hELLOOOOO. i decided to make a presentation post, and I'm going to post some basic things about myself!
im brazilian. my name is rafael, but u can call me rafa, raf, and also zomb/zombie! (cuz of my @). im a minor and i was born on 24th november!
im transmasc, pronouns he/him (preference) and they/them, bisexual and demisexual :)
i love astronomy since i was a little baby, and im fascinated about everything.
i love taking pictures of things, anything, even if i don't have the slightest idea of how to take good pictures. i do this just for fun, it's not a hobby.
i draw (sometimes), but i promise to draw and post here. i would love to receive drawing requests :) i love to draw what you ask for!
it's basically just that, if you want to know more about me click on the link in my profile, there's my strawpage! i hope you have a great day!
GET. AI. OUT. OF. FANDOM. Stop making headcanons with it, stop making fanfic with it, stop making fanart with it. If I see one more "asking chatgpt *blank* about *character/characters in a fandom* I'm going to lose my goddamn mind. Use your own fucking brain, stop asking AI to do everything. You could even ask other real people what they think. Just. Stop. Using. AI. In. Creative. Spaces.
*disclaimer: this is based on what’s worked for me, aka an artist that likes to make comics/storyboards. so this advice is directed at people who do that
you can do things like this:
Which is fun! Character sheets like this are great, especially for personal reference! But frankly, I don’t think most people engage with this (at least I personally don’t). You could have the coolest character in the world, but it will be harder for most people to feel invested when they’re presented so neutrally like this.
My main piece of advice is: get better at writing.
That might sound harsh when said like that, but let me explain what I mean! (Not trying to imply you’re bad at writing either!)
What I tend to do is just throw characters into situations with as little handholding as I can. Give enough context that readers can follow along, but don’t feel like they’re being explained to.
what can you learn about the characters through their designs alone? (age, personality, economic status, occupation, etc)
what can you learn about the characters’ relationship though their interactions alone? (are they close? familial? romantic? is there hostility? are they tense/relaxed?)
what are the characters currently doing? what were they doing previously (how long have they been talking)? what are they going to do next? can you convey this without dialogue?
how do they feel about what they are doing? are they content? focused? over/understimulated? would they rather be doing something else?
where are they? does it matter? would establishing a setting in at least one panel clarify the scene? is there anything in the enviroment that could tell some of the story?
what time of day is it? what time of year is it? what is the weather like?
Now, with all this in mind, I'm going to give you another example. I'm going to use completely brand new characters for the sake of the experiment, so you won't have any bias (aka I can’t use Protagonist from above, since you already know all about him).
Did this get more of an emotional response from you than the first example? Why do you think so? Who are these characters? How do they know each other? What else can you infer about them? What happened? Who is "she"?
Now, you don't have to actually answer all those questions. But think about them! You can tell people a whole lot about your characters without ever showing them a list of their likes and dislikes.
Obviously, comics aren't the only way to get people invested in your original characters! But regardless, easily digestible formats will grab people's attention faster than huge blocks of text, and comics are a lot less work than doing wholeass storyboards.
How do you do stylized POC without it looking borderline racist tidjjckff help pls
Often times artists may be criticized for white washing POC. On the other swing of the pendulum, we also must be mindful of avoiding racial caricature when drawing people.
What is Racial Caricature?
Racial caricature is the exaggeration of certain features (small eyes for east Asians, big lips for Africans, and unnatural skin tones among others) for the purpose of dehumanizing a race by reducing them to a stereotype.
There’s actually been an instance where a Japanese airline commercial was criticized for what was perceived to be a racial caricature of Caucasians!
So, to avoid racial caricature, we should search up what is considered racist to stylize for a particular race before drawing, so we know what to avoid in our art.
When stylizing a character, I would also add other aspects that aren’t inherently racial to the character, to avoid making them seem like a homogenized or exaggerated character whose only defining feature is race.
For example, features that indicate whether they are slobbish/neat, tired/energetic, optomistic/pessimistic, grumpy/friendly, old/young, etc.
And, er… don’t do this:
^^ The above picture is an infamous drawing of the character Finn from Star Wars. It’s been criticized for being a racist caricature of the character (and consequently, the actor that plays them). The unnaturally pink lips paired with the large protruding mandible (mouth) make this character look very unnatural. Not to mention that this drawing looks WILDLY unlike the actual character, almost as if just homogenizing certain black features without thinking about the way the individual looks.
