Twitter Artists Please Stop Drawing Black characters Like This!

Mohammed Agbadi talking about twitter artists and how their representation of black people in their art is mildly inappropriate.
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This a commentary video on the twitter art community, art drama, white washing, art commentary art rant, and fixing art

[@MohammedAgbadi]

what are you doing on february 14?

[@MohammedAgbadi]

i'll be looking for that victory royaleeee

[@rangoon207]

crying in a dark corner watching my siblings get all the presents from other people

[@shatteredarling]

Nothing

[@Ibrainwashedyou]

Playing pokemon legends arceus probably

[@guhbruhmaste4557]

Same thing I do every other day.

[@masked.fool.]

at this point, being an artist on twitter is a death flag

[@MohammedAgbadi]

lmaoooo!!! oh boy you better be prepared for my next videos!

[@Ben-rz9cf]

I have never had a twitter, never saw the appeal of sticking my dick in a blender either

[@Mbrace818]

Being on Twitter at all is a death flag.

[@masked.fool.]

@@MohammedAgbadi oh no! Spoilers!!

[@arushan54]

Be anonymous and pretend to be Japanese

[@juliabazanska]

My main female OC is black and I've had DMs from POC telling me how they love how I draw her and her family. On the other hand, I have people openly commenting that "races shouldn't mix" (her husband is white) or that "black people don't belong in snow". Sooooo... A lot of odd people out there.

[@queencleopatra007]

The "black people dont belong in snow" might just be an inside joke. Me and my family (who are black) joke about stuff like "black people don't belong in the cold" but its just jokes

[@Jojokaska]

Yiiikes.

[@asprinjuice425]

@@queencleopatra007 Depends on if they mean it as a joke or not. Some people will genuinely mean what they say but others won't and it's hard to tell over text.

[@ShinyShilla]

Oh boy, one of my favorite female OC/protagonist has a white mom. She took from her some facial features (like freckles and green eyes) but for the rest she really looks like her dad, but I always had fear of showing them on the internet because I encountered very mean people who will find any single thing to make something racist and/or will jump on harassing if an artist makes a mistake, instead of correcting and let the people be educated. I'm really happy I follow Agbadi because they are teaching me and giving me link to useful content to learn better. I always saw light, if used for both character, an explanation for a change, but now I know not all lights (or color palette) are what they deem to be

[@aliciasam5239]

@@ShinyShilla I'm thinking of making a whole family of like 8 kids or so .One is fully white, is the oldest, and has a different dad than the other 7 which are mixed each with different features. Some look more black than some some have a curly, some in-between the two textures. The mom is white and the dad is black. I don't know think I'm showing them on the internet soon because of my art skills and l want to get into animation etc. With the risk of getting hate on the internet about my race and my characters, should l develop their story, and when l do get the ability .Gods spare life, should l still go and post it?

[@sirgentlebread7302]

I was streaming art when some gal came in and started lecturing me about how I was a racist for creating a caricature of black people and all the doohickey of how white people like herself have to do more for the black community by calling out and educating ignorant white heteros on art, when she finished, I told her calmly and slowly that I was drawing donkey kong.

[@TewChains]

😂

[@peggedyourdad9560]

I’m really hoping she was just a young person who very recently learned about the concept of racism.

[@pumpkinwarrior7138]

Cannot stand people who act like other groups can’t talk for themselves 😩

[@PanicoCalico]

XD o cheesus

[@FirstLast-hd4oe]

Says more about her tbh 🤣

[@NeroMai]

Imagine a world without Twitter....one day 😌

[@MohammedAgbadi]

hahaha imagine!

[@edgechan]

They'll exile to Instagram or another art site or Mastodon or TikTok (I think most of them are moving to Tiktok). It happened with Tumblr banning porn, the circle will continue as soon they move to another site.

[@dadadadeadgirl5602]

@@edgechan Tbh I wished tumblr wasnt banned and all of that twitter drama wouldn't have existed

[@noxiouschocolate9644]

Remember when people tried to cancel cdawg because me made a joke about demon slayers budget?

[@Valkari22]

@@edgechan Instagram doesn't allow porn so they will have to find some obscure site to post their xrated MHA self inserts.

[@Ben-rz9cf]

There is a huge difference between "Don't draw caricatures of black people" and "don't draw black caricatures". One is a great way to improve your likeness skills and your ability to distinguish prominent features between other races and the other is a great way to get cancelled on twitter

[@s0me_Weirdo]

😳

[@Ruby...X]

@@s0me_Weirdo Your username really describe you uh?

[@s0me_Weirdo]

@@Ruby...X oMg how’d you guess 😰

[@futurezzz6556]

Character*

[@wantedwig]

@@futurezzz6556 what's wrong with their use of the word caricature? Genuine question

[@eglantinepapeau1582]

i see a lot of artists "fixing" other people's art by making their non black characters black . do you think that's ok ? why can't we all just accept everyone the way they are ? how hard is that ? also , i completely agree with this here 3:42 people should be free to draw what they want , art is subjective , artists should not be the slaves of people's opinions of their art .

[@Xelluse]

agree, the problem is with this "FIXING", if someone will take a piece of Art and will draw it in his/her way and will literally say not "FIXING", but that's my version of this Art and shows respect to an Original Artist, who made his/her Art on her vision and imagination, then almost no one will find it problematic and disrespectful.

[@ilsagita5257]

​@@Xellusefixing is only ok if it is correcting the alignment ,sharows, colour techniques to give it a original and rewlistic look if that's what the original artist is going for Otherwise if the don't and wanna go the picasso way then fine

[@Random_User-zu1mp]

I agree with most of what you said except the timestamp, because why would you prefer a character to have a different skin tone/race? Why should you prefer a certain race at all? That's literally racism, so I don't agree with the tweet. But I do agree that both, whitewashing and blackwashing exist, but whitewashing is being acknowledged more. This could be mostly because it happens more often then the opposite happening and is a little bit more problematkc, because minorities already lack diversity. So taking away the little diversity that they do have, is for most probably a bigger problem than a bkackwashing a white character, because we're not exactly losing anything like representation, because we already have that. Still, bkackwashing is just as wrong a whitewashing.

[@eglantinepapeau1582]

@@Random_User-zu1mp that's not my personal preference, but other people like that .

[@rd3munna812]

​@@ilsagita5257 fixing is only ok if the artist asked for it

[@galexiianova7006]

i usually draw in a more pastelly soft vibe and was always worried that if i "lightened" the skin tone to fit the colour palette i would whitewash them, ty for clearing that up!!

[@JoJoboiWav]

You don't have to apologize, it's your art, not theirs

[@SteamedPeaches]

I get worried about that a lot too. 😅

[@cheri8832]

@@JoJoboiWav that’s not a very good mindset 😅 artists still need to take accountability

[@JoJoboiWav]

@@cheri8832 not when mfs wanna cancel you for fake problems

[@cheri8832]

@@JoJoboiWav ok… i was talking about in general

[@jomjom230]

I'm Japanese and I see this a lot with fellow Japanese artists. I believe that one should draw in the right skin tone no matter the excuse. But then if someone makes a mistake and got berated for it, that's where the problem is. I've seen SOOO many jp artist who doesn't want to draw black characters simply because they are scared. And as an artist myself, I'm starting to get scared too. It's a never ending cycle. An artist draws and make a tiny mistake, got called bigoted and ended up never drawing black characters. Then they get crap again for not drawing diversity. And guess who gets all the short end of the stick? The artists...

[@JaelBreton]

@@Eosinophyllis The color picker can be good in some references, but many times we want to draw in different setting or lighting, and we can't just color pick from the reference, especially if you're drawing an original character and the reference is a photo. Color picking works in some cases but not all. People just need to learn to be more kind and accepting of each other. All this talk about being inclusive, yet the very same people are quick to cancel and exclude people based on little things they didn't like.

[@louise4152]

@@danika9411 There's a lot of black people who are on the lighter side too though, so if it's just your own character you're probably fine :0

[@lunix3259]

I agree, people are afraid of drawing black characters. I remember a famous jp artist drew a black character but has anime features, like small nose small hips and ppl attacked him saying he just wants brownie points and that he should draw black characters accurately. But then a black creator said he's tired of seeing black characters with big nose and big lips. It gets confusing and a lot jp artists prefer to not draw black characters bc they're scared of offending ppl when the intention is not that at all

[@vincepreston9304]

Never dumb down your work for anybody, never! Always express yourself as honestly and as humanly possible as you can! Be formless ,shapeless, Be like water !("Bruce Lee")

[@Pomelochoco]

@@lunix3259 Oof, then they demand representation when some people do this? I wouldn't blame them if they don't want to draw a black character again cuz of this especially cancel culture is running rampant on twitter. I'd be scared too

[@v4n1ty92]

How to not get cancelled for drawing people with the wrong skin tone in 2 easy steps: #1: dont post your art on twitter #2: dont draw people 🤷‍♂️

[@Xelluse]

Just "#1: dont post your art on twitter" mostly is enough, people on most platforms do care about quality of an Art and not what skin color character have.

[@aff77141]

How about learn color theory? If you want to do art, that's a pretty important and helpful step. It teaches you things, like how to do shadows that aren't pure black, how to adapt colors to suit a specific scene, how to do highlights that aren't just pure blocks of white and completely change the color of things like, i don't know, a group who's skin tone has been historically mocked and changed under the guise of "it's prettier this way"?

[@ilsagita5257]

​@@Xellusethat's so true i have Following traditional art artists on KZbin for a long time and here people don't care about color,gender, race, nationality ,sexuality ...u have myself drawn many black people following their tutorial and loved it never cared about shit ...first was a girl i with flower bed , second was lupita and third was a nubian king

[@triggerfairy4070]

Better Idea. Ignore them

[@koheirichan]

RRRHRHRHRHRG YOU'RE DRAWING DOG TRAITS ON A CAT! YOURE SPECIEIST!!!11! /j

[@joemama1132]

I was accused of white washing and being racist for shading a dark skinned character lighter. Since the lighting was strong sunlight and I'm a beginner at chosing colors and shading, I agree that I could've done better. But what I took issue with is that they instantly jumped to the conclusion that I had done it on purpose, when I COLOR-PICKED the swatch off an image from Google. It's not my fault that "official art" wasn't official enough for some people. Someone then came into my chat and showed me how I could've shaded it better, which I appreciated and thanked them for. They understood that I was just starting out and gave me constructive criticism instead of instantly ree-ing in my comments. Immediately calling someone racist for a beginner mistake is what pisses me off.

[@edgechan]

That person sounds like an amazing artist if they taught you in a way you can learn and without namecalling you. Stay with the artists that want you to see growing in art, no with people that have no idea what they're talking about.

