Bipoc - Tumblr Posts
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.
OK THAT’S ALL YOU GUYS
hi i'm an artist and i do pastel art. how do you color dark skinned characters in pastel art without whitewashing them?
i get asked this a lot by many artists and i totally get it
The first thing to note down is that coloring dark skinned in a pastel way is NOT about lighting their skin but rather about lowering the saturation in their skin tone.
what i mean by this is to focus less on skin tone and more of how piercing the color is. pastel are is soft and carries a fragile color scheme. many artists who don’t know how to color dark skin usually make the mistake of coloring their characters like this:
DO NOT DO THIS^^
artists coloring dark skin like this in pastel art is the primary reason why the myth of “you can’t color dark skin in pastel art” still lies around. The problem with these color scheme above is that this happens due to the artist focusing on the fact that dark skin is brown rather than trying to put effort into getting the skin tone to fit the color scheme. The color in these drawing have skin tones that don’t match the scheme at all and stands out too much hence the easy way out to this problem for these artist is
W H I T E W A S H I N G ~
PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS WHEN DRAWING A DARK SKINNED CHARACTER!!!
Rather than whitewashing them, the solution to this problem is to lower the saturation of the skin tone to fit the scheme
GO FROM THIS:
TO THIS:
^This fits the scheme so much more better because there character is clearly brown without their skintone being saturated to the point of hurting your eyes
M o r e E x a m p l e s ~
from the colors i used on the skin tone of these two pieces the colors are around the same range of darkness
The only difference is that one is more saturated than another
Welp those are all my tips for coloring darkskin for pastel art
hope this was helpful :’0
How to draw Afro textured 4c hair - an explanation/Tutorial
For those of you that don’t know what 4c hair is, 4c hair is a hair texture type that contains coils to small and tight that the hair appears to be more puffy rather than curly ( like to photo below ) this is in NO WAY to be confused with curly hair. there is a drastic difference.
As a black artist that primarily draws characters with 4c hair, I’ve been asked many times to do a tutorial on 4c hair so here we go~
before we get into 4c hair, lets take a moment to fully understand it by talking about hair texture in a general sense first
let’s take a look at this example of straight hair vs curly hair ( 1 type straight hair vs 3 type curly hair )
If you take a moment to compare the two you’ll notice straight hair is flat, it has no texture. Straight hair perfectly hangs down similar to liquid-like silk. It’s lack of curl pattern is the reason as to why it hangs perfectly flat.
curly hair on the other hand doesn’t lie down flat and silky like straight hair, It’s more thick. Curly hair in it’s raw and unstyled state has a trapezoid like shape this is because the sides of the hair spread more outward.
So why is this? Why is straight hair flat and curly hair thick?
the answer to that question is a thing called piling up. When it comes to hair texture, the shape of the hair strands aren’t the only thing that matters, its how the strands coexist with each other, Curly hair strands coexist by piling up on top each other.
moisture also effects hair texture too, different hair types absorbs moisture differently, thus the thickness of each hair type is different.
…..soooo, how does this all relate to how to draw 4c hair??
Well let’s take a look at the drawing below. Notice how the arrows go outward more as the hair texture gets curlier. As we’ve already discussed, this is because hair piles up, The curlier the hair texture, the more it piles up on each other, the bigger it gets, the more outward the arrows go.
Out of any hair texture, 4C hair has the most curls. Because of this, the hair piles up on each other so much that it doesn’t lie down flat like straight hair, nor does it make a trapezoid like shape like curly hair, it instead becomes more cloud like.❤️
This is what you need to take into account when it comes to drawing 4C hair.
Think of it as piling up a bunch of cotton balls on each other. The most cotton on top of top to lead to a bigger patch of cotton. this is 4c hair.
How to not draw 4c hair:
Garnet fanart. Let’s talk about Garnet Fanart. I notice a trend that when artists draw Garnet from Steven universe, her hair texture is usually changed to 3 type curly like texture. This subtle form of White washing has confused me because this is inaccurate.
Garnet’s hair is in the shape of a cube. Though 3 type hair piles up on each other, it isn’t curly nor thick enough for their hair to stay in the shape of a cube. Curly hair lies down more than 4c hair. So garnet’s hair being in the shape of a cube is a dead giveaway that it is 4C. Why do you think hairstyles like flat tops are usually seen on black men with 4c hair? It’s because, the 4c hair texture is thick and strong enough to stay in whatever shape you put it in.
please, if you’re drawing a character with 4c hair, avoid drawing it like curly 3 type hair, this is very anti-black and texturist.
So, how do you draw 4c hair?
honestly, its the most easy thing in the world
i wanna clarify that blobby looking 4c drawings ( like the one on the top left ) can work depending on how cartoony your art style is.
