Ares but I'm gay: NSFW + Alts (Private Rooms) (Patreon)

First of all, the previous poll for the Capwolf idea. Super noted!! Will draw art of him as a comic page. Thank you so much for voting on that, will begin working on that shortly!

Aight onto the post itself:

Context: I'm in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign that is heavily inspired by Ancient Greece, where I, playing a Tielfing Druid/Wizard scientist inspired by scientists of the irl ancient civilization, fight alongside the party who are each devoted to a particular god, in an effort to stop a corrupted Orpheus from forming a cult that dismantles the heavily flawed power structure of the Olympians that my character has also been challenging.

What I didn't expect from this campaign was just how extremely sexual it can be. I'm talking, the Barbarian worshipping Zeus and the Bard worshipping Aprhodite host... AHEM... nights of fornication constantly with their polyamory-friendly significant others and a few invitees. And lots and lots of innuendos. From how I see it, it's their healthy exploration of sexuality and romantic relationships, which I don't take part in because my Druid's too asexual for that. But also I see it as an unintentional satire for irl Ancient Greece's hyper-idealism, I think?

Take.... Ares for instance.

(This was art my DM used for him, created by Steve Argyle and acting as my main reference for my depiction)

God of War - the bloodshed and violence part - everyone knows him. In my DM's world, each god holds dominion as a main deity within a single nation, and for Ares in particular, he is highly regarded as a huge presence in the land of Spartus. You'd be right to think that Spartus is basically irl Sparta in every way, except because Ares is the embodiment of ideal masculinity, the satire behind Spartus doubles down on its culture of hypermasculinity and male power. So much so... that the nation of Spartus folds into itself to be SUPER GAY.

Like literally, the concept of institutionalized mentorships with same-sex relationships between seasoned warriors and greenhorn hoplites taken to the extreme. There were two kings in the royal bed. And several festivals of male comraderie on the streets. The cobblestones are stained with white, you guys.

So naturally Ares in my DM's interpretation is also extremely fruity.

He kinda has to be if a nation of warrior men scream his name while making love and fighting in war.

At first, I drew the man naked. Just to block in the muscles and the square-like silhouette of his figure, and to get the penis size down. I wanted the figure to exxude that homoerotic masculinity while also paying a little respect to proportions of Ancient Greek sculpture. A little.

From there it was a matter of exaggerating with his armor, to make that do most of the talking. Everything about Ares's gladiator garb - his shield, his pauldron, the adornments on his poleyns and his crotch, have the Male (Mars) symbol signifying that, oh yeah, Ares is ALL about men. Sketched in some chains to further invoke that image of strength so powerful that he needs to wear something to hold his double-digit incher back, but it also ties in to the kind of imagery you'd see in gyms and fitness centers whos main demographic are male strength-builders.

That is to say, I also drew him a typical gladiator skirt as a safer version I could share with with my friends. Though it does feature two male symbols interlocked with each other so the homoerotic subtext can't EVER be ignored.

One thing I always try to keep conscious in mind when drawing character art of Greek characters is the contrapposto pose. It's a classic pose that you see in Ancient Greek sculpture all the time, where the horizontal balances of the shoulders and hips are asymmetrical in a way that cancels each other out and makes the whole figure balanced in weight distribution while maintaining visual interest.

I tried to do the same thing when posing Ares here. I think you can see remnants of my construction lines in the sketches that I've shown, but I believe you can certainly tell the differences in elevation of some of his body parts in the lineart part of the process.

I don't do this with all the characters that I draw. But for characters that are heavily influenced by Ancient Greece, and especially for depictions of an actual Ancient Greek god, I really wanted to pay attention to this contrapposto pose because to me it truly invokes that feel that particular voice that this - this man right here - is an ancient figure from an ancient time.

I did this same exact thing for a past interpretation of Heracles that I did for a project years before this too. I can absolutely talk about the design process for what I had with him in a whole separate post if you wish.

That being said, back to Ares. Did that for the posing. And into the colors I went to Steve's interpretation of that red indicating blood and war and stuff to be the center of Ares's color palette, made several alts of him with his dick out and a few other equipment pieces removed and voila. That's all she wrote!!

With that, gotta start working on the Capwolf football comic page now. Thanks again!!