[@joemama1132]

@@edgechan thanks, I really appreciate that :)

[@lordaromat3890]

Never apologies for your art bruh 💀

[@aeoligarlic4024]

I think people who usually resort to bullying and cancelling are not artists themselves. Which just sucks bc if only they knew how to draw for themselves they won't keep the same attitude

[@bepinkfloyd814]

Those people always complaining are just a bunch of crazy wackos. They are the racist one most of the time

[@jazzwolfblaze5250]

I think the biggest problem I see is when people dogpile on an artist for getting a skin tone wrong. If a person just lets them know about off colors that's one thing being a jerk is another especially when most of the targets of this I've seen are from Asian artists with Encanto characters. Also, another thing as you said black people come in different shades of colors not just dark skin there are light-skinned people that are black it makes me think people forgot about that.

[@b4rflady623]

Are you talking about the shut up gringo 2022 twitter thing?

[@jazzwolfblaze5250]

@@b4rflady623 yeah some of those instances yes.

[@edgechan]

I remember a light-tanned girl cosplayed Tiana from The Princess and the Frog and people was attacking her for "stealing a black character from others to put her ugly white ass in a cosplay when they're hundred of yadda yadda yadda". The girl said she was mixed and her dad is afro-american, so she still was afro-american and still loved Tiana to cosplay her (of course she didn't dark her skin because that would be blackwashing with the negative connotations about that). Even in the video you can see black people with different shades of skin and different features. And yeah, about the Encanto fiasco it was stupid as fuck, specially when the artist that was complaining didn't knew even where to select the skin color to show it was "lighter" than the original and forgot the whole pic had pastel tones (that's why you don't use that tool, you get different tones).

[@panda.with.a.pencil]

ahahaha the first thing I thought of was that cute encanto fanart that the poor artist deleted their twitter because of. People were so nasty. The characters were still clearly dark, and the rest of the image had the same level of saturation. It was actually a pastel pallete.

[@JoJoboiWav]

facts

[@gallaghergreen2053]

Great video, thanks! I saw video a while back on TikTok and she was telling how to properly draw black characters, hair, skin tone, and facial feature. But somehow I didn't put it in my favorites and lost it! 😭

[@koumoriarts9469]

From one black artist to another I appreciate that those affected by controversies like this are making videos and expressing their opinions on the topic. Expressing a written opinion on Twitter always gets drowned out in a sea of misinformation and negativity so organized videos are always better, like this one here. I hope to make a video about this soon as well. If I could give a brief summary of my thoughts on the matter, whitewashing is a problem for black character art since it can mark out representation of the beauty in darker skin tones and Afro-centric features. However, when ai see it on Twitter, I don’t always assume mal-intent. Beginner and inexperienced artists exists so I hate when hate mobs dogpile on artists, instantly accusing them of r*csim and b*gotry (typed that way so my comment isn’t flagged since KZbin is funny that way). I don’t like whitewashing, but I hate how so many people will cancel and bully an artist with rage instead of trying to talk it out. Especially when those artists come from other cultures where black skin/characters/black history are less educated about. I don’t like how the Japanese artist for Nessa was bullied or how the Japanese artist for a Latino Encanto art was bullied into deleting their art too. And I wish that was discussed in this video, but it is a loaded topic so I can understand that. Thank you for inspiring better art and representation with your video, and especially inspiring me to make my own soon. Have a great Black History month and excited for the next upload~!

[@aeoligarlic4024]

Oof! I'm so glad you write this down so articulately. I've been having the same thoughts myself. I personally fear that dogpiling newbies or foreign artists for drawing characters in innacurate skintone might make people fear trying out drawing black/brown characters. While yes colorism IS a thing in our community, we need to be more inviting when it comes to new talent. I'm sure not everyone will agree with me, but everytime this happens i usually check out how the artists will draw white/light-skinned characters. If they pick their colors off and away from the original, chances are they would use the same treatment to other characters. So that might be their way in selecting palettes. Or better, just support favorite artists who draw characters the way we like and maybe just don't harass newbies 😭

[@edgechan]

I agree with you so hard, specially when these people seems to forget that there are places that are uncommon to see a black person (I don't say is impossible, but is like you said it "other cultures where black skin/characters/black history are less educated about"), and they also seems to forget that a black skin is not a monolith and has lots of shades, light tones and different features like Mohhamed said. Not mention also that the tone they use for help sound more like harassment and it ends with their friends joining to the bullying rather than calmly asking first if the artist want a critic and then help if they do (like it happened to the Nessa pic where the one that edited it was still high on their horse). Yes, is frustrating not seeing enough representation in American comics (not going to say anime because its focused for Japan first), but like Apu says, "I learned long ago, Lisa, to tolerate others rather than forcing my beliefs on them. You know you can influence people without badgering them always.”

[@Valenvenge]

Im fairly new artist from SE Asia and I have experience this... its really make me dont want to draw POC cause people will say im whitewashing if i dont get it right... even if I am a brown asian myself...

[@reply1039]

I disagree a little bit, if you track it all the way back most of these controversies started with light criticism like “I think you may have whitewashed this character a bit” or “this character’s skin tone is a lot lighter than the official art”. And these criticisms usually don’t come from a place of malice. Then people get mad in place of the artist and start dogpiling the person who made the criticism, people dogpiled back and now no one is having a rational conversation. This is what happened with the Japanese Encanto artist. An Afro-Latino person said that the art was whitewashing and the color palletes for the characters were public, the artist agreed and took down their art, and then all of Latin America just dogpiled this person.

[@koumoriarts9469]

@@reply1039 Disagree a little bit? This sounds like a disagreement entirely. People really weren’t just giving fair criticism, a lot of people were accusing the Japanese artist (kurobe613) of being a racist because of the person you mentioned (cxsmicverge). When you get accused of whitewashing, it implies that you are erasing race to apply white/Caucasian features. That’s what happened (pure bullying) and that’s why many Latinos came out to support the artist after being bullied and called a racist. Kurobe apologized in fear, deleted the art, and locked their account because of how toxic the Encanto fan base was being. It was a hate mob. As an Afro-Latino artist myself, I don’t see the art as racist or whitewashing because it was a pastel art piece and all the Hispanic facial features were left there. Also, “all of Latin America” didn’t dig pile on the accuser, that’s a low brow generalization in my opinion. Bullying foreign artists into silence blindly is never okay, that is my stance.

[@arlaux1099]

For me if you’re ever going to change a character’s ethnicity it has to be done to a character whose story is completely detached from their ethnicity and even then there are caveats and it still needs to be done well. For example, Captain Keyes in the new Halo TV show is being cast as black. This doesn’t matter, his story is relatively minor and it legit has more to do with being turned into a literal ballsack than it does with his ethnicity. Now Black Panther on the other hand? You just can’t change his ethnicity, it doesn’t make sense to because it’s prettt integral to said character’s story. Plus…. White Black Panther already exists… and his name is White Tiger also known as Kasper Cole and he eventually adopted Black Panther as well as a title.

[@_ifpanda_would]

I haven’t found the right way to say it but you literally did it🔥

[@starlighttigerx268]

I never thought about it like that - really intresting! So it should be okay if Nick Fury would be portrayed by an asian actor because his ethnic (as far as I know) isn't important for his character (except that he looks super dope of course). Sorry, I just had to do a new example just to be sure I get it right~ did I get it right?

[@beepbopmop711]

So if I’m understanding correctly. Just keep them as a actual character and it’ll be fine. (Something like that, I can’t describe)

[@aliciasam5239]

@@starlighttigerx268 I mean in then spiderman agents of shield IDk he has such a funny and awesome character. If someone can portray that character the same despite the race it would be cool.

[@soopyfly]

@@starlighttigerx268 Yeah that's right! And in other media he's shown as other races, so that's essentially what they already did to the character :)

[@kunnykuni]

Such a complex issue... You have the opposite issue with Nagatoro. She is suntanned, not black. She is even known for her tanmarks. But for some reason people are upset when she is drawn in lighter skintone... Even though she is technically asian and fair-skinned... Nessa is more indian looking than black to me since she has very straight hair and a waist chain. It also fits with the theme of Brittain (plenty of pokemon are inspired by India in Gallar). I'm not sure it's been established she's black... And the art that started the controversy does use colors that are slightly pastel. The hair are a blue grey instead of black, for example. Her skin is still far darker then her eyes so she looks brown to me. Maybe I'm wrong though... This art opened a whole can of worms... Regarding specific traits of black people, such as the colors of the palms, you have to take stylization and efficiency into account. I once got into an argument with someone trying to explain that not making the palms lighter saves time and ressources for cartoons. Plenty of perfectly fine cartoons cut this corner, such as Boundocks or Kipo.

[@ThunderStruck15]

It’s like that white gold/blue black dress all over again

[@angst-i-et5373]

The thing is, Nessa having straight hair doesn’t negate the possibility of her being canonically black. For example, Naida from Nadia and the blue Sea, has short straight hair but is canonically African. Michiko from Michiko and Hatchin, is an Afro Brazilian woman with straight hair. Something I don’t see mentioned in these conversation, is that getting hair straightened or a silk press is quite prevalent within a segment of black women worldwide, some even prefer wearing thier hair straight for most of the year to a whole decade.

[@kunnykuni]

@@angst-i-et5373 Not like I'm saying she isn't black. But I always thought of her as Indian since her reveal because of the UK theme and waist chain. This whole debate made me realize other people thought of her as black.

[@angst-i-et5373]

@@kunnykuni ​ That makes sense, personally I always saw her as Caribbean. Honestly, I wish some of these Asian companies would just state outright a characters background, it would definitely save a lot of confusion and unnecessary internet fights.

[@pumpkinwarrior7138]

That’s funny! (Not in a sarcastic way) I always saw her as black because of her accessories in her hair reminded me of the braid rings my family would wear and the hoop earrings too

[@AJSketches]

I'm a POC but I don't have the hair that my mother and father have, surprisingly, mine is straight and thin like someone who is Caucasian, and whenever i draw my persona, who is like me but has a different personality, I get called racist and when i tell them I'm a POC they block me to avoid confrontation. It sucks.

[@coffintears5821]

Welcome to twitter where no one is safe from cancel culture

[@skyworm8006]

Europeans have a broad range of hair as well. Very few have actually straight hair even.

[@danke1150]

@@skyworm8006 What are you talking about? All Europeans have straight hair.

[@mothbrainedindividual]

@@danke1150 Guess I don't exist-

[@danke1150]

@@mothbrainedindividual I'd imagine you think having curly hair means it's not straight, but straight hair is in reference to the texture, not how it sits. Non-straight hair, the type Blacks have, not the mixed race ones, is wiry and has a completely different texture.

