character page of Linsara Defose from the bonus section of Tales of the Realm #5 showing a dark haired woman in a hooded cloak and leather vest with cross-stitching across the bust area and in leather pants with a dagger at her belt, the description reads: "This is the original design for Linsara. Typical thief wardrobe that was later "sexy'd up" for the comic book by showing off more midriff."

promo art from Tales of the Realm #5 comic showing the elf thief Linsara (elf girl with long red hair) in a tigh crop brown vest that's split open over her breasts and tied together loosely by leather straps, her midriff is bare and she's wearing low cut cropped capris, behind her are 2 armored guys

Elven thief before and after being "sexy'd up"

My friend showed me this and I think it's a fascinating example of something some artists have told me on this blog in the past, which is that the weird poses/outfits/sexiness in a lot of commercial stuff are often changes (sometimes requested from higher-ups) from more interesting original designs.

Here, we can see what Linsara originally looked like and what the final "sexy'd up" version looks like. Not only did her top get a lot smaller but her design got a lot more generic imo because I think the hooded cloak and her pose adds more to her visual characterization.

From the first page, if you can't read it: "This is the original design for Linsara. Typical thief wardrobe that was later "sexy'd up" for the comic book by showing off more midriff."

(Pages from Tales of the Realm #5, CrossGen Comics)

tales of the realm