Every now and then I like to doodle Percy's genderbent equivalent, known as Persephone, and after a while I thought to myself: why not draw lady versions of all my robot guys? And thus, this came about. While mainly a creative exercise, it was also done in response to a bit of hubbub that'd been stirred up online - a member of the team working on Disney's "Frozen" had apparently claimed that female characters were difficult to animate and give distinguishing features, which of course bothered people because it's a load of tosh.
While a source or context was never given for the quote, it admittedly bothered me too - I've always been annoyed that, for the most part, female characters don't have anywhere near the sort of diversity and variety in design that males do. There are exceptions, obviously (Sakura Oogami from the Japanese PSP game "Dangan Ronpa" is a good example because despite her unconventional appearance, she's an incredibly popular character amongst fans), but a lot of people seem to get into the mindset that women have to be conventionally attractive or appealing, which means the characters tend to end up pretty limited and same-y. Which, as someone who loves variety, is awful to see.
So! With this image, I made it my goal to prove that female characters can have variety in body shape - by designing them no differently to how they're designed as male characters. Percy's a scruffy, messy, burly rambunctious guy - why would he be any different as a woman? Why should he lose his muscles and the overall feel of his character just because they're traits deemed "unattractive" in women? He shouldn't. Keeping the original feel of my guys whilst coming up with alternative appearances for them was a pretty fun challenge, and I'm happy with the results.
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