[@chumaru8946]

I completely agree with many of the topics brought up, especially in darkening the skin as a way to bring diversity. I love seeing the creative side of the art community and what type of characters they can create. But there’s something that sometimes do bother me, and that is changing the race of a said character when it’s very integral to the story or from a specific culture. As some one from an asian background, I sometimes don’t know how to feel when say, a Chinese character from a wuxia setting has been drawn as someone who is of a much darker skin tone. I personally find it fun when people interpret themselves or even draw their OCs in other traditional asian clothing, but changing characters that is very essential to being said race to the story still makes me feel weird. Not trying to disagree with creating diversity, but it does weird to see one poc sometimes being changed to another I guess.

[@witcherprince2439]

I agree. Other POC erasure should not be used as a means to give other POC representation. I’ve seen too many edits where the character has a strong cultural link to their asian culture and then people change that character to be straight up black. It would be better if they were mixed, but even then, mixed identity is something else to tackle in and of itself. Asian representation is important too, as there is also very little of it. Now if they changed a white character or a fantasy character that has no defined race, then go for it! Just don’t go around erasing other cultures.

[@javencummins1426]

Yeah.

[@crowfoot8059]

@@witcherprince2439 not just POC, I’ve seen Russian, Polish, Italian, Swedish characters have their race/skin color changed :/

[@witcherprince2439]

@@crowfoot8059 that’s also true ! I feel like it’s also just cheap to change races. I’d rather ppl make the effort to make their own characters instead of taking away rep from other cultures

[@polaris9098]

take it as you will but imo officially making wuxia characters dark skinned would probably be similar to giving wuxia characters dreadlocks - it doesn't really happen? Considering the cultural/time period context? If that makes sense

[@lilmao4482]

0:40 the monkey emoji at the end 💀

[@KikiNIICHAN]

Usually when it comes to blushes on dark/brown skin, it isn’t always the typical pink or reds. The better choices are oranges and purples! Highly recommend to look at the Fenty blush shades and what it can do on darker complexions. It can look really natural when bringing warmth to the face and body. :)

[@crypticlish6717]

Actually thank you for this tip! I've had a black oc for years for a love story and I'm a sucker for like big af anime tier blush, when I was super young I used pink, more recently reds with a multiply layer or opacity down, just tried purple with the opacity down and it looks so much nicer on her dark skin tone thank you!! 🙏

[@jammingshrimp]

oh shit i always use pink when shading black ocs thanks!!

[@treymoment]

Yup! When I made blushing on my oc that is blasian, I think it looked weird when I used pink/red, so I experimented with colors and I thought that the orange looked better than the pink/red!

[@neeonyt]

Oh! Usually when I draw blush I take the original skin color then shift the hue towards a warmer colour and overlay it on the skin tone. Would that be an acceptable techniqu?

[@KikiNIICHAN]

@@neeonyt that’s actually not a bad option as well. It definitely depends on your coloring style. This’ll definitely look natural in a way, but it also will be a lil challenging with darker complexions with cool or neutral tones. But in the end, I think this is a safe alternative 👍🏾

[@GuadaGlitchX]

As someone from Latinoamerica, I beg for other artist to stop harrasing people for drawings. I remember the drama about the "whitewashed" Encanto fanart of an Asian artist and people were harrasing him. Latin people obviously didn't like this type of comments, because they were doing horrible actions in our name and had to say "Stop man, you're not gonna save us from corrupt politicians, poverty, hunger and murder by just doxxing a person on twitter". Instead of sending death threats, EDUCATE people about that (even the artist saw the error and said sorry). Most of the time the harrassment on the Encanto fandom is againts Asian people and for us, Latinoamericans, is raising a really red flag with this type of people. If you REALLY care about our culture go and support Latinos artist, EVERY type of latino artist... White, black, mestizo, etc (because latinos are not just black people who partys 24/7 and we go "FIESTA SALSA QUINCEAÑERA", we have a really big diverse culture) Support organizations to stop hunger, poverty, etc; Donate to medical treatments of latinos and more. Don't come to us with your white saviour thinking or your hypocrisy of "all latinos are x thing because i watch encanto". edit 1: Sorry for my really bad english, as i said i'm from latinoamerica and my native language is spanish edit 2: Wow, this blew up. I'm gonna respond to some things in the comments. Racism and Xenophobia exist in LATAM, I'm not gonna excuse that. Everyone can be racist and xenophobic to some minority. I'm just saying that instead of fighting fire with fire it's better to educate people about your culture/race and not driving someone to suicide. If the person is an ignorant you just have to block them and talk about the issue.

[@panda.with.a.pencil]

Hey I just wanted to let you know, your english is great! you have nothing to apologize for :) and even if it wasn't great...you still have nothing to apologize for! :)

[@edgechan]

Creo que el problema fue que se mezclo el hambre con las ganas de comer: Los artistas latinos diciendo que Latino América es muy diversa (hasta Encanto mostró a una chica de tez blanca como Colombiana) y que el dibujo estaba bien porqué a pesar de sus tonos pasteles, los personajes conservaban sus tonos de piel es una cosa, pero quien hizo la critica hacia oídos sordos y decía tener la razón a pesar que no sabía hablar español o tener más contacto con sus raíces latinas (como lo dijo esta persona) y mandando gente a defender de vuelta llamándolos racistas, así que es obvio que los artistas latinos se iban a enojar y llegar al punto del "shutupgringo" y de doxear a Sega (aunque honestamente yo solo bloquee su cuenta y listo). Es cierto que hacer que Kurobe suba de nuevo su dibujo no hará que Latino América se detenga con la corrupción y todo los problemas que tenemos, pero también hay que hacer entender a la gente y a los artistas en general que el mundo es muchísimo más diverso de lo que parece y encasillar a una etnia para representar a todo un continente puede ser mal visto. Y no te preocupes por tu Ingles (yo comente en Español para que entiendas mi punto). He visto peores de gente que no ve lo que escribe.

[@reeree3032]

"Latin people obviously didn't like this type of comments" You only speak for yourself, speaking for a vast group of people is silly and this comment sucks.

[@Sinkureaaaah]

@@reeree3032 well they're speaking about the encanto fanart, you could clearly see lots of latin people do not like those comments. Maybe check the tweet first before shitting on people's opinion.

[@flowerbloom5782]

I hate people on Twitter feel like their activist when they are just people in search with problems. Feeling they have to comment on everything.. Twitter and tiktok treat people's struggles like trends. They don't truly care which is fine. I don't expect people to care about my struggles nor do I expect sympathy. But sitting on their high horse and bash people for not caring about something they don't care about themselves... just wow. Wolves in sheep clothing.

[@grjk5044]

Thank You for this video. I'm trying to add more diversity to my artwork, and this is very helpful for learning how to paint skintones I'm less practiced at with respect. I will definitely be checking out the different sources you mentioned for learning the technical end of things. Also your cheesy jokes make me laugh.

[@Iamrooq]

We need more people like Doc Cook telling people to chill tf out

[@MohammedAgbadi]

hahhahahahah

[@이름뭘로하지-y6o]

I honestly understand how whitewashing and "blackwashing" are two different things with different contexts, and I completely respect how anyone can feel about the issue. One thing that always confused me, though, was turning Asian characters black for the sake of representation. I've seen so many people on Twitter recoloring blatantly Asian characters with backgrounds based on their ethnicity because "they want more representation", and as an East Asian I'm really confused because isn't doing that basically removing representation of another POC race? So while I don't want to immediately come to conclusions, I really want to know why race bending of one race is considered okay to some people while that of another race isn't.

[@aquaabouttogetfunky]

Same, And I'm a Carribean person. They usually bring up the "oh, there are alot of dark skin/blasian/mixed Asians, so it's ok", but like- That's still erasure regardless if we are being technical.

[@blueintent]

Black americans don't always get a lot of representation within the American culture. TV, movies, shows, comics, etc. It's gotten a lot better, but the INTENT is to build up our own community. And that's usually done with white characters... Because white people in America have always been the majority and overrepresented. I understand how making an Asian character, black would be removing that POC representation. It's a lot of grey area tbh.

[@Lightning-gg5iu]

@@blueintent Wouldn’t it be better to make ORIGINAL POC characters than taking an existing character and changing their color

[@OriginalJohnnyCage]

It's mostly don in the context of anime since anime has few black characters and even fewer good ones

[@이름뭘로하지-y6o]

@@OriginalJohnnyCage thats usually because of the context of the setting tbh. Japan is a mostly homogenous country(unlike countries like US which is very mixed), which means it would be realistic for the most of the characters to be Japanese in most cases.

[@annasorensen350]

Instant sub! First of all obligatory your voice is just so nice to listen to omg. I really enjoyed your whole analysis, the dry humor and lack of ability to take any bs while still being so methodical is so effective! Twitter is insane and it’s nice to listen to a rational voice for once, lmao. Great work!

[@Xinxax]

How to avoid drama from intentional/unintentional racial change of a character: just draw furries it does matter what skin tone they are, its just fur/scale/feathers lmfao

[@aquaabouttogetfunky]

Or aliens with different coloured pastel for skintones. It's so less annoying.

[@wa6488]

Or just don't draw people Or just don't draw at all

[@Xinxax]

@@wa6488 EXACTLY

[@aspthewyvern3622]

I wouldn't be happy if an artist drew my character's scales too light, but at least it wouldn't be racist

[@z_.5557]

@@aquaabouttogetfunky Smurf nsfw time.

[@edsonsengo2684]

Honestly I really hate the concept of changing a character's skin ESPECIALLY when it's for diversity cause that adds NOTHING. The OG character is still white or whatever race they are. Like imagine a poc kid seeing the character on screen and wanting to know more about them, go to comics/games and see they are not "like them". It's a lazy and futile attempt in my opinion. A good way to add diversity is making NEW characters that are poc instead

[@hothotpot8596]

and that's also their argument when changing skin color "It doesn't change the OG character at all and it's harmless" "It's just editing them to blasian" but also go bonkers if i change a black character to white and call it albino black

[@Sashakawaiicat]

I feel like we should be able to acknowledge that this type of representation is incredibly lazy without pretending like kids are idiots. Like I didn’t watch brandy as Cinderella and then feel terrible when I saw the original was white, I went “oh, there’s a different version of this Cinderella” and then listened to the original musical, them listened to the Whitney Houston one again (because it’s much better) I didn’t suddenly loose the representation I felt at seeing brandy as Cinderella, remakes are different version of something, usually involving a variety of changes being made to a character that aren’t always racial. I’ve seen so many versions of Cinderella for instance, and in most of the ones I watched growing up she wasn’t even white. There’s literally a cartoon that came out way before I was even born that told classic fairy tales through different races and cultures, for instance they had a black Goldilocks, Asian little red riding hood, indigenous Snow White, and this came out in the 90s, this concept of adding diversity into predominantly white stories because unfortunately those are the stories that most commonly get told isn’t new. And while I do find it lazy and less impactful that doesn’t mean it has no impact at all. I doubt that cartoon series holds up today but I genuinely enjoyed it as a kid, and I understood that the characters I was seeing were being reimagined to show different types of people and cultures, and yes for diversity. Originally white or not, I can’t deny that I did feel represented. While having original characters is much more preferred and would have been more impactful, what they did wasn’t a bad thing, and wasn’t without its merits. I feel like there are important and interesting conversations to be had about racial changes in media, but I never want to fall into the trap of just hating the changes outright because sometimes they are done respectfully (like here’s a version of batgirl that just happens to be black) and sometimes we get shit like Riverdale where every black character original or race swapped is a walking stereotype and insignificant.

