breastplate redesign

I just got a cintiq and it's ... well, it's not the easiest to transition work processes on an intuos4 to a cintiq. I kept trying to hit my keyboard shortcuts on the side of the cintiq before forgetting it doesn't have a keyboard. Anyway, that's just habit and can be relearned. I have to say, it's SO much nicer to draw directly on something. A lot of info gets lost when I draw on the intuos while staring at another screen. I'm glad to see that I was not mistaken that that loss is greatly minimized on the cintiq.

Anyway, redesigning Auriel's paladin armor. I haven't really thought much about the gauntlets and greaves, but I decided her previous armor was way too ceremonial in style. I wanted Auriel to look more like she lived in her armor. By attaching her colors on a kind of drape and etching her religious motif directly on the breastplate she can still openly represent her god without having to wear her colors on a cleric's robe. And instead, she can wear more functional clothes underneath.

The boobplate, as much as I still wanted inch that in, was nixed. Auriel is the type to go for function over everything else. Do I not have one female character in this group that will let me get away with fanservice?!

My two bits on female armor: sexy armor and functional armor both have their place in fiction. The trick is to design a female character from inside out. Come up with a character, THEN design the armor. If the girl likes taking advantage of her assets in battle, from taking advantage of the hesitation guys have towards hitting women to straight out distracting them with naughty thoughts, that's her prerogative. At the same time, don't stick a woman who is trying to be taken seriously by her male comrades in a chainmail miniskirt.  
You'd think this would simply make sense, and I'm willing to bet it's pretty damn natural to writers and storytellers, but the over-inundation of sexy armor shows that a woman's personality ... is NOT a focus. I love looking at sexy armor, but when the girl is just a piece of meat, I'm not going to grieve too much when she gets whacked off.