Here is my delayed Gencon update. Â As usual Steve lets the minions pick up 10 tokens free. Â I got some more foils signed and got a Skeletor Liliana alter.Â
I also picked up some foils from Minion Prime.
Today's Document
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Jules of Nature
2025 on Tumblr: Trends That Defined the Year
occasionally subtle
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Cosimo Galluzzi
Keni
Three Goblin Art

pixel skylines
Not today Justin
I'd rather be in outer space 🛸

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he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
sheepfilms
will byers stan first human second

if i look back, i am lost
styofa doing anything

#extradirty

Love Begins

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@jimrules27
Here is my delayed Gencon update. Â As usual Steve lets the minions pick up 10 tokens free. Â I got some more foils signed and got a Skeletor Liliana alter.Â
I also picked up some foils from Minion Prime.
Here is my GenCon Report.  A collection of items I picked up and my LineShambler Card filled out.  Not sure if I will be able to level it up though.  I think this may be my Throw in for King Minion of Ugin’s fate Bribers Purse.Â
So I haven’t updated in a while because I’m a slacker. Here are the cards I mostly got signed at gencon included the PTQ lily & Pack Foil lily & my recent alter. The others are mostly just foil cards which is what I focus on these days. I also have 14 signed & 4 unsigned altered art Briber’s purses and 1 regular foil.
Deadpool Boba Fett! I had no idea this was a thing. But I like it.
This is mine :)
Found a Steve and Kat in the wild. Yes they do exist outside of their booth.
Some shots from Steve argyle's gen con booth
Picked up a DRS alter and a few minor foils recently. Â Also included was my First Liliana Foil. Â Working on collecting all of Steve's Cards in FOIL!
Managed to snag these alt art bribers purses at prerelease. Â Also got a foil Lotus path Djinn
Picked this up from a dealer recently.
I haven't posted about my collection in a while. High lights are 12 Deathrite's 4 of which are foil and 1 regular altered. 7 Lily's and 2 alters. Still need to get a foil Lily as I'm primarily focus on foils at this point. - Minion 5 - Ascended 8
Another alter I had done at Gen Con 2013. Yes Rainbow Brite. Â As always great work from Mr Argyle
This is an alter I had done at Gen Con 2013. Â As always great work from Mr Argyle
Updates of my organized Minion mailings and Gencon swag. Â Picked up my minion playmat finally. Â I was super happy with how my alters turned out. Â Thanks to Steve & Kat they are awesome.
Side note I don't have my official minion card yet, forgot to try and get one at gencon.
In defense of boob-cup armor and chain-mail bikinis. Â (Just kidding.)
So…  This is a topic that comes up a lot in fantasy art.  With rare exception, we nerdgeeks of the world want much the same thing.  Caffiene.  Wait, no!  Immersive, intriguing stories, with characters we can relate to and grow with, and if there are some epic visuals to boot, all the better.
Though most of us don’t want to seem shallow, we also respond to visually idealized characters.  We like our Superman rippling with muscles.  Even though if we think about it, he’s so immensely strong from a Kryptonian body under a yellow sun, that there’s not much that will stress his body enough to stimulate that kind of muscle growth.  Realistically, he should look weak.  Nobody is really opposed to a shredded, bodybuilding contest ready Superman or Conan.  And why should we be?  They’re our myths and legends.  They’re supposed to be larger than life.  Larger than us.  They’re supposed to lead the way through challenges we fear we may not be capable of overcoming.
So what about heroines?  We’re so much more sensitive about what our heroines look like.  Why? Â
First, we’ll just get it out of the way.  Yeah, sometimes it’s juvenile pandering.  But those are pretty obvious.  For the purposes of what I’m going to talk about, we’ll dismiss the “not even trying" Juggella Blooddeather types.
When you’re creating the visual of a character, there’s a lot to consider.  You’re trying to tell a story with no words, no movement, no before and after.  Just a still moment in the life of the character.  And you want your audience to connect.  To know something about them, and to want to know more. If you’ve done things right, upon seeing your work, you’ll hear one or more of “Who are they?  What’s going on here?  What just happened?  What’s going to happen next?"
And it’s not easy. Â
So how do you do it? Â And how am I going to eventually get back to chainmail bikinis?
First, let’s get the idea of exposure = bad out of the way.  There are a lot of folks who misunderstand context, and boil things down to objective rules.  Stuff like if there’s X amount of skin showing, then it’s sexist and/or obscene.  End of story.  Well, that’s nonsense.  It’s all about context and story.  There’s nothing inherently wrong with skin, the human form, or nudity.
