Starfire By Flocco Watch

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My vision of Starfire. Very experimental to me on a lot of fronts.



When I started drawing this character I really began to hate her. I don't usually get upset over costume designs and things, but her outfit is just so ridiculously over the top with stupidity that I couldn't in right mind draw that design. I've never met a woman, especially with large breasts, who didn't need to wear any kind of support, let alone do physical activity with none. Anyone with a big cup size would flop like a fish out of water without some sort of sturdy bra. The other thing that actually bothered me when I first started was her bikini bottom. When I googled her outfit, young girls would show up in cosplay outfits of the new design, and it was all just too revealing. Sexy, practical outfits make for some great cosplay fun, but I personally felt that promoting this skimpy outfit isn't doing a moral service. At it's essence, the Starfire character has a lot of great qualities that young girls should admire, and encouraging them to dress in Sports Illustrated swimsuits is not something I'd want any young teenager to be doing.



So I delved a bit deeper to find more outfits, more ideas, and came across the new space arc where Starfire wore space armor. I wasn't a big fan of that either, as it felt too dated for me, but I borrowed pieces of that and designed it into the existing bikini. The biggest problem I had with the official space armor was that she's basically naked with metal plates lined out. I wanted my armor to have meat to it, like the body was inside of the suit, not skintight. I also ditched her purple bell-bottom boots and adapted the armor.



When initially drawing this character, I was also bothered by how her powers are typically depicted as glowing pink fists that shoot beams or fireballs. I wanted to show something celestial, like energy flowing from her fingers creating a spinning planet energy orb. Something incredibly dense and powerful like a tiny star. It ended up morphing into a singularity mostly because her hand was in an odd position to make it work.



The last thing I struggled with was her hair. Midway through drawing this I deleted it all and kept it short, wanting the contrail to be just light, but my friend was upset when she saw it and insisted I put it back.



Ultimately as I began to dive into drawing Starfire, I really began to love the concepts and ideas behind this character. I think she's been underplayed and misused a lot, but she absolutely has potential, and I can easily see why she was such a fan favorite on the animated show. This project was pretty experimental to me with the design, powers, brushes, style, and it feels like a step forward having completed it.

IMAGE DETAILS Image size 4400x6800px 5.46 MB Show More

Published : Aug 23, 2013