[@DreamtaleEnjoyer]

Quick tip from a painfully white person who is mortally terrified of coming off as racist: In the context of a fictional setting, whether real life-adjacent or fantastical. If you're afraid of misrepresentation and don't have the time, energy, opportunity, motivation, or let's be honest--want to do so much research... just remove all representation. Easier said than done, I know. But I don't have a single fully original character that has a canon race. Of course, this works best with non-realistic art styles, like mine very much is. But truly, I just pick whichever features and colors feel right for that character in particular. It's truly not artists' fault or responsibility that racism is a thing. When in doubt, color-pick, reference, or throw all care to the wayside and do whatever you want. It's YOUR art after all.

[@mickaokiji]

The notifications are on point

[@MohammedAgbadi]

thank you!

[@joemama-zm4de]

me, not using colour at all in my art: FOOLS! I AM 10 PARALLEL UNIVERSES AHEAD OF YOU

[@MohammedAgbadi]

lmaooo! big brain

[@nicolrb2210]

Drawing without painting gang

[@NopeNaw]

But parallel runs alongside, not in front or behind....

[@heathersmith4042]

@@NopeNaw It's a video game meme lol

[@omnibusman5792]

Wow... You're "colorblind". What a hero! How do u differentiate races? Do they all have the same facial structure's?

[@idontknowanymore5545]

Honestly? It should be like this: If it's your own character, go crazy. If it's not your own character, just use the color picker. Whitewashing isn't the only problem. Many artists also turn canonically Asian characters into black characters, and they always say it's to "feel represented". Why would anybody touch other people's characters and change their skin color for representation? And why is it wrong if it's the other way around? The cure for this double-standard is to get your hands off other people's characters.

[@dinamothupi996]

It's laziness because these same people don't even want to look at artworks where they actually are represented unless it's popular. I don't see them going out of their way to look for African or any artists that do what they are looking for artists until they blow up like what happened with Black Panther.

[@Chia_Mochia]

Honestly, I think changing some colours of the original characters palette can look good, regardless if it's their skin tone or not. Because at the end of the day who cares if some characters skin is 1 tone lighter unless they are doing it intentionally?

[@idontknowanymore5545]

@@Chia_Mochia That's colorism. Changing a character's skin tone to make it look good/better, implying that the original is inferior. Use the damn color picker for characters you don't own and work from there, and go crazy on the characters you actually own. That's it, really.

[@valenz1234]

color picking doesn't work in more complex mediums, like 3d animation, because the character's skin will vary a lot depending on lighting.

[@Vanuzamars]

I also struggled with this! Im currently trying to find the “right style” for me and when I was drawing my profile pic, I wanted to give a soft black girl vibe and was struggling with how the skin would look. When I tried to used a pastel tone it looked ashy lol which was not my end goal. In the end I was able to find palette that worked and made her skin skin vibrate enough but still soft (if that makes sense lol)

[@afunkylittleguy]

Wow, that's really cool! I love your art style, it's so cute

[@Vanuzamars]

@@afunkylittleguy thank you so much❣️☺️

[@GhostofaFangirl]

this reminds me of a tumblr post from a few years ago where a user was teaching people that the palm of black/darker skinned people are light and a person had this audacity to reply with “get this whitewashing bullshit off of my feed” in which the original poster was like “local tumblr user admits to never seeing a black person before” lmaooo

[@redmadness265]

1:45 Hats off to daniel, that is some astounding art!

[@troyzart]

Most happy seing a fellow Nigeria Artist going real Big Keep it up Bro... I hope to be like you one day

[@MohammedAgbadi]

thankyou man! I hope you do better too! goodluck

[@troyzart]

Thanks Man Would be an honor to see your status daily

[@Whysp]

Same!

[@Gaming_Legend2]

a lot of times the problem is dogpiling on an artist, having so much people telling you that you got something wrong in drastically different aproaches can be overwhelming, in a perfect world people would be respectfull and just give likes to the better response that explains how you can improve in this aspect you are lacking. I personally have issues with painting skin in general, even more darker tones, at least i got the reflectiveness right, problem is that usually there is one or 2 really loud mouths disrespecting the artist by "fixing" and pretend they did all the work as if they are superior or something, when probably they should just give a smaller example or point to the things that are badly represetned in a more chill aproach so one can fucking learn (I personally wouldn't like that someone takes my painting that took 12 hours to make, make a color shift in photoshop and pretend they did everything), I know that if you see something like the palm color that a lot of people get wrong you might be more rude to someone, but a lot of times people just don't know, becuase no one knows everything, that is why respect is the key

[@aeoligarlic4024]

Step 1 to achieve peace: destroy twitter For real, topics aside, twitter is scary af! Why is that site still alive after more than a decade!? Even instagram is starting to decline now. But twitter? Oh boy it's alive, it's alive and it's toxic beyond belief!

[@edgechan]

@@aeoligarlic4024 Twitter got scary after Tumblr banned porn. It used to have its dramas but they were tame. Not mention also that now people seems to be more vocals for what they want, but it takes to a level that looks more like harassment than teaching.

[@chrysanthemumfire6456]

You know what’s ironic? We actually did used to have that perfect world you mentioned in your opening; when I was on deviantart close to 14 years ago while there may have been drama a majority of the time(in the communities I was in anyway) there wasn’t that much drama at all. I’m not sure if it’s just that the newer people don’t follow the philosophy of “don’t like it, don’t look at it” but it’s shocking to see how the internet has changed so much in the last decade.

[@pumpkinwarrior7138]

@@chrysanthemumfire6456 there was drama but it was different drama

[@emilie6468]

i am obsessed with your voice i could fall asleep listening to it fr

[@marcsolaramos9906]

The advice you gave on coloring black skin is greatly appreciated Mohammed :).

[@MohammedAgbadi]

you're welcome!

[@Tech-bagmash24]

At this point I care less about twitter and what they do and move on living and drawing different stuff.

[@MohammedAgbadi]

no matter how hard we run from twitter, it just is as inevitable as thanos

[@LockandKeyHyena]

just found your channel!! your stuff is super informative and your voice is really nice. instant sub!

[@aestherien]

As a black person I think diversifying your art is a great way to expand on your style! Whitewashing tho is a very sensitive topic. There's a grey area around it, and I feel like it's something we should learn to handle better. Like when I think of whitewashing I just think of every single ethnic feature of a CLEARLY ethnic person being erased w the purpose of hurting people- not making a character a few tones lighter. I also think that harassing an artist over this doesn't help the situation either

[@brokenmonkeychannel]

Completly agree, is fun to draw diferent versions of the same character draw as different races, that helps to practice character design. Half of the problem resides in the autors intentions, and the other half in how the reader takes it. Btw, sorry for My awful English, My phone is un spanish and I having a hard time to prevent the autocorrector to do a mess. Lol

[@flowerbloom5782]

Also race swapping is a touchy subject. I understand how it can be used to erase identity of a character but also how people use it to see themselves. black cosplayers get harrased alot for cosplaying a character that has light skin. It's a blurry line.

[@thelostmessenger]

@@flowerbloom5782 True, it's a topic I'm scared to go anywhere near it

[@brandoncole5533]

Agree

[@ThunderStruck15]

@@flowerbloom5782 that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Why are people this friggin toxic? People should cosplay whatever the fuck they want.

[@middyjohn]

this is a tough one because we are talking about intent here. As a dark skin person, that Nessa painting looks great. Ppl need to stop reaching too far to accuse ppl of racism. It doesn't solve racism nor reduce it. What piss me off more is that blackwashing seems fine for the hypocrites. Did they forget that unequal treatment is what leads to racism and injustice towards minority?

[@DoDTrueCreatorSF]

I agree. I like proper representation in characters, but there are plenty of white characters in fiction and movies that have been portrayed as black and that is also fine. Changing some design features can be offensive to the creators work, but is not inherently racist. I.E. Mary Jane in the new Spider-Man films or Jonny Torch from Fantastic 4.

[@scarlett-moriko1543]

I think people need to realize that both sides exist in order to move on, blackwashing is a concept that does exist, so much as racism on all sides exist. By denying their existence we are NOT going to ever progress as a society, we are breeding nothing but hate and division. Sure the issue of racism towards white people is not a prevalent issue, but accepting the idea that it can happen instead of claiming it doesn’t exist is already a step forward.

[@tbc1880]

tbh I'd take it more as an offense to me and my character design if someone took a dark skinned character I designed and was like, this is cool but looks much better with white skin. though it can depend. They can just have that preference and think that its objectively better, or maybe they have more concrete explanations as to why the values and shapes created by the skin color change may work better, ignoring that they could also... you know change the color of clothes and such to create that as well. Which to me seems to me more along the lines of what happens. It's not exactly malicious just very rude to the creator and can be seen as racist but I'd only take it as such if they are like literally spouting the inferiority of having a darker skin tone and stuff like that. Because hating a race and preferring one over the other is a big leap imo. But they should be a bit more conscious and kind about it, or direct.

[@sp4c1ng_0ut8]

" What piss me off more is that blackwashing seems fine for the hypocrites. Did they forget that unequal treatment is what leads to racism and injustice towards minority?" That is a massive oversimplification of racism and its history o-o And blackwashing isnt a thing, because whitewashing is taking a character whose race is integral to their story and making it white or whiter. Name 1 white character whose story is dependent on them being white

[@DoDTrueCreatorSF]

@@sp4c1ng_0ut8 the reverse could be said as well. Race dictates culture and that develops character. An argument I'd make is Bruce Wayne being white do to the time period he was created in and black people have suffered more financial poverty so it makes sense he'd be white given how wealthy the family was. Now take Static Shock, if they made him white it would ruin the character as well since he was supposed to be from more modern day black culture and his main villain being Ebon is a direct call out to that

[@mysryuza]

When people say they find coloring dark skin difficult I get confused because I struggle with coloring light skin a LOT more because I had to be much more precise with the hues than dark skin, otherwise the skin may end up looking too yellow or red. With dark skin, it seemed like I didn’t have to deal with that as much and it may have been rooted in me doing tan characters for so long.

