I have got to say this trend of having every female figure with one breast bared is really starting to bother me. I am not a prude in any sense of the word, but it seems like lot of companies are trying to have it both ways by putting out figures that are based in some part on history, and then combining that with a pinup figure. It is possible to do a pretty girl without having her half bare chested. It always seems like it is so half hearted. When you could do a sexy half nude girl, instead they try to pass them off as historical. It just comes off as kind of lame. I decide not to post this in the new figures forum. I started to, but rethought that. If you are going to do a figure based on a historical painting and in that painting the figure of liberty is shown with her breast exposed as if by accident be true to the source material . You mix that figure with a figure who looks like a whore of the same period then it just seems to be truly missing the point entirely.

Unbeleivable.

Jeff, I agree with you in principle just not on the figure in question.

It is not just that figure. It has been a whole series of them. That figure just got me thinking about this again. Years ago there was a beautiful Geisha bust that had one breast bared. It was a lovely figure and the nudity seemed to fit the mood of the piece. It seems like there has been a lot busts since where it seems like the companies think well if that worked then this figure of (insert random subject and period) so will this one. It seems to be a trend with full figures as well as busts. There seems to little rhyme or reason to them. The torn clothing is made to fit the exposed breast and it does not seem random or accidental but simply for the sake of having the skin and breast exposed. Again I am not a prude I like pin up figures and full nudes. The trend lately is just so clumsy. A way to make the figures seem like something they are not. The Geisha was successful because to how the clothes seems to be hanging open naturally as if she was in the process of undressing. It worked on many levels. The recent stuff just does not. They are trying to be too many things to too many people. A pretty girl dos not have to be naked to be pretty.

After looking at the figure that started the thread I think it walks the fine line, and does so successfully. My first impression of it was not really correct.

After thinking on the subject while I was out at the store. I think part of my frustration with this new group of figures is that many are really good sculpts over all, and they work on most levels if not for the clumsy nudity.

Its Madonna's fault

It doesn't really bother me at all. There must be a market out there which will buy figures like this & some are far more explicit than this new one. It wouldn't take very much effort at all to cover the offending regions.
I was looking back through some old magazines recently and there certainly seemed to be far more potentially offensive figures in the 70's & 80's than now so I don't see it as a new trend. Anyone remember the series of pirates scuplted by Cliff Sanderson & produced by Monarch? That included explicit depictions of rape & was produced in the 1970's.

An element of devilry in me suggested replacing the flag on the revolutionary with a burning bra; a true women's libber.

You are quite right about the Geisha, a superb scuplt by Quang for Pilipili if we're talking about the same one.

Geoff

The true test of how popular the trend for this type of figures, or any figure for that matter will be how many we see in the v-bench and gallery section.

Roger.

Let me say again I did jump the gun with the figure that got me to post this. As I said last night looking at it again I think that she walks that fine line of pinup set in a different century,or the costume of a different century. The more I look at the figure the more I think doing it with say a pirate flag could be fun. As I said I think I was wrong about that figure.

I do remember those figures from the 70's, and in fact a shop I went to all the time had a set of fully painted pirates in a display case. That was the Military shop in Lakewood CA. The fact is rapes and murders are the sort of thing that would have been seen in the sack of a town by pirates, or in any war for that matter. So even if distasteful the figures are true to the subject they depict. Where this new crop is not. And yes it was that Pilipili figure I was talking about. Quang was true to his subject matter. It was as if other manufactures thought, Oh we need to do something like that. They seemed to miss what made it a great figure was not just the bare breast.

You want to do a pinup using celtic imagery I am fine with that, but do not try and sell it to me as a historical figure of Queen Boadicea. I spend a lot of time researching the historical figures I do. I think that is true of the vast majority of us. That being said I like to do fantasy figures once in a while as well. Just look at the wizard I am doing right now. It is based on the late medical period. I would never try and pass it off as a historical figure. It is fantasy figure with a grounding in a specific period in fashion history nothing more.

I agree that the above mentioned Geisha is a lovely figure, and there's nothing distasteful about the bare boob in this figure - on the contrary it is appropriate within the context of the subject.

On the contrary I'm not at all attracted by figures of bare chested women, to which bits of military uniform and weaponry are added - they look so butch to me.

I think you meant Janet Jackson

Prost!
Brad

Jeff, I agree with your original point. I have seen several figures recently where the whole thing seems very forced. If you want to make a pinup figure do that, do it well, and don't try to pass it off as a historical figure. Maybe they are trying to do an artistic nude... but then it seems to me you need a reason for the nudity. The Geisha sounds like a good example of something artistic that worked. I can accept that this most recent one was inspired by the Lady Liberty painting... though personally I wish they had gone with a figure that stayed truer to the painting. It's a good dynamic pose and could have been something very nice.

I guess there's a market out there for pseudo-historical/half-hearted pinup figures if people keep producing them... but it's not me.

Sums it up pretty well. Id like to see more women from the passage of history. Like the one following armies, scavaging battlefields, interactomg in everyday life etc as well as historical personalities. I really like the busts from Ulrich Puchala.

Cheers
Janne Nilsson

Actually no - check the news/you tube for Madonna in Turkey last week.

Colin

If the depiction is that of the lady on the barricade,then we speak of Liberty conducting.... IT's a painter license to paint as he feel .. and Liberty has nothing to hide... like the naked truth .
Has the the poet said : Much Ado about nothing...
I paint military but the pleasure to paint skin.. Hey ! it's that the problem : skin painting is difficult ?
Sometime I indulge myself and paint a Lady.... and don't hide it ... I remember painting the Dungeon hanging Lady 120mm from Verlinden , that was great, and between 2 layers of colors , I was painting a 90mm Cuirassier from Poste Militaire .
Just enjoy painting . And as much as you look at a book with illustration of military costume , have a book about bodybuilding in your library as reference for painting skins , it will show' with exageration , the right places for highlights and shadows . Now if you don't like, and this is perfectly your right , simply don't do .
Best

That is just it. It is not that I do not like to paint figures that show skin or are nude, as you say this is a challenge. It is the fact that the nude portions are done in a haphazard way. They look completely forced. Like hey we need to have that breast fully exposed so it is like a pinup, but we want the rest of the figure to look historical. If you cannot do both in a way that works then just make the figure a nude that works or a historical figure that works if you force it then it just looks clumsy and does not work very well. As I said some of my frustration with this is that the figures could work if it was just decided what it should be form the get go, and to not make be two things at once.

you need to get laid

Never had a problem in that department Sir.

I know Jeff's wife, it's not an issue

Edit: I think that came off wrong, no disrespect intended Jeff.