Pride Art Contest 2025

[Guhrayen]

Happy Pride Month, Osiris!

This year, we are really putting the freedom of creativity into your hands. Any art style in any form (except AI-generated) is welcome, from watercolour to collage. All we ask is that your piece can be connected in some way to LGBTQ+ themes or identity and is appropriate for a PG-13 setting. This can be work inspired by a queer artist, art showcasing your favourite queer icons, art of queer characters, or whatever else you can think up.

Entries should be posted in this thread by the end of the day on June 30th so that a winner can be judged and selected by the end of the month!

[Skies]

I Saw The TV Glow and Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Lage inspired piece! I was thinking about what media in my life could be considered fueling a pivotal queer realization in my life, and while the latter movie wasn't something I saw while I was young, it was really special to me to see a character with a family just like mine, who was both confidently Punjabi and fully queer. The norm in attitude I've grown up with is that some part of ethnic identity has to be sacrificed for queerness, and its a choice to prioritize one or the other. So seeing a character that fully embraced both was refreshing and a welcoming new approach.

[Tethys 13]

There is one place and a short time-window you can find a rainbow in Monster Hunter: Wilds, so I spent some time tracking it down to take a photo of Shy Shellkin, my trans character. Monster Hunter as a series has always had some very interesting gender choices, with hairstyles (and later voices) being available to both genders, but a very clear visual disparity in armour design, sometimes verging on the 'full plate for men, chainmail bikini for women' conundrum. I invest a lot of thought and baggage into character creation, so when I encounter something like this, I am drawn to imagine a character dissatisfied with these implied gender roles. I have created trans-coded characters in other games before, but Wilds made it a lot easier by removing the 'genderlock' on armour, though with the massively broad-shouldered physique of the 'male' character model compared to the slender and bustier 'female', it was still an interesting challenge to find armour that suitably conveyed the idea. I am very happy with the result, and think she looks marvellous.

Bonus Image