The main character in a graphic novel I'm working on is an exorcist so he gets rid of people's demons, I've come up with awesome designs for demons of each of the 7 deadly sins but I'm having trouble with one of them. You see I'm okay with drawing violence or disturbing creatures but I really don't want to draw perverted stuff so I'm having trouble with a deminision for lust. You see each demon has their own environment they dwell in and I want to keep this comic PG-13 so what's a way I could do a demon of lust without it being totally inappropriate and awful? Any ideas are welcome but if your idea includes nudity I'm not going with it.
A background of fleshy expanses, but without identifiable or unobstructed parts. And a Gene Simmons leer on the demon's face.
Anyway, to the OP, Lust is considered by many (myself included) to be the most primal of the seven deadly sins. If I were you, I'd add animalistic traits to you demon. The way it moves, it's posture and stance, it's speech, etc. I'd also give it very sharp and obvious mood swings. One minute purring with delight, the next growling with disdain. I don't picture the this embodiment of Lust as being something/someone that can easily hide their thoughts and emotions behind a mask, a poker face if you will. As for it's lair, the only thing I could suggest is that you take temperature into account. Lust tends to signify hot more than cold.
OP this is for a comic strip right? or have I miss understood? if I am right, with what you describe I think of a busty blond, with big baby blue eyes in a tiny bikini ( or leather thingamabob) you could match the BG to the personality of this demon. IF going for the leather archtype you could go all 'natrix dungen, bikini, sultry sunbather comes to mind, perhaps calling for her next vic in a honey sweet voice... now lust comes in many forms, if this is the more "Adult" type set up I tend to think of a beautiful women one moment and a very ugly demon the next.
I like the idea of fleshy scenery and a demon with mood swings, it's a combination of the person's view on the earth mixed with some horrible demon-ness so I think her lair with be a large city full of "Adult" stores with huge patches of organic tissue covering parts of things, and I think for the demon I'll end up doing a female demon that looks mostly human but obsesses over appearance. She'll have clouded eyes to show how lust perverts feelings of love and attachment, she'll have artificially tan skin covered in uneven splotches, with have extremely long nails painted with designs, and she'll probably have somewhat exaggerated proportions. I'm going to make her look quite unattractive though since she's a demon and everything. She'll probably have a ridiculously hunched spine and be unhealthily skinny. What do you guys think, is this a good idea or should I go with something else?
Isn't it kind of sexist to have lust being a female? I mean, I can't say how the majority of women think, but even as a man I know that the majority of male thoughts are disgustingly sexual. Really, lust should be entirely androgynous. Lust wouldn't really have that much to do with appearance. It's about the constant sexuality. It'd be about the FEEL of it, not the LOOK of it. It, there, being Lust, the character. Feel free to call it a zher or zhim. Seriously, though. A lusty demon would have nothing to do with appearance.
I actually started writing a story a while back about the seven deadly sins. Lust was a demon that had no true shape. It would change into whoever/whatever the object of their desire wanted. OP may steal that because that story is going nowhere, and I probably stole it from someone else anyway.
What about an androgynous figure like a performer in a 1930s Berlin nightclub? Remember the types in Cabaret? And weird and beautiful 1970s rock stars like Marc Bolan? To me, a lust demon would definitely look like a performer of some kind...beautiful but kind of repelling...
This sounds cool.. For my 2p, I'd assume you've two choices - either the demon represents what we lust after, or something that is all lust - I'm guessing your Greed character is a really greedy demon rather than a massive pile of lemon meringue pies (what one might be greedy for, although that's just me). So I'd prefer it'd be the latter and be a figure who is massively full of lust, and coerces others to see it's way of things. Going for the more obvious jessica rabbit, bedazzled Hurley type of demon might prove to be the more two dimensional route.
A beautiful woman would be appropriate I think. There doesn't have to be nudity and demons are often shape shifters. I think that the embodiments of the seven deadly sins shouldn't just be guilty of the sins themselves but they should also entice people into committing the sins. A hideous demon would have a hard time seducing people. Your readers will thank you as well.
Eh, but a lust for power or something would be even harder to illustrate, And the idea of the demon is that she may of been beautiful once but her need to be more attractive has caused her to ruin herself, it kind of represents my feelings toward cosmetic surgery and tanning booths and how it ruins how people look. It's not a huge issue she's not going to be in it much so this isn't a huge problem. I think I'll probably end up just sticking with my previous plan about the hideous that desperately wants to be pretty again because she ruined her appearance by trying to fulfill her need of sex so she lost herself but still tries to lure others to her even though she looks awful. I think it represents the subject pretty well to tell the truth and I'm pretty happy with it.
But lust isn't just for power, either. It's about uncontrollable desire for anything, even cream cakes. The greedy/gluttonous doesn't bother controlling the desire for cream cakes, the lustful can't control it. I'm not sure how you illustrate that, but for me the key is the "out of control" bit -- the bastard offspring of Charlie Sheen and Amy Winehouse, perhaps...
Well the ideas you guys have been saying aren't bad but wouldn't translate well to a comic, I need something that is somewhat menacing and looks cool and evil, if I just drew some girl in a bathing suit then a scene of her fighting the protagonist and his voodoo doll sidekick wouldn't turn out to well, And if it's just a blob that turns into what it wants than that wouldn't be too hard to get rid of either and neither of those things look frightening, I'm going for a disturbing/action/horror type comic here so I'm trying to come up with something somewhat creepy so I thought a bony long limbed girl with long claw like finger nails, clouded eyes and unnatural appearance that lives in a sky scraper made of human flesh and has violent mood swings would at least be creepy if done right. So for now I'm sticking with that. She's only going to be in one issue so it's not really a big deal if it's more vanity than lust, at least it's on the same track.
Yeah, I wouldn't necessarily make her 'beautiful', as in human beautiful. If it's a character in a graphic novel I'd say it needs some 'grit' and something that immediately says 'demon'. Otherwise, people may just think 'hot babe'.
I think I'm going to go for something like this... http://www.scaryforkids.com/pics/stories-to-tell.jpg
