#hopefully im not whitewashing me dear claude ;w;

[cikenugets]

Hi this is kind of a difficult ask to explain but as a artist I was wondering if you could offer your input on how to tell when someone is whitewashing a character vs just drawing them in a different lighting or coloring style? I've recently seen people say that artists are whitewashing Claude and claiming its lighting so now when I look at some pieces I get worried that I'm supporting whitewashing without noticing it. Apologies if this ask makes you uncomfortable and I hope you have a good day!

Hello anon! Oh wow, this question is way above my paycheck but I’ll try. ;w;

(also a lot of colour theory is involved which I’m still learning!) Might be long so I’m gonna put it under more just incase –

Yes colour is very heavily influenced by lighting so its the main reason some art may look whitewashed. Also, if you look on his sprite he actually looks way lighter than his concept art due to the lighting of course. Most artist tends to whitewash the character to get that pastel aesthetic look. I’d say if there is multiple characters in the same picture and they had the same colour skin then yeah he’s pretty much whitewashed. (Note: this is when there is lighting involves. The way their skin reflects light should be different!)

I’ll include this link, i think it’ll explains better!

https://twitter.com/deluxepeach/status/1140111224597831681?s=20

https://t.co/LXbpvfTRteI love how this pic shows how much lighting reflect darker skin tone!

Anyway, for me to really avoid whitewashing a POC char is to start off with dark colour as their base so that you won’t stray far when adding lighting/highlights. I added soft light/overlay for lighting with adjusted opacity. (Please take this with a grain of salt this is just to show how I approach my art!)

I don’t see any harm in supporting this type of art although if you think they are, might as well ask them nicely (they might accidentally choose a lighter palette OR unintentionally colour it wrong like in my case, my laptop colour differs from my phone so the colour can be a bit off sobs T^T). Also, calling out culture sucks, I’m here to contribute positively (as most artists are!) to the fan base that’s all. After all, they are fictional characters. :))

I hope this kind of answer your question! I’m not very good with words! ;w;