But it’s easy to understand where the notion comes from.  Often times, showing a little skin is pure marketing.  Sex sells.  Take some clothes off, pose all contorty-like, and that’ll get more young fellas interested.
It’s also easy to understand the reasons for covering up a character.  It’s safer, you’ll widen your audience, and usually fits better with the story.  Unless of course the story is about a peddler selling magical medieval lingerie.Â
But what legitimate reasons could there possibly be to show skin, if not for shock and sex-appeal?  Broken record here: story.  The frozen moment in time that an artist has.  Telling that story with a mix of realism and symbol.  Why do we all depict Superman with gigantic, carved out of wood arms?  Not because it makes sense.  Because it’s a symbol of his strength.  His sacrifice and discipline.  Symbolism doesn’t have to be crazy weird stuff that only makes sense to people with doctorates in art history.  It’s everywhere.  For good and bad.  That’s more of the reason most of us oppose the chainmail bikini.  Even before we go “hey, that doesn’t make sense, from a tactical combat perspective!" we react to it’s symbolism.  Which is saying “I’m not here to be part of an introspective journey into the human condition, I’m here to look hot and get men to notice me."  That’s really what bothers many of us.  That the character is reduced.  Shallowed.
So then, chainmail bikinis: never ever, right?  Well…  Let me bring up a mildly controversial one.  Princess Leia’s slave costume.  Opinions are divided.  But why do so many girls want to cosplay as Leia?  Why do we remember that costume over so many others she had?  Are we all sexist pigthings?  Do the girls just want an excuse to strut around Comic Con half naked?  Do the boys just want yet another skimpy pinup girl?  HELL NO.  Not even close. Once again, it’s all about story.  Character.  Let’s look at what that costume means to Leia’s character.
Throughout the trilogy, Leia kicks ass.  She takes approximately zero crap from anyone.  She stands up for what she believes, even in the face of death and stinky old creeper generals.  She fights for and defends her friends.  That’s why we love her.  So why do we want to “debase" that amazing character by showing her enslaved and powerless?  Because what comes next is what it really means to us.  The scene in Jabba’s palace was Leia’s defining moment.  She was literally stripped of everything.  She had no militia to command, she had no weapons, her political power meant nothing.  She didn’t even have her friends.  She was there, the darkest, most desperate moment of her life.  The most frightening, the most at risk.  The tiniest chance to turn it around.  Her actions would decide the fate of her friends, herself, and ultimately, a galaxy.  And she OWNED IT.  She took the symbol of her captivity and “defeat" - the chains - and changed everything with them.  With nothing but her own will, her own hands, her own courage.  That is her moment.  That is when she faces it all, and proves herself.  The bikini in this case is a contrast, and a catalyst.  She’s supposed to have been humiliated, rendered powerless, with some silly outfit.  Instead we’re shown that she needs nothing but herself to carve her name in destiny.  Jabba mistook her for weak, claimed her as a spoil, and dressed her as a trophy.  Whether you consciously realize it or not, that costume represents Leia seizing her place in history, being tested and acing the crap out of it.
Seriously.  Re-imagine the scene in your head.  Have her dressed as the bounty hunter, just shackled and standing against the wall or something.  Doesn’t work as well, does it?  Something’s missing.  She’s still protected.  She’s still seen as a threat.  That would make her defining moment, well, undefined.  It’d be the same as when she fights storm-troopers or races a speeder bike.  Still cool, just not “TREMBLE, FOR THIS IS THE TRUTH OF LEIA."
In pure illustration, we can’t rely on the audience already knowing the story.  Usually the whole idea is to get you interested in it in the first place.  So sometimes, it’s more direct symbolism.  Look at Brom’s work.  Tons of skin.  You never feel like it’s somehow pandering to a lowest common denominator.  Mostly you feel awe.  His characters are dressed in a sort of tribal, ritualistic way, that makes you think that “whatever is going on here, it’s powerful.  And every stitch of outfit, every stroke of body-paint, means something."  It activates something instinctual and primitive in you.
