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!
You missed the best part. They weren’t even their sheep. This good pupper gathered up a bunch of random sheep it found somewhere on the countryside and brought them home for its human.
John Boyega being upset at Star Wars should come as no shock to anyone. He was brought into the project as the leading male character. He was dropped to a secondary status in TLJ and TROS. Whether you like his arcs in those films or not, his arc was secondary and not critical to the overall plot. Those are just facts, you cannot say Finn’s arc is secondary in TFA. He lost his place as the leading male character to Kyl0. I’d be 1000% bitter if I were him to. Disney didn’t fight for him, Disney let him get racist attacks after racist attacks. Then they caved made Kyl0 the male lead and made his character arc an afterthought.
You don’t have to ship, not ship, be an anti to understand Disney downplayed Finn due to racism. It’s his right to be bitter against Disney and against the Star Wars fandom as a whole which has repeatedly failed him. So yeah he can be bitter, angry, and jealous. If he is it’s 1000% justified.