[@immensemelon7708]

You just answered your own question. Some people are good at coloring light people and struggle with coloring dark skin just like you struggle with the opposite. This could be for a variety of reasons or no reason at all. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses in their art.

[@zentwo_]

I don't like changing established characters in general. Making white character black, making black character white, making that guy character girl, making that character gay or whatever. If you want more inclusion than create a new character who can stand next to others instead of lazy adopting a popular name.

[@professoryeetus8955]

I think it's fine as long as there's no malicious intent. Some people really like certain characters and would like to see them in a different interpretation. The reason why whitewashing is bad is because the intention is to make them ""look better,"" bc some people hate seeing poc representation

[@edgechan]

@@professoryeetus8955 Yes, but by other hand people do the opposite because "they fixed it" or "they know better" or stuff like that. There are amazing samples of different interpretations, but sometimes it gives you a bad impression because it looks like they also hate seeing people with light skin even if they're not an American character (see the drama about Encanto's characters and "is impossible that a poc can be white!").

[@zentwo_]

@@professoryeetus8955 Motivation aside, i can't see how removing black features from character is different to removing white features from character. Some people put a lot of work into making those characters who they are, even if ethnicity doesn't play a big part in characters story it's still part of the character. Interpretations can be interesting, but for me some asian guy called Blade is not Blade. Also i think people deserve something better than cheap knock-off representation. Batman and Spider-man was once a new and unknown characters, through a lot of hard work they become iconic characters and changing them for representation is like "yeah, you don't deserve original character with same effort put into, take this or leave".

[@professoryeetus8955]

@@zentwo_ well regardless of your opinion on race changing, i think at least genderbends and headcanons (especially for stuff that isn't explicitly stated) are pretty harmless. It's all just derivative content after all, the original work will always be there!

[@gil2644]

To be honest, kinda same but maybe because I'm a bit biased and still salty when I drew my oc. Okay he's a vampire so his skin was grayish. I gave him a line saying "I am not edgy leave me alone!" I posted it on big discord server and someone saw it. They say they relate to him and he recolor him to have a darker skin tone so they can "relate more". I didn't hate it, it was just weird to take in. But anyways if people are struggling because of lack of presentation, I suggest making your own characters. It might be better than the presentation in cartoons and games. I'm an Asian girl (half Japanese and half Filipino) obviously I wanted to see a Character that's like me, but couldn't find a "perfect presentation" so I just decided to make an OC based on me. In my opinion, this is a better solution if you feel like you don't get presented a lot. In your mind, you're the representation, so always think like that.

[@kaleidojess]

Getting the right tone digitally for tan to dark skin is fairly easy but using pastels and trying to get it to look natural was a challenge for me and I'm not even white. It either looks too yellow or two orange so it takes time. The trick is in the undertones.

[@mayuminak5901]

this video was GREAAAT! also wanted to say that i rlly appreciaye that you put subtitles! It must have taken you soooo long! Thnx

[@strangeaelurus]

THE LEGEND HAS UPLOADED LET'S GO

[@MohammedAgbadi]

lets gooooo!!!

[@soyo5524]

That Nessa thing always gives me conflicted feelings for so many reasons lol. But like the whole topic/argument of "white washing" and "blackwashing" when it comes to just anime/manga character is frustrating because a lot of the time it always comes with the erasure of the actual race the character is, which is Japanese/ asians (and obviously unless it's otherwise specified by the artist). It's sort of frustrating to have to listen to because somehow when it leaves Japan and Asia, it's either "white" or "black." In any case, the dogpiling of comments attacking the artist of said art that are "not dark enough" always feels like they're rather eliminating the possibility themselves to have more representation (or eliminating the potential for other groups because I have seen cases where the people attacking the artist aren't even in the group of people that the skin tone has to do with). Art is learned through trial, and error, and process. Unless they have some sort of extreme caricature which is based on racist art from back in the day (which i do feel is deserving of a callout personally, so that's why I'm saying unless), there are always room for improvement. Which...regarding the callouts...I just laugh sometimes at those "fix it art" too because they go with the most pigmented colour of the "skin." Like you can tell they just randomly chose some dark brown and colour over it, (or like bright orange for some cases for "middle eastern characters")....and I question if they don't see what they themselves are doing....

[@soyo5524]

Ah and I forgot to add my other thought lol about it being a fanart. It's fanart. Why even put so much effort for a personal drawing by somebody else.. I don't understand.

[@Mokiefraggle]

The Nessa thing just always irks me because it's like...dark skin doesn't always equal black? Looking at Nessa, who has _distinctly_ more slanted, Asian-looking eyes, and very much straight hair that's a glossy blue-black shade common among Asians, it's pretty darn clear to me that she's Indian, not black. She's from a place in the Pokemon universe that's a mirror to _Scotland,_ for cripes' sake! The UK has a strong Desi diaspora, so why wouldn't the Galar region have a character who's clearly meant to be a Desi analog?

[@soyo5524]

@@Mokiefraggle it's kind of funny because that was my first thought too when I first saw Nessa when they came out with the design. Or just, you know another part of Asia (Nessa just looks so much like a pokemon art ver of my friend from India so I think that was also the cause). (and sorry from here is just my rant about the topic). Part of me wants to go with it's animation/ fiction and when it could fit your culture and feels like it reflects you, and you want them there, that's fine,, especially in an setting that isn't 100% reflective of our world (ex: I'm from south of Japan where a lot of tanning happens and sometimes my skin color goes dark like that...so that also I could see her in that culture). Like there is wiggle room, you know? But I guess my biggest irk a lot of the time comes from Americans (and people drunk in that american-ism that they think it's the world's rule) being very loud about either black or white. Which is understandable from their history and background but they bulldozer through other people in the world and culture, and sometimes end up attacking those artist because "it's not with what I envision for this fictional character to be. She is dark skin, there is no way she is anything other than black (or if it's pale character it must be "caucasian white") so how dare you make her look lighter than what is acceptable." It's quite annoying (and racist of a lot of people, really..) that they literary disregard the fact that Asia is huge... Asia doesn't only equate to Eastern Asia, and that there is a variety of skin color in Asia, including dark skin. And just the whole dogpiling thing annoys me when I see it after that in mind. Like...it's fanart. If the person seeing the art doesn't like it, then they can move on to one of the others amazing artist out there. There are a bunch of artist they can support that will produce something that are more in what they envision in their mind. And if they don't like it, then they can go ahead and learn the skills to make what they envision.

[@yazi6976]

darkening the skin color of a character for "diversity" is absolutely the same as lightening a character's skin color. doing the same action shouldn't be seen as giving two different results. a tomato is a tomato. both are unnecessary.

[@ThatkidSquid]

never found painting people of color difficult, my painting teacher always made it a point to have models of all types and he demoed how to paint people of color for us so we would know what colors to mix. seems like most people come up wit some sort of cope out on why they cant/dont do it. I wont change the race of a character, if I really want to see my self in a character that isnt my race I try to either come up with my own or look harder for someone similar.

[@ThunderStruck15]

Good for you, but I’m struggling with it. I’ve got piles of fucked up paintings that just don’t look good, and it’s because of the underlying color value in cool hued dark skin. I’m really trying, but I don’t think I’m succeeding. 🤷‍♀️

[@ThatkidSquid]

@@ThunderStruck15 when I paint people I use a limited palette, yellow ochre, venetian red, titanium white, and ivory black. Now when I paint people of color I tend to use vermilion which gives the brown you mix a more velvety look. Vermilion and ivory black mix to make a chocolatey brown to lighten that brown you add yellow ochre. If you add white you get more of a purple. If you are mixing colors that don't mix well you'll get really muddy skin tones, I'd say practice mixing colors with a limited palette and paint from reference or from life if possible.

[@angelaagbaji1094]

Honestly. Seeing so many people trying to justify their limitations is such a loser mindset to have. Like you’re an artist? If you can’t paint or draw something, learn it! Every concept just simply needs to be observed and understood. You’re having issues with darker skin tones? Re-learn colour theory! Or the pictures appears quite dull? Re-learn your values!

[@ihkeseteeietos5722]

@@angelaagbaji1094 The problem is they already got canceled in the first few arts they practiced on. They tried their best at the time and they know they are learning and can get better. But then they get brutally attacked and harassed and accused of being a racist. Its terrifying and just makes it feels like there is no room to practice and make mistakes. Hardly anybody would want to risk it.

[@angelaagbaji1094]

@@ihkeseteeietos5722 I definitely don’t agree with those that attack people for their art like that but as artists, it’s our job to not let social media act as an deterrent to making progress on our art. The responsibility of our progress lies on us at the end of the day. I think at that point, it would be best for an artist to take a break from social media and practice in silence.

[@blaze595]

It's fair enough making people aware of how to paint darker skin, really useful knowledge to have. Though it's completely ridiculous when someone gets dog-piled for not doing it right; the immediate assumption of malicious intent for what's the majority of the time just lack of understanding/experience doesn't help anything, it just makes some artists hesitant to draw darker skinned characters so nutjobs on the internet won't attack them over it.

[@qine6559]

Yess!!!

[@BlobbyGuyYT]

Alright I’m going to take my time with the color for my next drawing :D

[@d1stanc385]

As a POC, I hold a different perspective on this matter that I think most won't agree with. But the point of the argument is to shift the focus of where people should expend their efforts and energy. 1. Artists should have the freedom to do whatever they please (within reason/excluding blatant harassment) 2. Viewers are not obligated to engage with the media that's shown to them, its best to either ignore it or give the work credit where it's due 3. Telling artists what to do will disincentivize them from putting forth any effort & have them shy back into their comfort zone 4. We should turn our energy from pointing fingers and fixing art into motivation to tackle the challenge of creating artistic representations for ourselves. Similar to any illustrator getting into drawing for the purpose of adding their narrative to the artistic world. Can we Normalize: "My favorite artist doesn't shade dark skinned characters right, then I'll do it myself and be the best artist that I can be." This will have a snowball effect in getting more and more artists (poc or not) motivated to join the art world with confidence in shaping and sharing their own narrative.