But, though he does it infinitely better than I do, I can’t really talk about his process, because I’m not him. Â
There are two of my pieces that get more… scrutiny than others.  Liliana of the Veil, and the Obsidian Champion.  The second is easier to talk about, so we’ll start with that.  She’s what most people would say is my most blatent “backwardsly armored" female.  http://steveargyle.com/gallery/artwork/?artwork_id=100Â
Whether I succeeded or not is subject of much internet debate, but here was the idea:  Her character is an absolutely loyal, incredibly deadly bodyguard to the demi-god-trapped-in-a-body ruler of the Shadowlands.  She’s actually not so much about using that sword, as she is about intimidation, misdirection, sorcery, and manipulation of fear.  So while the more accurate costume would be more like the second painting I did of her (once folks knew the character,http://steveargyle.com/gallery/artwork/?artwork_id=360) for the first image, I opted to use more emotional symbolism.  Black and red, glossy armor. Borrowed from black widow spiders.   Pale skin with deep red patterns.  A soft target with a warning, like poisonous animals, or those that lure prey.  Her eyes are completely covered.  You can’t read her.  And somehow, she still sees you.  She’s obviously just taken a victim, licking their blood from her fingers.  Which adds a little bit of creepy glee to her duty.  She is good at what she does, and she enjoys it.  The background shows a radial window, another nod to a spider.  So the whole idea was to craft her around predators that signal.  So even if you might say “hey, that wouldn’t protect you in a fight!" the first thing you get is an uneasy feeling.  A little twinge of “she’s scary…"  Because that’s what she’s about.  Her job is to scare, and keep attention away from the fella she guards.
I don’t think she’d look as scary in full armor.  She’d certainly look more militarily capable.  More protected, more professional, more serious.  But not as predatory.  Not as dangerous.  That exposed, literal soft underbelly, says “there’s more to this."  It makes you stop for a second, because it doesn’t make sense.  It says “something is wrong."
Not everyone sees it like that. Â Even the folks at AEG eventually killed her off by just unceremoniously having her stabbed in the gullet, with a quip about her incomplete armor.
But hey, that’s the path, right?  Keep trying, keep learning.  One of these days, I’ll get it.  :)
So, this post is getting rediculously long.  If anyone has bothered to read this far, and isn’t annoyed they did, we can chat more.  I didn’t really cover even a fraction of the topic.  Like some legitimate reasons for boob-cups.  (Though there aren’t a ton…)
Anyhow, talk to you next time!
Steve
Hey, Steve,
I disagree with you pretty strongly. If it matters, I’m a woman. Here’s why I disagree:
First is a big point that I can express pretty simply: You’re right. Art uses symbols. Muscles = strength. Etc. So many female characters have sex or sexuality among their symbols. So few male characters do. We will discuss Namor and then run out of male examples outside of fandoms. One, or both, of these things is a problem. Something needs to change.Â
Moving on, your Leia example is awesome, but it rings pretty false to me. First of all: speak for yourself. The slave costume means some pretty specific things to you—and those things really are admirable. But that’s not what it means to everyone. Some people just see a hot girl in a sexy outfit. Some people see the moment that awesome, hot badass Leia got mostly nekkid. Some people are gonna get off on that moment where she’s stripped and degraded. Some people *are* gonna think it would be cooler if she’d been more clothed. As with everything, there are gonna be lots of possible interpretations. Unfortunately, sex is one of those symbols that can most easily go awry. Not gonna lie, Steve, I don’t that that the guy I play Commander with who uses Slave-Leia-staring-wistfully-into-the-distance sleeves is thinking about her subsequent revenge and uprising. Not to mention the guy who uses your Chandra-and-Liliana-Lezzing-it-Up playmat.Â
Second, you talked about creating images that are narrative snapshots. Unless she’s carrying a little Jabba wrapped in a chain, a slave Leia cosplayer isn’t doing that. She might be for some people (like you!), but for others, she might be repeating that sexual degradation and humiliation. She might just be a badass, rendered sexual. The costume alone does not a story make, because, again, we can’t really control what that costume symbolizes for a given viewer.Â
I can respect what you were trying to do with the Obsidian Champion. That’s a cool idea and I dig it. I don’t think it works for several reasons:
1) A soft target is still a target.
2) It blends “she’s scary" with “she’s sexy"—-you made sexiness one of her symbols. That’s fine, but we see it way, way too often in our female fantasy characters.
3) We’ve see it before. The Obsidian Champion is a little subversive in that she *is* creepy, but I’ve seen women in reverse armor so many times that my first thought isn’t “Oh! Spooky!" it’s “Oh, another of these?"
4) She’s a scary thing… with her tits (sans nipples!) hanging out. That works for Geiger because the fear he evokes is a sexual fear—a fear *of* sex. It doesn’t work here. As before, it makes her scary *and* sexy.
