Side Account For Reblogs ^^

Dogs can kill and maim you and that is a given fact. My friends dad had to have his hand amputated because 2 dogs attacked him so viciously when he was delivering mail. Like please have your dog under control or secured at all times. I dont care if your dog is friendly to strangers, these dogs that mauled my friends dad were "friendly" to!

Me: no! bad!

Character: *gets fatter as a visual indicator that they are allowing themself to enjoy things / they are no longer experiencing previous hardships and dangers / they are generally happier*

Then, after months of this, I was finally getting better and I was eating more and I was putting on the weight I’d lost and I felt great, I felt like I had my body back.

And the same people who told me I looked great - the doctors who’d been unable to help (it was a real-hard-to-detect bitch of a disease) and the adults who’d taken care of me as best they could and some of the friends I had - all told me I should work to lose it. Go back to the weight I was while sick and work to stay there.

And, like, are you kidding?! I hated being that weight! I heard about how skinny I was so much I literally associated (and still do) being skinny with being sick because it was all anyone would goddamn talk about! I lost weight so fast I didn’t feel connected to my fucking body anymore and I talked about it, no less. How could anyone look at what I’d just been through, listen to me talk about what I’d just been through, and still say to my fucking face that I should eat less so I’d lose weight?

After a disease that literally made it almost impossible to eat enough to get through the day.

I love my chub. I have thick thighs and arm fat and a sizeable stomach and a double chin and I love it. I weigh so much more than I did when my entire life was nothing but being sick. Literally, the day I realized I was putting on weight again I cried from happiness, and I will never understand the people who told me I was worse off for it, and I will always celebrate when people are able to thrive enough to be fatter than they were when things were bad.

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!