Will this blog also post art tips for the inspiring comic creators? I'm having a hard time, with my very cartoony style, drawing East-Asian characters in way that makes it clear they are POC - but without falling into offensive caricatures.
Drawing East-Asian Characters
I don’t know, necessarily—I’ve got little art skills, myself, but my suggestion would be to look up East Asian artists with similar styles and see how they draw.
Some resources:
Art and Skin Tones
Guide to Human Types: Asian
Resources on Drawing/Coloring PoC
—mod Jess
Also, regularly, these asks will not answered, as this is a writing advice blog.
Hey WWC, I would be more than happy to field these sorts of questions if you forwarded them to me.
Anon,
We all know that you can and must make the design without presenting an Asian stereotype, but that does not mean that you should create an anthropologically realistic summary of how Asian people look. That is not your job as a designer. You MUST NOT be afraid to explore a design, -even using the stereotypes-, in your sketchbook, because until you see it on paper you have no idea how that individual trait looks in context with the rest of its parts. You have absoltuely no idea. The way a line is presented can mean the entire difference between a character looking like a hero and a villain, an introvert and an extrovert, a seductress and a nun.
I can not condone racist stereotypes, and I hope that you do not perceive me as doing so when I say that it is sometimes actually wise to exaggerate features to communicate an ethnicity. How you exaggerate them, not the fact of the exaggeration, is what makes the difference between great design and racist caricature.
First off, be mindful that it is possible to use “stereotypical” features as icons in your visual language and remain tasteful and well designed. Let’s look at Steven Universe. Let me ask you this: does it perpetuate a racist stereotype to depict a Black woman with a ginormous behind, huge lips, and a big afro? My God, yes, it — can. Not does. Can: look at Garnet. She’s a stunning design. And what does she have? Butch Hartmann hips, the butt to go with it, lips that nearly dominate the lower half of her face, and a huge afro. Is she a racist caricature? No, she’s a well designed character that people relate to. Why is this? It’s in the context of her overall design, which is executed in dramatic contrasts between straight and curved lines, each of them as deliberate as her personality. The visual weight of her form is balanced by using extremes: her hair and the mass of her hips take up similar visual weight and are held up by the straight, stark lines of her torso: she is a barbell. She is power. She is designed.
Next, be aware that it is also possible to completely lose an ethnicity if you do not take steps to deliberately communicate it (that is, if you have a cartoony or anime style). Again, Steven Universe: Pearl is often perceived as White even though she is based off of traditional East Asian cultures and the Asian influences instruct her behavior, down to the way she sits. In my opinion this is not entirely a failure for Pearl’s character design because the point was to communicate a personality archetype more than an ethnicity. Her Asian traits can be appreciated by those who recognize them as an added layer to her character. However, this makes her an example of a character who can be designed with very well thought out Asian traits but not actually be perceived as Asian, or even non-White.
Now, both characters are not actually any ethnicity in reality because Crystal Gems are NOT human. However, ethnicities are implied and assumed so that audiences can relate.
If you have a cartoony or abstracted style and you DO NOT employ some visual means to describe your characters as having a certain ethnicity, the majority ethnicity will be assumed and this cannot be helped. For example, Western audiences of anime often do not see the Japanese in the Japanese-named characters from Japan. They might be factually aware of it, but they don’t identify them as Japanese. This is because of the way the brain is designed to work and is not motivated by prejudice. It is motivated by the will, as a social creature, to identify the world using one’s own experiences. English-speaking experiences are usually with Whites as the majority. Japanese character designers design for a Japanese audience and so their characters, when seen by the Japanese, are seen AS Japanese, with no need to be deliberately designed. Their intended audience assumes Japanese as the default. So, when you translate, say, Sailor Moon over to the West, you get people thinking Usagi Tsukino is White because she is visually cued to an English speaking audience as a blond (despite living in a world where blue, pink, and green are natural hair colors).
Cedarseed’s guide to human types is a very indespensible resource, Jess found for you some great ones you should look at. But, beware of the points above. The amount of detail you put into your style is going to have a heavy impact on whether it is necessary to exaggerate, and you must not be afraid to exaggerate if, when you run your first draft of designs across a test audience, they do not identify the character as Asian. Being Asian is simply not enough, people have to identify her as Asian so that they may identify with her. Never be afraid to design.
Awesome misselaney! Thanks very much for this helpful response!
