#also might try drawing some other characters because everyone here was Southern Chinese and I only really drew that sort of facial structure

[antidotefortheawkward-art]

Recently came to the realization that I don’t actually draw my Asian characters all that Asian and it made me sad- Like, you can’t really tell that my characters are Asian cuz all that sets them apart from my white characters are a slightly different eye shape and honestly if I changed their hair color from black, they might not even look that Asian at all.

Thought trying out some realism would help me identify which parts of my designs I needed to pay more attention to!

More thoughts on stylizing Asian characters under the cut (ft internalized bias)

So I wanna try making a conscious effort to draw my Asian characters more visibly Asian so when I get to actually developing media, Asian kids won’t just have to cling to the white characters with black hair like I used to. I think the reason my Asian characters look like white characters with black hair is largely due in part with the fact that almost all the characters I clung to as “Asian” as a kid weren’t actually Asian? 

But also my internalized racism and bias towards Western features definitely attributed to it too. I hope that by making my characters look more Asian, I can get more Asian kids to feel proud of their Asian features cuz I realized the reason i didnt really draw my Asian characters more Asian in the first place was cuz I was still thinking of Western Beauty Standards and Stuff™️.  I’m looking back at my old Wukong art where he has a really defined profile and realizing “Hey.... He’s a monkey and his snout/nose isn’t even that defined... Why am I even doing that? ......Oh wait, it’s cuz I’ve always disliked how absolutely Flat™️ my East Asian face is.”

So I wanna actually start drawing my Asian characters more Asian! Anime can get away with their characters not looking Asian cuz its produced by Japanese people for Japanese people and everyone in anime is assumed Japanese unless otherwise specified, but I want my media geared towards diaspora! I want them to see themselves onscreen. I want them to see someone who looks like them but isn’t a caricature and be like “Wow! There’s someone like me!”

Also decided to include eyelid detail in my designs because East Asian beauty standards? Absolutely screwed. Bajie’s gonna visibly have hooded eyelids and Longma’s gonna have monolids and that’s the that on that.

#my art #journey to the west #jttw #xiyouji #sun wukong #monkey king #zhu bajie #sha wujing #bai longma #journeyed from the east #jfte #Asian artists #Asian American #Chinese artist #character design #representation #basically my work process? #give everyone the lips they deserve im sorry to the disciples for giving them white lack of lips before pls forgive me #also might try drawing some other characters because everyone here was Southern Chinese and I only really drew that sort of facial structure #rounded with lower cheekbones #this was fun! havent drawn realism in a long long time #even though this was technically stylized realism #like #telltale games realism #not 100% satisfied with bajie's realistic design though #wujing's got a perm cuz he has retro Parent Energies #wukong's got an undercut cuz he has Horrible Mainland Fuckboi energies #also details- wujing's dimples. appreciate them. #and wukong's got crucible smoke scars at the corner of his eyes!