On drawing ethnic characters (share any tips, helpful videos etc)

Leyelle 2024-02-12 19:13:01 UTC #1

So I realize that as a cartoonist my style is a lot simpler than many people may be going for, but I draw afro-hair textures quite often as a black woman myself, so I thought I'd share a few tips.

First of all, don't stress yourself out about drawing every single curl. Unless an African American person has gone through specific effort to define their curls, a picked Afro will look more like a cloud than a mass of individual curls. 99% of the time, curls are only visible at the very end of the hair.

It's not cheating to draw short naturals like they're made of brocolli or like even spheres with little ridges (again picked afros don't have that much clear definition from a distance) but when you want to add more detail, imagine the curls are a spring, you can let your pencil over lap as you make these coils or loopdy loops, because that's basically how the hair is behaving IRL. And watching natural hair tutorials can help you have an idea what is and isn't possible for the hair texture (without the use of chemicals) so you can add a sense of realism to your design, if that's what you're looking for.

kyupol 2024-02-12 20:23:40 UTC #2

I would look at realistic refpics then stylize them. Sometimes it's all about the color scheme.

ThunderChicken 2024-02-12 20:28:27 UTC #3

When in doubt, make ‘em bald (of course this wouldn’t work on a female character, but Leander is bald and proud):

That is whipped cream on his upper lip

Leyelle 2024-02-12 20:30:07 UTC #4

female characters can be bald, honey. One of my OCs in my new series "Hushabye Prince" is gonna be buzzed, and so are the female leads of one or two of my (currently) unreleased novels.

voskhodart 2024-02-13 22:34:06 UTC #5

Here are a few things I keep in mind when drawing characters of color:

Pay attention to artists of color and how they stylize themselves, especially if you work with highly stylized art. Never just give up and say "I don't draw [race] because they don't fit my style". Anyone can fit your style-- just put in the time and effort to learn how to draw them in a way that isn't disrespectful or harmful!
When you're drawing a character with darker skin, don't just pick a white skin tone and drag the brightness slider down. Play around with different undertones, saturation, and depth. (And if you want a quick reference, there are tons of pallets out there. Not to mention the good ol' flesh cloud.)
Especially on really dark skin tones, pay attention to lighter areas, like the palms and lips. Nobody is just a solid dark tone across their whole body.
Don't just draw someone with petite white facial features and change their hair and skin tone. Learn to draw different facial features and body types. (This one isn't even specific to characters of color. Half of the webcomic community is infected with a fatal case of same-face syndrome. You can be part of the cure. Draw cool noses.)
Pay attention to the culture of whoever you're drawing. Even if they're from a fictional world, take inspiration from their real-world equivalent. I find this to be especially important when it comes to things like hair; I see a lot of non-black artists get stuck with drawing two or three black hairstyles, when there are tons of awesome ways to style textured hair!
Going off on my previous point, look up hair texture charts. This is a great one for different textures overall, and this one is a really good visualization of how highly-textured hair looks before and after ironing.
Most importantly: Do your research and listen to people of color! Talk to people from the cultures you're drawing inspiration from so that you can accurately represent and celebrate them. Don't be afraid to just reach out to your black friends and say "hey, I want to learn more about black hair styles" or whatever it is that you're looking for. Most people are happy to help others learn more about themselves and their culture!

Leyelle 2024-02-13 22:49:57 UTC #6

As a black woman I agree with all of your tips and suggestions lol

Glofernwolfe 2024-02-13 23:02:47 UTC #7

Thanks for the tips!

When I practice I always try to get references of as many different people as possible, and from different geographies. It helps get a wider perspective for character design.

I guess my tip would be: use references. That's it. Don't think that it is copying. It's learning.

Some stuff from my practice. Haven't done this in a while because I'm so lazy.

Leyelle 2024-02-13 23:06:32 UTC #8

these look really good. Honestly, I think you can tell when art is good when you can't tell what ethnicity someone is by their art. Usually whatever culture you are is the one that comes out the best, but I legit can't guess with these.

dayworks 2024-02-14 02:43:36 UTC #9

those are looking nice.

dayworks 2024-02-14 03:04:13 UTC #10

This a good topic. Since my main two character (at least the human ones) are Korean and I am not. The thing I really try to stay aware of is to not slip into cliche'. I keep feeling that the differences between ethnicities is way more subtle than we usually think. The human brain seems to hard wired to sort people into different categories (probably a ancient survival skill) so the differences get exaggerated in own minds. I also try real hard to show my characters having a full range of emotions and expressions so that their features are living things and not signifies of ethnicity. I do worry that I might be going to far in the opposite direction and making them too generic but that's how I'm playing it for now.

dayworks 2024-02-14 04:12:11 UTC #11

good solid advice - thanks for taking the time to share.

NickRowler 2024-02-14 04:43:44 UTC #12

Mostly the importance of getting skin with a rich undertone and using warm colors for shading. I feel like sometimes I see characters with dark skin who look washed out or they have zombie skin.

Here is an example of how using grey to shade dark skin can look bad.

Here is another issue that might pop up. You can tell that they only set up lighting for people with white skin, which leads with the black kid looking washed out and too dark. Usually in cases like this, you need to focus on highlights.

If you want a good understanding of this, I recommend looking up makeup contour. You will see that people with darker skin focus more on the highlights. While people with lighter skin focus more on the shadows.

thepenmonster 2024-02-14 10:27:14 UTC #13

I've heard good things about the book How to Draw Black People but I've never gotten around to buying and using it so I can't say myself.

Leyelle 2024-02-20 22:17:26 UTC #14

Get reference from haircare and hair-style tutorials. they're going to show you lots of angles and the levels of afro hair texture.

llobucervallince 2024-02-20 22:27:49 UTC #15

I am the last person with the right to comment on hair having my co protagonist's hair being three circles on the front and three on the back

Hell I even made a quick study today to see any possible style he could have and it was a disaster since his head is also a freacking circle.

The only acceptable hairstyle involves him keeping the circles in the front and having long hair in the back,which I'll be saving for his teenage design.

Leyelle 2024-02-21 00:27:07 UTC #16

well it's stylized lol, so it's not gonna be hyper-realistic

Leyelle 2024-02-21 00:27:23 UTC #17

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Leyelle 2024-03-13 22:03:36 UTC #18

what i'd like to call a cultural cop out. if you can't draw natural hair, headscarves are a big part of our culture for African American women. While it has a cultural relevance of us not being allowed to wear our hair out in the Louisiana area (because they thought it made us look too pretty, legit) we made that stylish too, and to this day we still use it as a big part of black-girl fashion.

Don't believe me, look it up on YouTube PBS "Say It Loud" "the history of black beauty"

Leyelle 2024-04-01 21:57:35 UTC #19

Diversity and details are your friends. remember, there isn't just one universal feature for African Americans. if you want all your characters to look different remember we have spectrums of hair texture, complexion, and hair color from yellow-bones and red-bones (who are often blonde, freckled, or red-haired) to very dark-skinned. All of these features can be paired with varying hair lengths and cuts, and nose and lip shapes. You're not limited to one 'idea' of what a black person looks like. There is a lot, and the more pictures you look at, the more interesting faces you'll see, that can inspire you

Leyelle 2024-04-17 00:19:55 UTC #20

If your art style is very stylized, you don't have to throw that away for the sake of diversity, for instance, in super cutesy styles, say, where nobody has noses, or pretty uniform body types, you only need a few details (like changes in complexion and hair texture) to still get your point across. You don't have to completely overhaul the look.

example: all people groups can be represented in this simplistic style simply by changing hair texture and complexion