this.....

So an artist isnt getting the sales they want or need. Mostly because they are lacking proper skills. What is the first thing they do? They start throwing in a bullshit shower scene or their females get overly sexualized, whatever. Like, its a gimmick! Its not about ART and that makes me mad. Because I spent 16 years pushing myself to heighten my skill and have people appreciate my art for what it is, not get suckered by a low brow gimmick. So please do not see my topless illustration as a gimmick. It will make sense, just give it a chance and see the story. Again, nudity and expression in this form is NEW to me!!!!!! This is my first sojourn into such a venture. In my entire career, regarding nudes, I have made 1 private commission sketch, 1 professional sketch, 1 "covered" nude painting where you dont see any nipples or anything. No full-blown nudity.

But I have spent decades admiring artists who make it look easy. They are so secure in their talent. I want that too. Boris Vallejo is doing this huge painting right now a Medusa by the Sea for a collector. And its GORGEOUS and nude. Julie Bell is stunning in everything she does and her female form (and she always goes for fitness models like my fiancee) are perfect. Like.....perfect.

Im not perfect :/ But I want to get there. and I believe this project has merit! I believe it in my heart! I just need to separate the art from the gimmick. and that is why I cherish this community and the help everyone is providing.

There is my strong feeling toward smut. Same idea like a XMEN or Superman or whatever arent making high enough sales. So what do they do? Kill someone off!!! Its a bullshit gimmick! And they bring the character back 3 months later anyway Thats just like the smut card.

Erotic art is its own genre, Fantasy artists illustrate nudity in their genre. I recognize and do not demean those genres. and well, ..to be fair, Heavy Metal was all shock value and a lot of smut LOL HOWEVER some of the best artists go their start there and some GREAT ideas came from it! So meh, take it or leave it. It was pretty juvenile now and again. lol But really, some AMAZING art passed through those pages. that was legitimate

Ive seen such juvenile garbage, where there is no attempt at proper artistic skill It demeans all artists who try to create nudity in a serious appreciative light. And those of us trying to make nudity acceptable get preconceived notions slapped against us because of it Another reason for my strong feelings. and honestly Im SUPER laid back. I totally dont get strongly defense or emotional, except about this very thing. And I fear everyone now thinks Im an asshole

My fiancee loves my art, she is my biggest fan. its sort of what brought us together. And she inspires me like nothing IVe ever experienced. She makes me whole as a person and an artist She was a model before and did some nudes. So she isnt shy and isnt ashamed. She isnt like, pushing it out there. She hasnt done it in a few years and isnt looking to go back, but she is still proud of the hard work and accomplishment; as she should be. I think thats what spurred this project. I want her to still be proud of herself and hard work and give a new outlet for her to be appreciated.

I hope Im making sense. Im super sad I cannot string together the proper coherent thought to have everyone see what I want to accomplish. Like seriously depressed.

[SpavVy]

I think it's a nice drawing, you seem to work vary well with anatomy and her breasts look vary natural which is nice. My only complaint is that the gun isn't finished, haha. When it comes to nudity I think people just need to take a chill pill. There is a big difference between nude and lewd.

[bmacbride]

Didn't read 100% of the comments, but I'm gonna side mostly with @KaiLynx and say that if you're going for a design which combines the ancient and the futuristic, bare-chested is a completely valid way to go. Women and men walked around bare-chested in tons of ancient societies. However, I would also make sure the men in this society go around as uncovered as the women (unless maybe this is a society which flips the tradition of chaste/submissive women and brazen/athletic men, that might be pretty cool!)

I'd also like to add that while the anatomy here is good, and it's awesome that you're working from a live reference, in societies where women do not wear supportive garments or bind their breasts, breasts are not this perky. The women of the Himba tribe are a really good reference for completely unsupported breasts. Keep up the awesome work!

My personal opinion on nudity is: I like it. I like it in almost any context, as long as the artist strives for a naturalistic figure (hey Rob Liefeld, women DO have organs, you know!) which you totally seem to be doing, and you're doing a beautiful job. The human body is beautiful, and my favorite thing to draw is nudes. As an adult comic artist, I feel your pain lol. I've been advised before by the administrators to slap a NSFW filter on bare breasts and exposed genitalia. Even in a non-sexual context.

[GlanceReviver]

The concept of NSFW is funny to me, because the topic doesn't mean "porn" it means "Not Safe For Work." There's a lot of stuff I could get in trouble at work for looking at, or that at the least would be difficult for me to explain (haha) without it being sexual or even nude.

[Banditt]

Thank you @Savannah Dont worry, the gun will be finished also

Yes totally @bmacbride thats why I was saying about a barbarian society, like the whole Conan thing: where everyone is displaying physical vitality. I get the tribal reference thing, but the instance of this character has a purpose It will totally make sense in the end

lol @GlanceReviver even stuff I look at that has nothing to do with nudity makes people look at me like Im totally weird! So I totally understand that!

[bmacbride]

I do personally believe that the term "NSFW" should be reserved for things like graphic nudity, heavy gore, and other visually sensitive subject matter. Reason being, if every creator on Tapastic slaps a NSFW filter over anything ranging from a curse word to a graphic sex scene, the warning loses its potency, and eventually people will become desensitized to the warning, assume it's not that bad (cursing, a little blood, an alcohol reference, etc.), open it, and actually get in trouble for viewing much more sensitive content at work. NSFW means visually sensitive content that could endanger your job, not get you a few weird looks at work. In my opinion, if the worst a comic contains is cursing and some violence, that should just go in a small warning text in your comic description, not under a NSFW filter.

