You can discover the weirdest things digging into your family history.
For example:
Apparently, I have a great-great-uncle who was cursed by a witch after stiffing her on the repayment of one-dollar loan. (Why he borrowed a dollar from a witch in the first place is not recorded.)
I also have a great-grandfather, a beekeeper by profession, who’s alleged to have spontaneously combusted one day while tending his bees.
As far as I can tell, these events are completely unrelated - the two men are on different branches of the family tree, and never met - but I can’t help but imagine that somewhere out there, there’s a witch with unbelievably bad aim.
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.
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.
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!