Another thing that I want to greatly clarify when it comes to drawing 4C hair is, YOU. DONT. NEED. TO. DRAW. EVERY. HAIR. STRAND!…..like, seriously. I’ve gotten many messages about how 4C hair is hard to draw, and it’s always left me confused; but then I find out that the same people that have trouble drawing 4C hair, attempt to draw every single strand of hair. This is unnecessarily time consuming because it’s merely impossible to get every single detail down, especially when you have a simple cartoon style. 4C hair does not require much effort, all you’re doing is drawing lumps. It’s that simple, nothing more nor nothing less.
The reason why I greatly advise all of you to avoid drawing every single hair strand is because in real life, when you look at a 4C textured Afro, your eyes don’t pick up on each individual hair strand like straight or curly hair. 4C hair, appears to be more undefined and cloud like, so attempting to draw each and every individual strand is unnecessary and will most likely end up looking inaccurate.
Anyways! that’s it for now! there will be a part 2 to this tutorial that will come out next week! i hope you guys have learned from this and apply it to your black character in your art!~
how do you draw curly hair
An important thing is to sketch out the volume of the whole hair before you go into details. You can start putting inside shapes into it once you have the mass volume.
The way I draw Meg’s hair usually varies between these two types of curls (though I think the 2nd one is technically kinky and not curly but don’t hit me if I’m wrong, it’s not like I know hair terminology)
The 3rd drawing is how I’d draw light colored curly hair in a hurry.(TBH that looks less like the girl’s on the bottom and more like it was curled with a curling iron but that’s because I didn’t draw enough small twists. Sorry, I didn’t want to spend my morning drawing hair lol)
If all else fails you can always look at how it’s drawn by someone else and see if you can translate that into your style
Sorry I don’t have that many different examples. Other than Meg’s usual do, I don’t often draw curly hair. Here are three pics where her hair is more curly: (x), (x), (x)
Lesson 1: "White Man Painted Black"?
Okay, I recognize that this is a strong foot to step off on! But! If you learn nothing else from this series, if you decide for whatever reason to forsake me: this is the ONE perspective I'd like you to take away!
You may have heard this quote before, when Black fans deride a character design as 'a white man with the brown bucket tool'. On its face, it means exactly what was said. But specifically, what it means is that we recognize that whomever designed the character drew the way they normally draw for a 'default' character in their mind- default usually meaning White/Eurocentric features- and they added a shade of brown within the line art to make that character now 'Black'.
Now if you're feeling defensive, wait just a moment! This discomfort is not inherently a bad thing!
I'm going to use both a 'real world' example first, to show you what your Black fans and peers are seeing, and perhaps you will also understand our discomfort!
(if anyone was curious, my folder for this lesson is titled 'brad' lmao and you'll see why)
(I'll have y'all know that I actually worked very hard to make Blackface Brad look mildly presentable lmao I'm sorry, I'm wheezing, I can hardly breathe looking at him 🤣)
You see how, despite knowing where this was going, and using one of the darkest shades of brown in my Skin Tones arsenal, you still know that that's Brad Pitt? That nothing about his hair texture, his lips, his nose, or really anything other than the palette change... changed? And you can still see that?
It's incredibly hurtful to be told that that's supposed to be you. You know it's not, you know why it's not, but rather than hearing how it makes you feel unseen and what they could do to be better (since they wanted to draw a Black character!), the artist lashes out at you.
And as an artist, you might have worked VERY HARD to do this! That might be a real handsome guy you drew!! But... is he really Black? Did you walk into it with the intention, that you were drawing a Black Character, or did you draw a character that just happened to be Black? It seems like a silly thing, but it matters!
Okay. I just finished laughing over Brad. Now let's get into some more perspective changes:
Now, imagine you drew a character. You want to make her Black, so you change the hair and skin colors. All right! You have your Black character... right?
Changed ONE feature about her? (You should obviously change more than one feature, but let's just go with the simplified example.)
What if, instead of just changing her palette, we changed her:
Hair?
There isn't nearly enough time in the world, let alone in this little scribble and blurb, for me to describe the IMPORTANCE of Black hair in Black character design. There are so many ways to do curls, afros, braids, twists, locs, SO MANY HAIRSTYLES!! Get used to searching in the 3C-4C hair textures!!!! I plan on doing an entire lesson or two on hair alone, but suffice it to say, Hair Texture is thee BIGGEST giveaway that you 'painted a white person Black'- from cartoon styles to realistic! It reveals itself in your writing as well- just based on how your character takes care of their hair, how your describe the texture, how other people might perceive it... it lets me know just how much research was done. Because we can have straight hair! But again, that's a conversation for a whole 'nother lesson so- come back later 👀?
Lips?
I love our lips, I really do. There's a long history of shaming Black women in particular for the way our lips look. So when I see them done in all their glory, it makes me very happy. Two-toned lips vary in shade and intensity, so make sure you're using references if you want to be 'realistic', but it doesn't have to be that hard. Even a little subtle shift like this in the design/story description lets me know that a creator was thinking about me.
