I'm going to go on a little soapbox with this upload of my version of Cresseida of the Summer Court from ACOTAR. These feelings are what inspired me to make my ACOTAR series of fanart.
These books purposely have some great diversity in them, but too often the art I was looking up to be able to see the characters made every single one of them white people with just different skin colors. No varied features, textured hair.... They all looked white. It's sad, you know? Because representation in fantasy is SO NEEDED!! It's been dominated by a particular look for so long, so I understand that people just automatically erase those things to go with what has been the norm for so long. But it's just not right, in my opinion. It's not fair to take that away. We need it!!
I love love seeing more POC written fantasy, and fantasy featuring main characters that do not fit the "racial norm" in the fantasy genre. The feedback I've gotten from my images that show that diversity has been food for my soul, with one person in particular being incredibly moved by me making Illyrians Indian-coded. It made me cry to see them so happy! We need that! Pls don't erase the diversity that authors put into books!
Does my art of non-white characters always get less traction? Yeah, and it bums me out. It's a bigger issue.
I get not everyone will agree with me making Illyrians Indian-coded, and that's okay. Some see them as Mediterranean, some as Arab, and I don't have a problem with their interpretation of something more nebulous like Illyrians. I took context clues and interpreted them my way, and that's okay too.
Some will say "they are fae, not human, so ethnicities don't matter here" and that's... not an argument I agree with. These stories are written by humans who base their writings on the real world so we have context and are influenced by the fact that they live with other humans in a human dominated world. I don't feel that is a good faith argument to make. But that's my opinion.
But the Summer Court? Helion? Clearly Black-coded! Celebrate diversity in fantasy! We need more of it!! I'm not here to attack other artists who I feel have done this, not at all. It is a symptom of a bigger issue here-and that bigger issue is what I have issue with.
Okay, off my soapbox, lol.