Listen to POC
Read/consume stuff from Artists/writers of color! See how THEY stylize POC and take notes!
Keep in mind that your character’s race doesn’t just have context in their looks, but in their place in the story, and the way that they act as well! Certain tropes, such as the “mammy” black woman or the “thug” black man, will raise alarms. Be mindful of this! Search the web for tropes so that you can learn to avoid them. Now, this isn’t to say you can’t have a strong or violent black character, but if all your black characters are strong and violent, that becomes an issue.
((As long as we’re talking about tropes, asian women with short, dyed hair who are “badass” and emotionally closed off and “cool” because they don’t care what u think… just.. no.))
To avoid stereotypes, having a range of characters who all exhibit different personalities, and who become their own people, is a great way to spread diversity in your work.
An excerpt from @/sugaryacid ‘s post on twitter:
An excerpt from Kat Tsai’s compilation of Asian Faces tutorial! :
And as always, study study study!!! The only way you’re going to recognize the nuances and diversities between people is if you study lots of different people! So go stare at some strangers face lol!
So you might be saying: Lion why a guide on drawing black people? Well young blood it’s because a lot of people cant…seem…to draw…black people..Amazing I know.
Racist (caricatures) portrayals of black people have been around forever, and to this day people can’t seem to draw black people like they are human. If your artwork resembles any of the above even remotely your artwork is racist and offensive. If you try to excuse that as a stylistic choice you’re not only a terrible artist, but racist too!!! Congrats.
Whitewashing is also a problem. A lot of people refuse to draw black features on canonly black characters. While this example isn’t colored, lightening the skin-tone of a character is also considered whitewashing. So lets start with features!
Now all black people have different noses thats a no-brainer, but black noses tend to have flatter bridges, and wider nostrils. Please stay from triangular anime noses and small button noses. Your drawings should not depict black people with abnormally large noses. (Especially if you do not draw other characters this way)
If you feel like the way you draw lips on black characters is offensive or resembles a caricature,it probably does and you should change it. ABSOLUTELY AVOID PLACING LIPS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE FACE.
Hair is so diverse! Please get used to drawing braids, locs,kinks and coils! If you can learn to draw ringlets and long waves you can learn how to draw black hairstyles.
Add clips! Learn how to draw baby-hairs and never be afraid to add color Pinterest and Google are free my dudes! Also try using square brushes for blocking in coils.
Hi! I’m really sick of whitewashing and the various excuses that artists come up with, so I wrote a guide! How To Not Whitewash, at least with regards to skin tone.
Please make use of it, and encourage other artists to do so as well.
Here’s a link to this guide on a Google Doc - this document has image descriptions.
Feel free to contact me if the link stops working, or if you have questions (in good faith).
Razz's Rough Guide to Selecting Good Reference Photos for Darker Skin (and how to color pick without being Racist about it)
Say you're an artist, and you want to learn how to draw/paint and render darker skin. If you just type in 'dark skin reference' into your search engine, you're likely to get a range of photos that range from mid-toned skintones to some darker skintones, but notably a lot of the photos of those darker skinned individuals will... not exactly be the best photos in the world.
It's not as simple as just color-picking skin in a photograph and calling it a day. You need to do so with intention. And you need to be selective in what you gather for your reference materials, because color picking from a bad photo versus a good photo will make a world of difference.
Racism, Colorism, and Anti-Blackness are a big component to this discussion. Here's a quick example of good vs bad ref photo using the same model - Khoudia Diop.
The good reference photo (left): balanced neutral lighting, good exposure, good range of values across the model's face, nothing is overly washed out or under-exposed, the variance of undertones are visible, and the highlights don't overtake the rest of her skin.
The bad reference photo (right): the white balance is shifted to focus on her white outfit, and so her face is under-exposed. This flattens her face so that it appears muddied and de-saturated. Her face blends together into a flat dark blob (aside from the teeth shining as bright as the white outfit). This photo does this Black model a disservice, as the photographer and/or editor did not take the time and effort to re-balance the values.
If you want other resources that give tips and info about rendering and lighting on dark skin and how to avoid whitewashing and caricatures, I recommend looking at some of these various links to resources here. More under the read more.