[@hihellothere9569]

The thing is popularity and support. That favorite artist of yours would still be rolling in followers and attention while you can definitely draw better, it's not necessarily gonna get more attention. So that's why people rag on twitter because hate gets the most views. I mean you are reading this comment

[@louise4152]

or we could also just stay civil and give advice/criticism (should probably ask permission first though bc it's usually rude to give it unwarranted) if darker characters aren't in the artist's comfort zone, they'd probably appreciate tips

[@ninja_tony]

Amen to that.

[@kashe7285]

or we can normalize giving constructive criticism and helping our fellow artists better themselves when it comes to drawing people who don't look like them

[@Nockgun]

As an asian south east folk im not tolerating

[@Mbrace818]

Not sure I agree with the logic of having a "curly hair" brush. For one, the "straight hair" brush isn't a straight hair brush. It's a brush that does whatever your hand does as you draw. So if you draw curly hair with it, it'll be curly.

[@SpectreBagels]

Yea I was confused on that one

[@Crazypixiness]

There are some hair brushes as presets or downloadables that only feature straight hair.

[@blue7284]

I never touched digital art and got pretty confused at how specific this was.

[@redactedseed7114]

Yeah I literally use just 1 or 2 brushes most of the time for everything lol

[@Mbrace818]

@@Crazypixiness Okay, so what happens if you make a curly hand motion with the straight hair brush?

[@yazi6976]

they're mad about orange blossom? wait till they find out about what they did to the little mermaid

[@sheenamims379]

Then in the same sense they should be mad about the Velma show. So so bad in so many ways.

[@FearlessFighterAkida]

Honestly, I wish people would just stop harassing artists over skin tone because it is a never ending cycle. IF you don't like someone's art, ignore, block and move on. There is literally no point to harassing or dogpiling them because it will either make them double down or turn it into some "war" in the art community between "racists" and "non-racists" when the situation is typically much more nuanced than that... and the middle is typically just "Don't harass people". When it comes to people editing white characters or asian characters to be black, I used to enjoy it but now i'm just like...completely over it. I don't even care anymore because what used to be "for fun" has become weirdly political where if you don't like when people do that, you are automatically just racist. And it feels like making edits or just redrawing white/asian/hispanic/light skinned characters as white has taken the place of actually drawing black characters. People do it with the intention of baiting trolls, some sort of criticism, etc. so they can get clout for saying they're being targetted even though they threw the bait out themselves. "Edit/drawing of black deku to piss off the racist BNHA fandom!!" "Why does this fandom hate POC and why are they targetting meeeee." like idk what you were expecting? You did something with the intention of pissing off people and got exactly what you ordered. On top of that poeple are far more likely to do a black deku drawing as opposed to drawing Mirko and then harss people for not liking it or thinking it is kinda stupid. Yes, blackwashing isn't as bad as white washing but the things people consider whitewashing to be is stupid. One artist who draws in a pastel style got harassed by someone they commissioned because the commissioner thought they drew their character too light (even though all tones were pastel) and the artist got harassed and dogpiled while the commissioner got a bunch of free art... Now the artist doesn't take commissions of dark skinned characters anymore because of it and because they are not a native english speaker and people who are fluent in english picked apart their language and took it in the worst way possible. It broke my heart because I was actually looking forward to commissioning them. and many people who justify harassing artists by saying "It's so easy! Just use color picker!" or "Just use a brush that may not even be avilable on the program you're using": to say that there are no excuses for not knowing how to do something but they don't realize that even though they are tools, they are not useful for actually learning unless you use them to specifically do so. Brushes can look very obvious and out of place if you just use the brush and it doesn't fit your art style or you just slap it on without incorporating it. Ironically these people also tend to have worse art than the person they're criticizing and they often target artists who do not speak english as a primary or native language and just assume the artist must be fluent because they can make a few tweets in english... then they wonder why many ESL artists block english speakers on sight. And of course, the artist who made the brush can use it perfectly fine because they made it and color picker is not always accurate to different light settings or color pallets. Even offical art isn't safe from accusations of white washing because the character model looks different than something that was made as part of a promo or art book. It's a never ending cycle. Artists get harassed and called racist, no one wants to draw POC characters (including other POC) because they're worried about the twitter hate mob, trolls get involved and start *intentionally* whitewashing characters, then the blame falls back onto the artists for "not doing enough" and artists then get harassed over again. Artists have to take the blame of trolls while also just remaining silent and not being able to say "Fuck off" when people edit their art to "fix it". No, you do not have the right to edit someone else's work at all unless you have permission. It doesn't matter what you think they did wrong with it, don't do it. Stop!!! You are litearlly just contributing to the problem that POC and artists have to face especially when the artist in quesiton does not speak english as a native language. I also wish people would realize that sometimes people just don't know how to do things. No one is going to dedicate their art and studies just to appease one hypothetical person. It's good to learn how to do these things and how to draw POC features but it is no means and obligation and even when someone learns, at times they still have weaknesses. Like for example I have trouble working in very light or pastel tones. Blond hair, white skin & clothes, etc. are difficult for me because I feel like the range of colors I can use without making them look alien or like they're bruised is limited in comparison to my darker skinned characters. not to mention, I grew up in a prodominately black community and am black myself so I got the exposure of always seeing it when I wen tto school, was around family, etc... the most exposure i had to white people or fair skin was TV and anime.

[@crypticlish6717]

Not fully disagreeing but if we're thinking of the same commission drama the artist made two pieces for them, the commissioner paid for the first one and loved it, skin tones were pastel but still clearly meant to be a black person but they tried patiently repeatedly to get them to fix the skin tone of the other piece because the character had imo just become really pale, no longer looking right, as a client they have every right to ask for corrections but the artist was not coming off well or amibicable partly due to language barrier but also partly due to refusing to actually try to properly acknowledge what the client was asking. Yes it did become a shit storm afterwards, but, if this is the one I think it is, they had a rally of support behind the artist (and of course the ones who will rally behind anyone that black art twitter might criticise). Its been awhile since I read the dms posted but as an artist who has dealt with awful clients, honestly I didn't see an issue with them and think it could've been so easily fixed had they tried a bit more with their client. Again maybe we're actually talking about two different but similar cases who knows.

[@Drogonist117]

Yes...a thousand times this...I can't stress it enough that too many artist are being stressed out to being the next target...

[@bobthespam]

i count like 3 maybe 4 asian artists that got harassed on twitter, and its ALWAYS asians, its gotten to the point where most asian artist circles are recommending each other to not go to twitter or not draw black or even tanned characters anymore, and you know what, i agree, its too much trouble now, if black people want full domain over their art then go ahead. it really feels like the black community have something againts Asians because again, everytime any of these controversies show up its always an Asian artists

[@inkubator320]

No- you should call out white washing when you see it in a polite manner .

[@inkubator320]

@@bobthespam unfortunately the Asian community and black community are constantly at war with each other…like racial discrimination in some kind of competition 💀

[@Valkari22]

I think one of the worst and racist/sexist things I've seen people post lately on Twitter is "you're not allowed to draw xyz because you're not xyz" I can't begin to tell you the amount of tweets that have come up in my recommendations that's a full blown rant with 6 parts of why men shouldn't draw women or why white people shouldn't draw poc or vise versa.

[@HystericalDark]

Ok but that sounds like straight-up demented bs, is not even advice anymore. How someone is supposed to evolve as an artist when you only draw people who are from the same gender and ethinicity as you? Guess, as a brazilian woman, I should throw in the dumpster fire all my drawings of white/japanese male characters then roflmao

[@Valkari22]

@@HystericalDark exactly, it's not advice anymore it's a form of segregation. I'm biracial myself and people like to forget we exist, my mother is native but I look like the European side of my family. Hell, these sh*t bags would try to stop me from drawing my own mother.

[@YouHadMeAtHalo]

literally, i got blasted because apparently me, a bisexual guy, can’t draw gay men because i haven’t experienced the same amount of oppression as they have so i’ll never truly get it. bro said i was fetishising them, god help twitter if me drawing an innocent picture is sexualising them!

[@PDD555]

Sadly you can see some of these same thoughts in this comment section

[@PDD555]

@@YouHadMeAtHalo just draw them, as a gay person don't listen to them, you are allowed to draw anything you like

[@vaskoz3700]

9:17 i guess its true becouse when black skin reflects light and appears shiny its more noticable because of colour contrast

[@winterpupi]

I just hate when people blackwash and then whitewash as a way to get back at them instead of telling them what they're doing is wrong

[@gone9820]

Excactly. Saying that blackwash isnt bad is a double standard.

[@hypedjo]

Yea I was thinking the same thing… black artists draw Asian characters black and nobody gets half as mad..

[@Your20droid]

@@hypedjo because Twitter black artists don’t see Asian people as POC, because of their skin color and the “white skin privilege” they get. It’s a similar situation when black artists draw Mexican/Indian/or any Tan/brown Skin as Black characters. Context: I got blocked by a black artist on Twitter because someone was questioning a character race from JoJo (Ermes Costello) because an artist drew her as a Black woman, way different from the official artwork and I replied that she was MEXICAN-American and I got blocked 💀

[@edgechan]

@@Your20droid This. And even they can't believe there are white Latinos or that North Africa has a lot of white skinned people but still they're African.

[@dadadadeadgirl5602]

@@Your20droid Tbh, I actually don't care what they do to the characters. As long as their aware it's fanart and that it's not the intention of "fixing" the original character, then that's fine by me. Probably half/most are doing it since they see themselves in that character and want to make fanart of self inserting that character regardless if that character was white or not. Like I've seen a black twitter artist got harassed or had her art altered in a negative way just because she made fanart of her being Kiki from Kiki delivery service. Like I get about calling out artists who think their "fixing a character" like changing their race, but when it comes to fan art where you can make alternate verisons of that character with no bad intent then it doesn't deserve harassment.

[@edgechan]

I agree with the comment you loved, but I don't agree in the second part: When they ask "representation" the fans go first to Japanese artists in their famous manga, which doesn't have sense because anime/manga artists, even if we says otherwise, their target is always their Japanese fans first, then the Asian ones and with any luck to the foreigners (that's why, by sample, some foreigners forget some mangas while they're still publishing in Japan because the humor sense or representation wasn't enough (Hoozuki no Reitetsu) or they're surprised the manga got cancelled despite the foreign fandom was into it). So of course you're not going to find many black characters in a manga/anime (there are samples of black characters, but sometimes a tanned character is from Okinawa). "So Edge, what can we do?" focus in the artists that you like how they draw, support more webcomics that have the representation you like or make your own (is hard, I know, but many learned from zero). You can still like manga, don't get me wrong, but don't think you'll find a character of your liking if Japan has their own lores and tropes and focus in themselves first.

