Jackass of All Trades

the * being, Black people arent inherently more difficult to draw, but I do have to learn new/different ways of being creative to design black characters at times (especially regarding hair)

I am truthfully not a super creative person, I'm constantly regurgitating designs and ideas and pretty much all of my original stories started as an oc x canon character that I then divorced from the canon material,

So when designing characters, I know Black hair is extremely important, and knowing that pushes me to think more deeply about the character than I might if it was just straight hair. "white girl puts hair into ponytail or has bangs" vs "would this Black girl lay her edges? does she have a sensitive scalp and prefer to not wear braids? Would she prefer a simple or more elaborate design in her braids? Would she prefer braids or locs? Would she prefer to wear wigs? If she straightens her hair, why?" etc etc. I'm generally familiar with the mindset people have when styling straight hair, while learning about Black hair is really also learning a part of Black culture and deserves more research & consideration imo.

(I tend to really only design characters who have already taken shape in my mind, but when using picrews to give inspiration or doodling a random character design, I just try to make something appealing and then have the design inform the character rather than the character informing the design, if that makes sense. So when drawing a random character design, drawing Black characters requires no more effort than anyone else, but when designing a specific character I take more care with it. Typing this out sounds convoluted af Im so sorry lol)

So, it can take a little extra effort mostly because it may require taking the time to research and learn something new. (But so does drawing animals and furries so there is ZERO excuse) + I dont really see learning something new or different as a real difficulty, it's what I'm constantly doing as an artist anyway.

FINALLY MOVING ON TO NEXT QUESTION, yes it is extremely important to take the time to learn. It's cringe and embarassing to see people refuse to do so, or just drawing characters the same but coloring them darker. It's lazy. I really enjoy drawing, so I try to put in the effort to draw things I'm unfamiliar with. I dont really color much so I want people to be able to tell my characters arent white just by looking at a sketch. Being able to draw characters without sameface syndrome is what I feel makes me a good artist vs just someone who likes to draw.

As for things to avoid,

(Credit to jetsofad on insta for the compilation.)

And no, ofc Black characters dont have to be human. (But some people should probably take care to not have the indicators be stereotypes.) Like, we know Sonic, Knuckles, and the TMNT are Black without having them break out into rap every other line. And fantasy races that lean more humanoid are even easier to do this with.