Racism and Colorism are ingrained in everything, including art-forms like painting and photography. Photography has a history of colorism and anti-blackness. If you're interested in the history, there are a few articles and some videos I recommend as a taste tester about it. Here is a short video by Vox about the subject in regards to Kodak color film.
Even though technology has advanced to better accommodate varying skintones in photography, that doesn't mean that the long-standing racial bias has disappeared. The bias towards whiteness is deep, and often unconsciously perpetuated, so that even programs such as facial recognition software will struggle to identify a darker skinned person versus a lighter skinned person.
Modern day photography can still replicate the biased conditions of old film photography if the photographer is not mindful of their subject.
When looking for reference material, you will encounter both good and bad photos. Even if a photo by white standards has good lighting and technique, if the photographer or editor don't adjust the parameters to accommodate for darker skin, they can fall into many pitfalls.
The model's skin can be underexposed, flat, over-exposed, or washed out and gray. The photographer could over-emphasize the contrast so that the skin has overly bright reflections and shadows that swallow the rest of their face. They could be flattened so that only one or two hues of their skintone show through, while the rest disappear. They could be de-saturated so that all the richness and depth of their undertones are lost, and the model's skin becomes charcoal-like and ashy.
Often photographers will do grayscale photos of darker skinned subjects, as if to avoid having to deal with the problem of color adjustment in the first place. Sure, the grayscale can better capture the values of their skin, but it can still fall into the pitfalls of underexposure or washing them out.
So, given this knowledge that photography is susceptible to racial bias and can be done badly, how do we determine 'good' photos versus 'bad' photos of a darker skinned person (at least when it comes to looking for photo references)? What makes a good and bad photo is subjective, but these are my takes.
I'll take an example of a dark skinned model - in this case Khoudia Diop - and present some examples of what a 'bad' photograph of her can look like. These would be the types of photos to avoid using as reference for what darker skin actually looks like.
The first example ie the top left image of her is balanced to show the white detail of her outfit, but not at all balanced to show the detail of her face and skintone, and so her face and skin and hair are totally underexposed and flattened. The reflection of light on her face overly pops out like a bright light in a sea of under-exposed dark muddied features that blend into each other.
The second example in the top row completely de-saturates her face, giving her a gray-ish ashy charcoal-like tone to her skin, completely obscuring whatever undertones she may have. It looks deliberate, in contrast to the noticeable yellowed tone of her light colored outfit.
The third example in the top row places her in a white patterned outfit in front of a stark white background, that completely flattens her features into one or two hues, while the highlights and whites of her teeth stand out starkly as if in a void of under-detailed flattened brown.
The fourth example uses contrast to its detriment, leading to the shadows becoming too dark so that her features blend into the shadows; the corners of her mouth just fade into the darkness with hard to see boundaries. The highlights and reflections of light on her face give an almost ashy appearance.
The fifth example has her standing in a bikini, and while the lighting is not bad, the white lighting and editing drains away the variance of depth in her skin, making it all look like the same undertone almost as if painted on, when in reality bodies can greatly vary in undertone and depth of richness from one part of the body to another.
The sixth and last example of a 'bad' photo has her in a stark white outfit in front of black background, and whatever the hell is going on with the lighting on her face makes her look washed out and ashy.
Okay, so those are all examples of 'bad' photos. So what does a 'good' photo for photo reference look like?
Here are some examples I picked, of the same model, that I would consider 'good' photos to use as reference when you're trying to effectively depict darker skintones.
All four of these photos are nicely exposed and balanced so that none of her features are overly flattened or washed out. The undertone and depth of her skintone is on display in multiple locations, and the whites of her eyes and highlights of her skin are not so stark as to overtake the rest of her face. The reflectiveness of her skin is used to emphasize her facial structure without completely washing out the rest of her skintone. The white lighting used utilizes the reflective nature of her skin without overly coloring it reflect the environment.
These are good photos to use as photo reference. They have the model in neutral lighting, so that the skintone is not distorted by vibrant colors reflecting off the skin. Vibrant lighting can be useful, but if you want a more objective view of skintone, it is best to use neutral lighting.
Okay, so we have a metric of what a decent reference photo can look like, now how do we use the reference photo to color pick a skintone?