[@Pyoron]

exactly, this kind of feels like people got too self-centered and don't consider the people they're talking to. The facts are simple, *target audience is a thing,* and there's nothing wrong with that. Learn about what appeals to you and support it, leave the rest alone.

[@Casual-Yohoho-Enjoyer]

We live in a world where wearing a kimono and speaking spanish are considered hate crimes but pushing western worldviews and this corrupted idea of diversity onto other cultures is somehow not only ok but should be praised and glorified

[@kww10]

Its like they forgot where was the media came from, made by, and the main target is. Westerners are so demanding lol

[@edgechan]

@@kww10 Exactly.

[@posibright]

someone will lower their volume for the adverts then have to boost the volume to max just to hear you🤣🤣 worth it cuz this is gold

[@kirbybie]

as an artist who loves drawing with pastel colors AND dark skin tones, it can be done without looking whitewashed.

[@juliacamara9636]

12:24 I wouldn't say straight hair brushes are default. I don't really use hair brushes for painting hair because they're pretty much useless if you want to improve (just like clouds, vegetation, fire, water, etc. brushes) , but I went and tried those procreate brushes shown and they don't say anything about being specifically for straight hair, nor do they work only for straight hair. They work just as well for straight, curly, coily,etc., hair. Just go more in a zigzag the more curly you want it. At the end of the day, those procreate brushes are just brushes with a streaky texture reminiscent of hair, they're not bad but they aren't going to do all the work for you either. They're alright for adding a few stray hairs (for whatever hair type) and that's about it. Though maybe they should have different names so not to fool beginners into relying on them to paint hair. Making hair brushes for all types of hair is cool and all, but just like clouds, vegetation, fire, water, etc. brushes, they just stunt your growth in the beginning, and are fully useless by the time you're intermediate to pro level, because at that point you already know how to draw it yourself in a way that fits your painting and your style better.

[@olivialovelle]

I went and bought Vegalia’s brush pack right after watching this video! Thank you so much for introducing me to her work, I really needed brushes for curly hair. :]

[@SamiiSam128]

Personally I don't see a huge issue with these things I guess? It really depends, if the person was struggling with different skin tones(or learning) or if they're drawing characters to see how they'd look as different races, I don't see an issue. Now, if it was intentional and clearly racist, that's where I have an issue.

[@breewashere]

There's people dying everyday. Yet we're here crying about a drawing that wasn't made by us or have anything to do with us. Pretty sad honestly. They're making fools out of themselves.

[@sammysaito529]

@@breewashere If only Twitter didn’t exist 😞

[@lazilycatharticone4191]

@@breewashere realist shit I've seen all day.

[@inkubator320]

@@breewashere I think we should care about all of it .

[@breewashere]

@@inkubator320 I think we should just kill ourselves if our life is that shxt that we have to complain about something that doesn't involve us.

[@KJPluemMini]

I totally agree with what you said that some artist should learn to paint dark skins. I also do that too, and my clients are very happy about it as I can paint in different shading skin. I saw some artist does some whitewashing by painting dark character too bright (then dramas). But what about some artist who made white/light skin character into black skin character?

[@ShinyShilla]

4:22 I personally think we need more canon black character to get this diversity, but I have no business in the matter

[@Your20droid]

People shouldn’t be drawing white characters or changing white characters as black characters. *Forced representation is not representation.* Most of these artists don’t care, as most have changed Asian characters as black characters and nobody bats an eye because Asian folks have “white” skin, and therefore they’re not POC. That’s just my opinion as a Native American/Mexican. Learn how to draw POC features and practice shading dark skin for more diversity (without having to change a white character) or draw the character the way they are drawn by the creator.

[@geegee4389]

@@Your20droid isn't forced, and your not black so let's let black people dictate whether that kind of representation is forced or not, thanks! :))

[@PDD555]

@@geegee4389 your not Asian nor latino, only speak for yourself

[@zesucculent7564]

@@geegee4389 and somehow changing the race of a non-black POC to black is completely fine but not the other way around? you should know that not all asians are light skinned and south and south east asians are typically on the darker side. assuming all asians are part of the white appearing cast is just racist in it of itself. i may not be black, but it's still my race you're changing so i still have a right to voice out my opinions. i'm not mad at the changing of skintones, honestly do whatever you want, i couldn't really care. it's the double standards i have an issue with and please don't forget that black people aren't the only ones underrepresented in media. i agree with the comment above, we should just focus more on making more original characters to serve as our representation rather than deciding to erase the representation of others. - sincerely, a south east asian :)

[@juliengaspillo1876]

I deleted my twitter back in 2019 and I started the same way🤣, I just thought that twitter's so stressful😭

[@randomuser5443]

The white washing concept reminds me of when a black friend went into a cold lake for a swimming test. Dude went from hard black man to whiter than quarts. We had a good laugh that year

[@themushroom_dude]

But here I ask, why is it not okay to draw a black carachter white but okay to do the opposite? Answer this Twitter.

[@SoulStarSketchin]

7:40 stop tempting me to draw Doc Cook

[@MohammedAgbadi]

lmaoooo please do! i'm begging you!

[@SoulStarSketchin]

@@MohammedAgbadi I just might…

[@bluesheep7]

Vegalia's brushes look super cool and useful, thanks for sharing them! I like how the video spent half of the time talking about whitewashing, and the other teaching and showing examples about how to paint dark skin. I'm probably not gonna use that advice, since I don't draw humans, but I'll keep it just in case. Also, the thing about pastel colours reminded me of that time an artist was harassed because in their pastel fanart of Encanto, some character's skin was slightly different from the original design. The funny thing was that the people accusing said artist claimed that it was extremely racist against latinos, and then the whole latino community created the meme of We don't talk about gringos, joining forces to laugh together at how triggered some people were at the drawing.

[@simamarcus3673]

thanks for putting subtitles on the video! It's nice to not have to turn on CCs and instead have accurate subtitles right there :)

[@tracklauonly]

Actually, for me painting dark skin is way harder, since where i live most of the people is white and that is what i am used to observe and I end up lightening the skin. videos like this one really helped me to realize that I am unconsciously whitewashing characters. Thanks a lot man!

[@laonee-sama9254]

You can...look at pics of dark skinned people

[@ponny2948]

I really just dont care either way. I used to care deeply about this stuff, or oversexualizing female characters, but at some point I realized that it doesnt matter on an individual basis. Individual artists doing their thing is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, let them do whatever I don’t care. If you want to talk about a corporately funded tv show, game, movie, etc then I’m all for it. If Disney started producing Tiana merch where she’s 3 shades lighter, then I’d be concerned. But Cindybigboobs13 drawing Nessa from pokemon with light skin and impossible female anatomy on twitter doesn’t really matter to me, just keep on scrolling.

[@coffintears5821]

Except tiana still looks black

[@blueintent]

People will always be ignorant. I agree

[@Pyoron]

That's a great point, people just get overly sensitive and it ruins their mood all the time tbh. I was like this too, but after some time you realize how stupid and childish it is to keep getting angry and random shit that barely matters at all. Go live your life bruh, leave these dudes alone, mfw people go ballistic over not having real issues so they start making fake ones up to feel important online.

[@TheSlipperyNUwUdle]

Tbh that’s how I feel about most fandom discourse. At the end of the day, it’s so much easier to block and move on and log off for the day. So many people would rather invite all this unnecessary conflict in their lives.

[@Ri57490]

True. If a nobody artist does it, who cares. But a big company like Disney reaches a lot of people (especially children), so it's more of an issue when they do it.

[@emogummiess]

I don't care what people think tbh, once they realize they can't do anything to you irl they seethe and mald.

[@theanonymousme6015]

Idk man I've seen people get doxxed for this 💀

[@Debate_Bot]

@@theanonymousme6015 vpn

[@theanonymousme6015]

@@Debate_Bot like every artist uses a VPN 💀

[@Debate_Bot]

@@theanonymousme6015 if youre scared why not

[@theanonymousme6015]

@@Debate_Bot I don't think every artist on Twitter even uses a VPN my dude

[@ChristianBueno81]

What I dont like is the angry mob of twitter who bullies artitst when they find something they think its problematic. A japanese artist made an illustration about Encanto. We latinos thought it was a good drawing and praise him. In the other hand, a group of american SJW bullied im to the point he has to delete the tweet. They thought he didnt use the correct color for the skin tones. The latinos confronted the gringos for such a thing. One of the americans literally tweet: "Lantinxs doesnt undestand what a latinx is." And thats how #callategringo2022 started. Nowadays the people that praise themselves the most as "inclusive" are as hateful as any right wing extremist.

[@m.v.gonzalez5575]

Tratan de ser tan "correctos" porque no quieren reconocer que tienen el racismo internalizado, y no es sólo a los artistas de Twitter el año pasado una revisa importante felicitó a Anya Taylor-Joy por ser la primera poc ganar un globo de oro desde hace más de una década sólo porque ella se identifica como Latina. Son tan racistas e ignorantes que no pueden concebir que los latinos blancos existen, que la "latinidad" no es étnica sino cultural.

[@nithi9638]

People are losing nuance on the internet. Nothing is black and white and namecalling fixes nothing. But people on twitter aren't trying to fix anything are they? They just wanna feel accomplishment about being more woke sort of. Oh look I'm doing it right now too.

[@seliamila1005]

Lol don't use the term 'sjw' that's meaningless and often used by alt-right

[@m.v.gonzalez5575]

@@seliamila1005 then what term should be use? Virtue signalers maybe?

[@dreysantillan]

One word we could describe those damn sjws Obnoxious

[@SoulStarSketchin]

1:40 so on point with this. These tired excuses I’ve heard all the time. Most times I just let it go but it’s noticeable

[@MohammedAgbadi]

all the time!!!

[@SoulStarSketchin]

@@MohammedAgbadi all the damn time

[@odduckOasis]

There are def some times when people get upset when a video recording doesn't reflect the skin tone properly, but that's not because the artist is doing anything strange/wrong, but the light on the screen and the way the camera adjusts to let in more light- and since the picture isn't a 3D object, it doesn't adjust the same way if it was an actual person standing there being recorded. Still, good reminders- especially for new artists that they ought to be studying skin tones and how light works on all shades, that's how we grow as artists. (Also, I too hate there isn't curly hair default brushes, cuz ppl struggle with curly hair anyways, but I love it). Thx as always for the awesome vid!

[@brendanb2982]

Missed opportunity to use the Spiderman 2 Pizza theme during the Doc Cook bit.

[@MohammedAgbadi]

darn!!!! we'll get them next time!