[GlanceReviver]

I would rather have specific tags and/or age restrictions in lieu of the use of NSFW all together, since it's only you who knows what's safe for your work environment. That ranges in different job environments and cultures.

[bmacbride]

True, or maybe something like what DA does, where you can list the content of the piece right on the filter.

[futureboundentertain]

Nudity is boring and overdone... its literally the only outfit that literally every human being on the planet owns.

It has no purpose.

[chipmalinowski]

Banditt, I think I'm the perfect person to answer because I'm a gay male nudist who appreciates Frazetta and Heavy Metal and used to study martial arts. Keep foremost in mind that you control the world in which this character lives, both it's current state and its past history; therefore, the outfit she is wearing now is vital to her survival and is "normal" for her society or at least for her. You just have to get across to the readers how she learned that this outfit is the most functional in her particular world.

The simplest explanation is that it is a stone-age civilization where women typically go topless and space-age hardware is literally falling out of the sky on rare occasions, (UFO's crash landing) and this character will grab a Kevlar shirt the instant she finds one, unless she finds a freakin' Dune force field belt first. But it lacks elegance to say that random luck chooses people's gear in this world.

This woman is clearly not concerned about snipers, gunslingers, nor archers, because chest armor is primary against those foes. So the weaponry typically used against her either easily pierces armor or bypasses armor by, perhaps, attacking the nervous system.

Also she doesn't have any social/political/religious reasons to cover up, nor is there cold weather. On the other hand, maybe her society is female dominant and males are taught to cover up lest they get molested by females. Turnabout is fair play.

If this woman gets into a lot of knife fights, she would want good thick gloves, comfortable shoes, and nothing else to slow her down. But in that case the helmet better be strapped on tight and keeping her own hair from blocking her vision. Although in our world men go bare-chested while doing intense athletics, I think women with her figure prefer a sports bra for support. The helmet and heavy weapon don't give the look of a knife-fight kind of athlete.

So I gather that she is more of a calculating distance fighter. The helmet may conduct gigawatts of cosmic rays to power the heavy rifle to generate intense X-rays and other nasty radiation to cook armies in her path, whether they wear armor or not. And a helmet with that technology might have an invisible force field to replace armor and might get sweltering hot when conducting that much raw power.

I'd love to toss around more ideas with you.
Chip

[Zanreo]

I would rather have specific tags and/or age restrictions in lieu of the use of NSFW all together, since it's only you who knows what's safe for your work environment. That ranges in different job environments and cultures.

Agree - "NSFW" in itself tells you nothing if it can refer to a lot of different things. A better idea would be flags/warnings for different categories (sex, nudity, language, violence, ect) possibly with different "levels", say "violence 1" meant a bit of blood and "violence 3" means gore.

[chipmalinowski]

Authors could adopt the TV/Movie content descriptors. The comic media isn't that different.
Here's one summary: http://www.thetvboss.org/know-the-ratings/
Here's one for multiple countries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_content_rating_systems#United_States
I'm sure we could add more details if we needed.

[chipmalinowski]

Here's another example of high-tech barbarian-chic and classy.
Heroes for Ghosts Chapter 2: http://tapastic.com/episode/122997

[Banditt]

Oh! sorry I have been away. I had the final of my invasive surgeries on my spine. I did get a couple things done on the comic in between everything, but not enough to post a good sequence of story.... yet.

@bmacbride, @GlanceReviver: yeah, totally.A rating system explaining what lies ahead is a good idea. I can totally do that each posting once I start putting it up.

@futureboundentertain haha right?

@chipmalinowski awesome yeah! I love creative collaboration You have good ideas and a new perspective! IVe got like 5 pages mapped out and in different stages of being done. You will see whats going on in my head more with those being posted later.

Im moving to a different state in a couple of weeks so I might not get to posting the first sequence for a good month or so.

[apocryphagraphics]

Thanks for the nod @chipmalinowski! I try very, VERY hard not to turn the female characters in my comic into sex objects and overtly sexualize them. That kind of thing is rampant in comics today. If the women are warriors I try to draw them so that they look both beautiful and truly strong and powerful without looking like they're starring in a scifi themed porno. The female character in the scene you linked lives an aboriginal existence in a tropical rainforest so she wears very little clothes, but in a true rarity in modern comics, the guy in the scene is actually wearing less than her! The characters from the advanced civilization wear a hi-tech body armor that bonds to their skin so I get to draw beautiful human bodies all day long and no one's running around naked until there's a good reason in the story for them to be! For me it's not about being puritanical about nudity, it's about not wanting to contribute to the idea that a woman's worth lies in her usefulness a sex object--even if she's a superhero!

[CWCHASE]

Very good perspective and erm... Body parts. Anyway now that I have my head straight again, I think it would actually be a hit. I would read something funny and would contain nudity and random sexcapades. A steampunk or outerspace sci-fi, or fantasy would be cool. Whatever your heart desires, just go with it, there's always an audience no matter how big or small to anything. Best of luck!

[Banditt]

Thank you very kindly. I will enjoy presenting the full project to you in time!

[doktormostro]

I believe that your idea and overall reasoning for the nudes doesn´t mean a problem, at least for me.

What others have already commented are ok, but in the end, we haven´t see the final comic and because of that i can´t give a final answer neither. All the concept of the nudes must be placed into context of your comic, taking care of story, design, reference, and meaning/purpose.

About NSFW, i think the same as GlanceReviver. And maybe i´m really new at Tapastic and didn´t read or found all the backstage info regarding content but i feel that we need something better than just a "NSFW" tag because is very generic.. I would go for something like an ESRB to tag specific content as: nude, strong language, violence, angry kitties, +teen, +adult, etc.