Nose?
One thing I've noticed ever since I starting drawing is that... people in a lot of mangas/manhwas barely have noses! I admit, out of all the features on the face, the nose isn't the most important. I think they should be, especially when you want to emphasize that your characters look different! People have different types of noses! I especially want to gear this towards those with a goal of drawing realistic portraits and the like- there, the nose is ANOTHER dead giveaway. There are Black people with aquiline and straight noses- we aren't a monolith- but is that why you drew it? Consider why you went for that nose specifically. That's part of the intent, in all this!
Now, you might be looking at me and going "Ice... this is just character design". To which my answer is: Yes! It is! It feels so basic, and yet if you ask your Black friends/peers how often they've come across this feeling of not being properly drawn/written, from fanart to professionally produced works, it's unfortunately common despite how simple of a concept it is.
I hope that you can walk away from my first lil lesson with new eyes. Remember, it's the thought that counts, but the action that delivers!
do you have any tips on drawings noses? particularly non-white noses?? all the tutorials are european noses and i just want to learn how to draw my own nose!!
oh i feel you. the nice thing about being a poc is that you can always study yourself in the mirror to learn how to draw yourself better! but anyways:
if you’re wondering which kinds of noses are frequent for which race, i like to use this guide. I can’t verify how accurate it is, but it’s pretty damn comprehensive for racial traits around the world. I also really like this guide for learning how to draw a variety of East Asian noses (it’s not all flat!). Here’s an equivalent guide that includes drawing African noses. And there’s always Google images for more specific requirements.
+ 3D models are really helpful when drawing noses: x x x
+ here are some general nose tutorials by better artists lol: x x
EDIT: Check the notes for an updated version (different names are used)
A compilation of stuff I know about drawing Asian faces and Asian culture! I feel like many “How-To-Draw” tutorials often default to European faces and are not really helpful when drawing people of other races. So I thought I’d put this together in case anyone is interested! Feel free to share this guide and shoot me questions if you have any! I’m by no means an expert, I just know a few things from drawing experience and from my own cultural background.
anoosha syed (foxville_art) on Twitter made a really interesting tutorial on how to colour non-white skin in illustrations that I thought people who follow this blog might find useful (:
(resposted with permission)
Hi there this is a psa by your local mixed kid
Mixed rep in the media as a whole is kinda a fucking disaster so I'm definitely encouraging people to write more diverse mixed race characters!!! That being said give this handy dandy little guide a read to make sure you have a basic idea of what you're doing. And also. Y'know. Maybe dont make your mixed characters nonhuman. Just a thought
Here it is, my long winded tutorial, complete with some step by step action. I see a lot of people talk about wanting to diversify their artwork but not knowing how. This is my help to you. You really should take the time to invest in learning diverse eye shapes as diverse artwork always makes you a better artist. And frankly I’m really tired of drawing tutorials that talk up character diversity but only have the stereotypical “one Asian eye”.
I did some step by steps for those three diagrams, but I actually got them from this blog which has 14 of those examples! (Bonus: it’s a makeup blog so if you need help with that or want some idea of how to shade these eyes, there ya go)
disclaimer: I am east asian. if anyone who is not white sees anything wrong with my phrasing, inaccuracies, or insensitivity, or something I missed, please feel free to add on. I’m just one person with one perspective; none of what I say should be taken as The Singular way to draw an Asian character. if you havent done so already, please take the effort to expand your view of Asian culture outside this one tutorial.
if a white person reblogs this and adds something stupid I’m going to bite and kick you like a wild animal
Like I just had to become physically disabled. Like was being black, a woman, mentally ill, a lesbian and adopted not fucking ENOUGH. Like god couldn't be like I'll spare u this one time????????
Happy Pride Month to my fellow LGBT siblings!! This pride month, a lot has happened, and I think we need to remember now, more than ever, to support other minorities and especially BIPOC & the BLM movement... On that note:
If you donate to any BLM matter movement, or towards any of the protests & bail funds, DM me a screenshot of proof and I'll make you a bracelet or keychain and send it to you (at no cost to you besides the donation!)
Custom flags are available, as I have lots of colours but please DM to confirm I have the right materials for the flag I want, and understand it might be a bit of a wait as I custom make it.
To all the LGBTAQ+ Muslims, you are not dirty. You are not a walking contradiction. You are beautiful and incredible. I want all my Muslim brothers, sisters and friends to know this that Allah has created you the way you are, and you are a child of his.
He loves you for who you are and what you do. You are a perfectly valid human and deserve every bit of happiness this world has to offer. This year we celebrate Eid-ul-fiter in the month of Pride to acknowledge our existence and embrace our identity.
Non Muslims are highly encouraged to reblog this post.
Islamophobic people, terfs, Nazis, Trump supporters and any lgbtaq+ phobic people DO NOT INTERACT.