Apart from that, I’m still sad about this design. You decided not to make her look militarily competent. You had good reasons. I get that. I see so few militarily competent women in fantasy art. Women aren’t for raw competence in fantasy, are they? Even if they’re good at what they do, they’re always also for something else, too. That makes me sad. I’m tired of it.
Also, you know what I have seen enough of? Creepy, sadistic glee in female characters. Can we have some that are loyal, hardboiled, and ready to fight? Can we have some that are ambitious, ruthless, and ready to make every sacrifice? Can we avoid the spooky sometimes semi-sexual thrill of female characters like Vess and Obsidian Champion *and* the purity of the female paladin? I want scarred, battleworn, smart female generals, commanders, soldiers. I want prepared, brutal, smart female wizards, necromancers, mages. They don’t need to be sexy—or sexless. I want people who happen to be women, not women who happen to be fantastical.Â
Steve Argyle, in fantasy art, where the human women at?
If there are points you want to talk about more, if you object or think I’m in error, if you’re looking for elaboration or clarification, you can reach me through reblogs, or asks. I will make time to talk about this issue with someone who has the power to change things because, holy crap, I care. I care a lot.
-Olivia
Hi Olivia!
Good points.  It’s true that everyone will read symbolism differently, and respond differently.  I brought up Leia because she’s so divisive.  People feel strongly one way or another about that costume.  Because they feel strongly about her character.  Comic Con is next week, and there will be tons of Leia’s.  But even more folks criticizing them for their choice of how to participate and engage in something they love.  (Which makes me sad.  Comic Con should be the one place you can let your geek out 100%.)  And if you’d prefer to be a Storm Trooper, that shouldn’t be seen as any more or less valid.
Obsidian Champion I brought up also because it’s one of my more heavily criticized pieces.  And I’m the first to agree that it’s not my best.  Because it’s not perfect, we can discuss what worked and what didn’t.  I’ve always been a believer in learning from mistakes.  Like what you mentioned.  If I were to do it again, I wouldn’t have her breasts half-out like that.  I’d probably make her thinner and sinewy.  But I also think there are parts that did work.
Changing the industry can take some time.  But it’s already happening.  App-game companies are trying to make a splash with pin-up kitch, and not lasting long.  Bigger folks who have been around are responding by trying to put a little distance between their imagery.  One client I work for (at the time was one of those app startups) rejected my first batch of sketches for four pieces, asking for “lots more skin, sexier poses, come-hither looks."  I wrote them back with a long, tedious essay on why I disagreed, how I felt it could impact their brand in the long run, my art-character philosophy, and that we probably weren’t a good fit.  (BTW: disagreeing with an art director is something I typically strongly suggest people DON’T do.)  They actually came back with “can we use this in our style-guide?"  A couple years later, they’re still around when a lot of their competition has been a flash in the pan.
Not to mention folks like you help change things.  We do listen.  Artists, art directors, game designers, and producers listen.  We don’t do this stuff because it makes us rich.  We do it because we love stories, characters, worlds, magic.  And like anything worth loving, it’s sharing it that raises it up from something to pass the time to something wonderful.  I create art to be part of, and contribute in some small way, to a peer group of amazing people.  And they’ve always, always given more back.
Minion # 4 was robbed in Las Vegas. I am posting the message I received about it here as well as the pictures included. Spread the word will you? - Justin
Dear Magic the Gathering community,
 This past weekend my friend, my dad and I attended GP las Vegas over the weekend to celebrate me turning 21 on the 25th and to participate in the largest organized card tournament in history.
 I had an amazing weekend and was ready to go home, packing everything into the trunk of our rental car and stopping one last time for lunch before heading to the airport and home. Unfortunately when we got back the unthinkable happened. Someone had broken the lock and stolen all our luggage. Along with my friend’s favorite shirts, our 3Ds, my computer and a camera will all my pictures from the GP and the weekend, both a decent amount of our 5 year collection of cards was taken.
 The items taken were:
 1 Foiled out Yeva EDH
 1 Foiled out Omnath locus of mana EDH
 1 Animar EDH
 1 Sliver overlord EDH deck
 1 Damia Sage of stone relentless rats EDH
 2 Foiled out 300 card type 4 stacks
 1 Legacy Jund deck
 2 Trade binders
 3 playmats, assorted dice etc.