There are good ways to do it, and bad ways to do it. The bad ways are often done maliciously by people who want to whitewash on purpose. Let's start with the bad.
Say this image below is our photo reference. Pretty decent, right? The lighting is neutral white, nothing is over or under-exposed, the variance of her undertones are on display, and the reflections of the lighting on her face isn't too glaring. How could someone possibly muck up using this for reference?
I shall show you some of the ways someone may take an ostensibly good reference photo, and color pick ignorantly or maliciously from it.
So if those are the ways you SHOULDN'T color pick for a dark skinned ref image, how SHOULD you do it instead? Here's how!
If you put all these tips into practice, you'll likely have a much better time picking good reference material and color picking from aforementioned reference material.
But what if the artwork you're doing has dramatic lighting? How would that affect darker skin? I'm glad you asked!
Dark skin is reflective! Light bounces off dark skin in beautiful ways! Check out how vibrant lighting bounces off the skin of these models from the Afro Hair Index!
Whatever tones and hues the skin usually has will get tinted to reflect whatever lighting hits that skin. If you shine a blue light, all the highlights will be blue.
When it comes to studying how light interacts with skin, photos like these are great! They are not exactly good metrics for determining the base skin color outside of that dramatic lighting, however. If you want to render skin that's not affected by tinted lighting, it is best to use reference photos in neutral/white lighting.
I encourage anyone that wants to get better at rendering skin to do some studies of good photos, figure out how that light interacts with the skin, how the shadows and highlights bounce around the image, how different lighting and exposure affects the flatness or variance of values of the skin. It's a great way to level up your understanding as an artist!
It is up to our discernment and personal tastes what we decide as 'good' or 'bad' reference photos, but ultimately I hope this can help people find better material to work with instead of settling for the first image they find even if it's less than ideal.
(Thank you to my friends who helped me as I made this guide! Much love to @pleasantvoidphantom especially)
Do you have any tricks on anatomy?? Or like what shapes should be for where??
for more accurate proportions, I like to mark down some landmarks early, so clavicle/pelvis/feets/etc. and then go back and add and refine based on that
for shapes, there's not really any specific assigned shapes like "the arm should be a cylinder and the shoulder should be a circle." I usually like to think of shapes more abstractly. The stricter you are, the stiffer your figures will look.
maybe one shape thing is to think of the torso a little like a bean? That's what my figure drawing profs teach lol
Also you can use references help guide you. In the above image, I have my reference photo, the action lines I traced from it and then a drawing based on that
Boring tired disclaimer: Keep in mind that this is an introductory "drawing" "tutorial" and has some generalizations in it, so not every “X is Z” statement will be true for Actual People. Which happens to be true for everything in general. Links below so that you can research and do a nuance. Ones that were directly mentioned are bolded.
Writing a blind character 101
What to avoid etc
Video on types of white canes
Video on types of cane tips
Some more explanation on white canes + tips + other stuff
Guide animals
Video on working with a guide dog
↑ if you're doing a non-dog non-horse animal please still perceive those two links. A guide animal is not a GPS that tells you "left" or "right" (in fact, you're the one telling it which direction you want to go). So before giving them something weird check if it actually makes sense. You can make a fantasy animal that still makes sense I promise 🦮👍
But why are Magical White Eyes a problem
Same as above
Going blind from an accident
Video on conformers
World's most basic "what do you call someone with albinism"
The blindfold thing. No people don't wear these.
This mostly stupid trope of covering a blind character's eyes because lord forbid someone sees a disabled body part
This just stupid trope of giving a blind character some bs superpower to "see"
The echolocation thing that every other blind oc does for some reason
Just give them a cane good lord if you want a character that can see perfectly then maybe don't make them blind
Bonus: if your character has a bunch of scars or whatever else then congrats! You made a character with a facial difference. Which is also something you should research.
In addition, wheatpasted posters can contain fine shards of glass mixed up in the glue. In general it is safe to assume that removing street art with your bare hands can result in injury, especially if the art is politically motivated, but fascists in particular have zero qualms about hurting people who try to tear down their propaganda.
carry bumper stickers. Planned parenthood, the trevor project, one of the million refugee funds, hell, funny jokes and pictures of animals. If you can’t tear this shit down, hide it with hope.
