srry if this is annoying but i LUV the way u draw more androgynous/gender yes characters... do u have any tips for that?? thank u i love ur art . caldera 4ever and ever <3
TY I SAW THIS ASK THEN I WENT TO EAT BREAKFAST BUT IM HERE yummm big cereal bowl and coffee. okay okay i am here
UR NOT ANNOYING TY FOR THE ASK im behind big time on asks but i wanna try to answer a lot of them today, so its good you sent this in & i hope youll be online when i post it sdjkfhdkf
so First Off i will say that im answering this through the lens of OCs made from an Urban Fantasy perspective. this may not be entirely accurate to other genres or styles of characters, but take what fits and works and leave what doesn't basically. its not Traditional or High fantasy, in that they still have some modern quirks, but its also not completely from Earth, so they have some fantasy based design choices too.
One thing i think thats worked for me so far is playing around with both what kind of calderan they are (fae, elf, zombie, half human half something else, etc) as well as what the culture or gender notions are for that as well. one good example is how irak reads as very androgynous but slightly feminine by earth standards and by viewers who exist irl/on Our planet, but within the world/setting irak leans a bit more masculine (though still androgynous). this is reflected by how he looks very similar to bartholomew, a cis man, in terms of physical appearances, so its clear there's some gender fuckery going on within fae culture that isnt Quite comparable to things on earth but its understood regardless.
by contrasting the sort of like.. gaming how people on earth would read the characters with their own pre learned understanding AND with their newly found intrigue to learn and understand new information being given to them, and sort of combining these things together in a way that lends to a higher understanding of irak (and by extension bartholomew, for example) by it
another thing is how basically everyone in caldera has boobs, aside the humans or those partially human, which can affect their bodies in various mixed levels (ie mia AND rebel/royal system are both human/elf, but mia ended up way more elf physically and rebel is imo way more like just a zombified human who happens to have small pointy ears lmfao).
this can affect things like all the fae having boobs regardless of being a cis man, cis woman, trans man, trans woman, or nonbinary. (tersm that even still are more human lenses upon fae culture, who wouldnt describe themselves as such terms BUT i do so that it is established at least Canon Representation though words being equivalents to us and them, like a bridge of cultures).
playing around with how a fictional group of people would function and establish their relation to gender and how their bodies work, and then playing around and toying with it in a way that sort of suspends preconcieved notions of How A Character Should Be Read has worked very well for me lol. especially since lawrence is notably flat chested, specifically wears a binder, so even if the reader doesnt realize it at first, its like........ oh, why is he doing that? what would this mean to him, what does it serve in relation of him vs other fae? and even still, what does it mean with him vs even the elves too? etc etc.
if you work with humans and not other fantasy related things, then i think some of these things can still apply, especially if your humans are still in their own made up story IE something sci fi or another genre in which the Terms of the World are different and allow you to have sort of Invented Customs within it.
something else i do often is almost making alternative/emo/etc OCs as the default, so when one ISN'T alternative, it almost ends up making their gender presentation stand out much stronger against the rest, even if they would be regarded as gender conforming. like they arent GNC but their gender presentation is so different than the res that they end up being an interesting twist on the situation too lmfao, like lilas or liza
i also think making intersex characters whose bodies also dont align with whatever perisex/assumed body/etc that would be done (if your story still has gender roles or identity assigned). this in of itself also allows exploration of what is expected and what is done to go against it (as intersex people are often seen as, at least by an intersexphobia society, Inherently Against the Expected Gender Norms, in a way that perisex/dyadics would not be. it depends again if your story does or does not have a strict expectation on this sort of thing).
xanthe is intersex, specifically does not produce enough of the elf hormones that usually lead to breast growth, and so has a literal flat chest - something that means xanthe automatically is sort of locked out of certain bodily expectations for elves to have. this impacts a lot of things, ie off the rack clothes not being made with this in mind, etc which does lead to a different kind of gender related presentation (specifically limiting where and what xanthe can buy or wear). its something very culturally specific for xanthe to go through, and its both relateable to people on earth who might have similar experiences AND something that has a greater context within elf culture that is specific to them. it sort of lets the audience understand Enough in a way they can contextualize, while also adding a sort of fantasy elf element etc
it also puts in to perspective and sort of like, is an interesting facet that higher xanthe Does have boobs, due to purposefully choosing them when taking a physical(ish) form. what it would mean to do so and what personal feelings it might give h xanthe to have them etc
i think the best way to sort of break the rules expected is to at least have them well established first, even if theyre subtle (because even then the breaking can be subtle too, and it lets the audience sort of Study and Ponder on it themselves and come to their conclusion rather than be Hand Held i suppose).
i also think its interesting to play with a character who still has the same base body but presents and utilizes and uses it so differently in different contexts, and it sort of gives u a really wide view on what specifically it means for each situation (in this case, alters/the royal system) and why these specific clothing or hair styles etc were picked or utilized and what it personally means to them at that time. in this way someone super feminine like sayko (by earth standards at least) is still read as potentially androgynous or GNC within the context because the other two are as well, sort of makes you go hmmmm what elf trickery is going On lol
i ended going off a lot on this lmfaooo and i actually dont know how much of it is helpful at all.... if anyhting is too caldera specific i can Try This Again lmfaooo but hopefully its insightful regardless
ANWYAYS GO FORTH!!!! MAKE GENDERFUCKERY AND ANDROGYNOUS CHARACTERS GO GO GO