[@torrancemoore6152]

Normally the reason I see is that its difficult to do digitally and while I agree it's not as easy as just one color over grayscale tonality when it comes to something as complex as lighting, I see it A LOT with darker skin characters in particular. I don't just assume these artists have malicious motives for this since Twitter's hardly a place for civil discourse on anything but it does happen often enough to make me feel like something's up.

[@breewashere]

Idk why but whenever I save a drawing on ibispaint all of the color tones shift and become lighter and more saturated. It's fucking weird cuz they don't look like that on ibis.

[@realswobby]

People care so much about slightly inaccurate skin tones but when weirdos draw explicit r... p... with canonically childlike characters, then suddenly "It'S jUsT a DrAwInG! dRaWiNgS dOn'T hAvE aGe! tHeY aRe nOt mAdE tO lOoK LiKe cHiLdReN!1!!1". Hypocrisy.

[@jrasiy4048]

People do care, alot of people, probably same amount as this situation, they face the same amount of backlash with weirdos inbetween

[@elytorres3051]

Drawings indeed have no age, no feelings, like, literally. If you're that concerned about this issues, REAL LIFE ISSUES, do something IN REAL LIFE to help stop that issues.

[@jascharichtergillego65]

It makes me sad to see people getting so riled up in topics like this... I mean mistakes exist. Artstyles and style of coloring exist. And mostly, progress and growth in art exist. You can guide an artist to do good stuff, but you should never "correct" them to draw the "right stuff". Like forcing a kid to draw a perfect circle in their first few tries... It feels very wrong as well as voiding them the freedom to explore and realize things on their own... Let artists draw. Ignore trolls as much as possible. And try to put our phones down and take a 5 minute breather if something triggers us at first glance

[@mmmmyeah1849]

You are right. Sometimes these are genuine mistakes. I don't think we should paint everyone in the same brush

[@edgechan]

@@AuroraExhale I mean, an artist is going to be open for critiques, most of the time. If they reply as a troll is probably because the one that gave the critique got wrong in one point or the critique sounds like "you're wrong, I am right. You're dumb, I'm not. You have no idea, listen to me" and it leads to the dramas we are most aware about. I'm not saying that whitwashing is ok or something, but if you (in plural, no you as yourself) think the skin color is too light without thinking that the whole concept is light, then is ok to admit you did wrong and move on, no claiming or editing or harass the artist because their reply pissed you off.

[@geegee4389]

@@AuroraExhale THANK YOU! I see this take all the time and its always from non-black artists. There's been so much discourse on this topic at this point that "it's just a mistake, let artist do whatever" just doesn't feasibly make sense

[@breewashere]

Communist art

[@breewashere]

Do this! Not that!

[@JaysVoiceAppriciator]

I really liked this video!! As someone with black OCs, and draw mainly in anime style, I never thought coloring black skin was hard. It's a huge misconception. People need to try. Maybe with anime style it's even much simpler and easier to color dark skin. Don't be afraid, guys~ it's just skin.

[@deon6045]

Can we all just be honest with ourselves and each other, and call this as the peak first world problem it is? I imagine more than anything else that this kind of policing only makes people hesitant to draw characters with dark skin. Imagine not even making a stylized piece, but a genuine mistake (something that's literally required to learn in art), and then the next thing you know you get popular for being branded a racist by a bunch of zealots online. While it was mentioned that we shouldn't "face stomp" artists in some attempt to "educate them," how is that supposed to work in practice? Even this video is asserting (or heavily implying, at the very least) that racism is the only reason someone would get the skin tone wrong -- ultimately meaning "not the way I want them to do it." It's almost like peace was never an option. You can't just haphazardly throw around a volatile word like that and expect good to come of it. Since the whole Nessa thing came up in the video, let's address the obvious: People didn't start whitewashing her en mass until they saw some busybodies got upset at a piece of art where her skin was hued towards pink, and it drove them to lash back by trolling. Am I wrong? I highly doubt there is a soul on earth who looked at the Japanese artist's piece and thought "Ah, this is definitely whitewashing. Good!" Normal people were able to interpret her dark skin tone. Yet reasonable thought is not valued on the internet, so here we are. This kind of nonsense is all the more scoffworthy when people expect the privilege to play by a different set of rules than they want to put on others. I.E. "Adding diversity" or whatever foolishness that person called it. You all need to take a course on self-reflection. Maybe then you'd be able to tell you're projecting when you accuse people of erasing identity. You are the only lot to ever bring it up, after all -- as if some whitey is rubbing his hands together in his basement, thinking "I can't wait to erase some blacks today by whitewashing some fictional characters." Literally what does this policing accomplish, aside from apparent harm?

[@_productofboredom_]

Yeah, I've definitely been guilty of the light source thing. Trying to do more portrait studies and plein air paintings now and get a better sense of how light affects color, but not getting it proportional is something I struggle with still. It comes from a place of wanting to have a strong dynamic between light and dark. On lighter colored objects, at lease to my eyes, the difference is more pronounced and this is why I do it subconsciously when painting. Skin, hair, clothes, it doesn't matter, I'll try to lighten them without realizing it. Something that's helped me improve ever since I realized I was doing this is to play up the specular highlights. You can get some very cool, dynamic effects on dark toned skin by paying attention to that. And also looking at all the amazing resources that Mohammed Agbadi has given!

[@fleridanfox6150]

i'm still in my first year of art school and have yet to go into painting skin colors. but one of the painting students i talk to told everyone about how skin reflects different colors depending on lighting, environment, and objects (example being an white man having lots of pink and red tones on his face because of a red hat or a brick wall). it's interesting to see how light and colors reflect on black skin! as of yet i haven't seen a lot of studies on black skin, but the class is pretty diverse, and hopefully we'll broaden our studies talking about it together.

[@XpIMBOREDXP]

This reminds me of when I worked with photographers and models, realizing how inexperienced people were in properly lighting and editing photos to enhance the beauty of dark skin rather than washing them out or not contrasting features enough. It's pretty wild how people aren't taught about all skin types in art most of the time. Really paints a picture of what people's priorities are, it's unfortunate

[@yuri_nori]

As a yellow person I'm not sure why there's problem with POC there's so many characters that has dark skin and they're hot AF even if it's in anime 😤

[@loquedijorkb]

Everyone can have their own opinions but for me this is just ridiculous, art has no rules and so the colors... personally I would draw whatever or whoever I would like to and however I’d like to, why? ‘Cuz it’s mine, my creation, as simple as that, and I promise if I ever make something that could “offend” someone that’s just not my business PS: I still can completely agree with that 7:04 and I was thinking about that the whole video, I’m glad the pint went out

[@potatoman7028]

This. Not everyone is gonna change the color of a cheracter for the reason that they are racist what if they just want to see how it looks like

[@uchicken_]

thanks for helping by sharing these stuffs. i struggle drawing poc (although 99% of the time im drawing traditional and dont color it in) and if ur art is pastel heres a tip ! go to the color thingy (idk what it looks like for u) and turn the saturation down until it looks okay. same if urs is brighter just turn it up tho

[@floppy._.froggy4214]

The only thing I want from Twitter or tiktok artistes is to stop changing characters races from white to black or from black to white or from white to Asian or from black to Asian or Asian to any race.

[@lillithemew3587]

6:04 I see some splatoon artists change Marina's skin colour, and just the colour..

[@isakjarlestedt2001]

Amazing video! Very well done analysis and very entertaining to watch, THANK YOU!🖤💚♥

[@elitecarbonninja4429]

3:52 they basically said that preferring a skin tone over others isn’t racist

[@SpectreBagels]

Personally I don't think it should be excused to darken a character that isn't originally by just saying society doesn't treat it as bad and "representation". It can honestly be pretty disrespectful and come from similar roots of whitewashing, or at least what people say makes it bad. Whitewashing and blackwashing aren't good. Changing the skin color just to see how the character or colors would look in a different skin tone is fine but it's when someone does it to be "better" than the original or just to be disrespectful, no matter what race it is, thats when it just isn't okay

[@geegee4389]

This is just blatantly racist, the amount of historical ignorance you're showing just twists your argument. You and other non-black artists think that when black people colour canonically white characters black, it's the same the other way around. It just isn't. For a majority of history, white characters have dominated culture- in the golden age of comics back in the 50s & 60s, the only black characters present were tar black red lipped caricatures. Black ppl have little to no representation in artistic media compared to their white counterparts. THATS why they swap races. White people doing it back has no historical meaning and makes zero sense as a majority of their favorite media are white centered. Like please I implore you not to spout absolute garbage in a black KZbinr's comment section

[@blueintent]

Intention is the key, obviously.. If someone decides to make a black Naruto for the fun of it, that shouldn't be a problem at all. Their intention isn't to make him "better". That's not racist.

[@geegee4389]

@sdfdsfsdfdsfsdsdfdsfdfs That's simply impractical. The argument of "make your own characters" unintentionally highlights the fact that there are little to no popular black characters. Whitewashing's historical context is what differentiates it from what you call "blackwashing." If you were a black child growing up in the western world, your favorite superheroes, your favourite toys, your favorite cartoon characters- all of them are most likely white. What does that kid do then? Make their own character? Contact the character designers of said media? You willfully have to disregard my argument to actually believe those two concepts are comparable in anyway.

[@nemi4364]

@sdfdsfsdfdsfsdsdfdsfdfs you're missing the part where most black artists do make their own characters and redraw their favorite characters. you can do both of these things

[@nemi4364]

@sdfdsfsdfdsfsdsdfdsfdfs double standards only exist when both standards are equal in some way. i agree that there should be more black characters in media. there are MANY creators pushing for that, and maybe you're aware of that. the thing is, most black creators ARE making and trying to introduce dark skin and black characters. the thing is that in the matter of many meetings, these characters get lightened or changed completely. there some public examples of this happening. all we can do is keep introducing and self-publishing if capable. at the same time, redrawing a character as black isn't making them black officially. you're doing it for yourself. and with that said, if you don't like it, you're free to curate your social media experience to your own liking.

[@shiningraven326]

I'm suddenly glad that I don't have Twitter Also thanks for the video! I really like making characters with varieties of skin tones so this was actually really interesting and helpful! I also laughed way too much at the Doc Cook joke

[@adan3956]

Never listen to these fools on twitter or tiktok. Draw whatever u want, however u want.

[@vora300]

Twitter “fixing” black characters feels more racist than drawing black characters.

[@lance0625]

Same old drama honestly, people have nothing better to do so they create it just to fell relevant. It's so tiring at the end.Why can't we focus on what's important.

[@brokuto450]

when it comes to the art community on twitter, ur either on the good side; supportive people, kind words, and just wholesome interactions OR the bad side; THIS. there are no in-between