#espc since me and several of my friends are working with kids and young artists lately

[soumic]

Sorry long art ramble incoming- the screensaver hit the corner of my brain and I had a coherent thought about like, the ever-present online discussion around diversity in character design/illustration and the idea of “art style.” I’m thinking mostly about ‘anime art’ (but western comics/cartoons as well) because that’s what’s dominant in the circles I’m in, but I think it’s broadly applicable.

I wonder how we might move the discussion towards the idea that everyone’s art is influenced by broader movements and existing works, and that every art style/movement has an inherent set of values that are reflected in their aesthetic choices. All art looks at the world and makes choices about what to include and what not to, and that’s political. Anime art is really beginner friendly because the long line of artists in the industry sat down and made a bunch of choices about how to simplify drawing people in service of the speed/clarity needed for animation/comics. It’s much easier to copy anime style which has been engineered for ease of drawing than it is to draw from life. This is great! It’s one of the reasons anime is so popular and enduring as a movement. Because of this though, when you draw on anime in your work, you are drawing on a visual shorthand/iconography of the human body/face that reflects certain cultural ideals of how people should look- and nowhere is that more apparent than when the visual shorthand falls flat. This is where we usually see the online discussion crop up- issues with grey skin tones, lack of body/facial diversity, difficulty drawing older characters, etc. and that’s where you get the reflexive “but it’s just my art style” response. Now, of course, having anime (or any other) influence in your style is not inherently a bad thing! It absolutely is a pillar of my own style! But it is also not a value neutral thing. By repeating the anime art shorthand without reflecting on this, you are a) robbing yourself of a chance to develop your artistic eye, and b) blindly subsuming a set of ideals into your work that declares what types of people are worthy of being depicted. Skilled artists can recognize the limitations of the shorthand and draw on other influences, research, and fundamentals to fill the gaps.

This is what people are getting at when they say things like “if you can’t draw fat people you aren’t a good artist,” or when they critique the popularity of things like genshin. Those statements are designed to be provocative, yes, but that’s because the people saying them have a vested interest in pointing out how the dominant artistic trends fail them. I think the more we can stress the importance of developing a critical eye for the political elements of art, the faster we can move away from the canned “but my art style” defensive response. We gotta remind people, especially beginner artists, that it’s not a personal slight about their own creativity, but more that cultivating our catalog of artistic influence is a collective and ongoing responsibility that we all share. It should be a skill we aim to cultivate just as much our technical skills, and by framing it as a skill it leaves the door open for people to learn and grow.