 While these decks did hold a lot of monetary value from cool things we picked up years ago like foil Karn liberated, foil Eldrazi, Foil rofellos, foil swords from mirrodin sets, foil staves of domination, cradles, 4 goyfs, 3 thoughtsiezes, wastelands, bobs, non blue dual etc. I could write a list of all the stuff which was taken but that won’t make me feel any better or you think were less of idiots for leaving our stuff unattended even for 30mins. At the end of the day all in theory replaceable. How ever there were a few things that were stolen that to me are almost irreplaceable:
 -The GP las Vegas playmat my dad had to scalp off someone in the room for my birthday after we got crushed after waiting 4 and a half hours in line not to receive. Which he then stood in line at chris Rahn to get signed for me.
 -My best friend’s playmat that he entrusted to us to get signed by as many pros due to his inability to attend the GP himself
 -Many cards with sentimental value such as the Foil gideon I won the m12 prerelease with, the foil sakashima my friend bought me for christmas, cards we got from packs with amazing stories behind them, the 2 foil promo cards we got for standing in line for 4 hours, the sword of light and shadow i got from the mini masters event, all the trades my friend spent the weekend obtaining and all the cards we got signed by the various artists
 -My altered art Yeva General for my EDH deck and amazing Altered art Elesh Norn altered to Elesh V(see LSV’s twitter, he also has the last picture of this from when i got him to sign it)
 -and almost most importantly, my relentless rats EDH deck that i got every pro and magic personel I could find at the GP such as LSV, Ben starck, Owen, Efro, Wrapter, Melissa deTora, Jackie lee, Reid duke, Wellie Edel, Rashad miller, BDM, Shuhei Nakamura and many more.
 In time ill be able to rebuild maybe 1 of the edh decks and my type 4 stack. but this time in non foil to save a huge amount of money, but its those cards with massive sentimental value that I can never replace.
 What crushes me the most even is that the criminal who stole our luggage most likely does not even know what magic cards are. He most likely wanted our electronics and maybe our passports. It pains me to think that our cards will not end up in a good loving home and will either turn up in a pawn shop somewhere in vegas or worse a dumpster. They broke the cylinder lock instead of smashing a window so it took us a while to figure out how they broke in and it killed me so much to see my dad worrying about if he had left the car unlocked, he doesn’t know much about the game but he knows enough to know how much my friend and I cherrish our collection and it pained me to see him be so sad the gift he got his son which I appreciated so much just gone. I try to tell myself, i should have left these decks at home, but no that’s not true. I wanted to have an amazing weekend with the best community in the world playing with the cards I love.
 I’m not here to ask anyone for donations to rebuild my collection. It may take time but we will rebuild. As now university students who have to pay for tuition and the exponential increase in price of the cards over the past 5 years, it will be impossible to re-"pimp" the decks i lost, but we most likely will be rebuilding some non-foil versions. We did it once, we can do it again. I refuse to let this scum bag be the end of the game we all love. I am here how ever to ask the mtg community to contact me with any information or help at all if anyone tries to sell you our collection especially if you’re in the Las Vegas area. You can contact me at [email protected] with any comments or questions. If there’s any sliver of a chance that we get to see our collections again I’ll be willing to give what little remains of my magic funds as well as an arm and a leg to get them back. And if you could, also share this message with anyone you can.
 They may have stolen our cards, but they can’t steal my amazing memories. Despite this shitty end to the vacation, I had an amazing time at the GP and in Vegas. While we pestered the pros between their rounds to sign our stuff, we realised they were all super friendly and we were glad they could take time out of their busy day to talk to us. Ill always remember crushing my opponent’s with Keiga and rude awakening lands and just short of enough matches to make it to day 2. Ill always remember showing up at my mini master event seat to find the super friendly Reid Duke waiting to play me (I got super crushed by Verdoloth the Ancient kicked a good 6+ times). I’ll always remember chatting with players from all around the world while we all waited in the endless lines at GP vegas.
 Thanks magic community for being a huge and amazing part of my life for these past 5 years. You guys are the best community in the world and thanks for making GP las Vegas the most memorable experience and birthday it could have been! I’m thankful that the scum of the earth asshole who took our stuff was not one of you :)
 PS to Pros: I may be back some day a future event, expect to be pestered by more rats and playmats to get signed :p
Warm and squishy hugs, my Beloved Minions. It is now confirmed that I will be joining you all in the potentially record-setting festival of sorcerous mayhem and greedy pack-shredding that will be the Modern Masters GP in Vegas. Even more than usual, I will be preparing for a weekend of glorious...
Here is an example of the binder candy being sent to the registered minions! Just an update - there is enough to send a complete set to the next 22 registrants, after that the mailings will be incomplete. After 36 mailings it will be all gone.
So Join the Ascended Minion Project and get the cool members only swag kit!