Why does diversity matter in art??
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- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2025
- IM BACK. Happy holidays and new year, I'm back with more art for you to feast on my little ratlings while I rant. Enjoy??
#art #artcommentary #speedpaint #diversityandinclusion #drawing #digitalart #artisit #artchannel
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
👍👍 100% with you. "Heroes are good and beautiful and Villains are everything else" is a slippery slope we do not need, it's sad that the idea still sticks around ☹️
coming from an indigenous person, a lot of what i want is not just visibility, but normalizing. non poc stories are normalized and not questioned, but when your character design includes a indigenous character and your asked "why did you choose that?" the answer should be the same as any other reason. Because you can! there shouldn't "have to be" a reason, and thats why diversity is important. theres a lot more to say about the topic but it annoys me when people start off with "well you must have a reason for this" and seem to act as if they can judge on that. the idea of "too much diversity" is silly, that's the real world.
exactly! it’s always the “it’s distracting from the story.” no it’s just a person???it’s a story about a person that’s not white because you can
exactlyyyyyy like, it's ok for a cast of only white/straight to exist but not the opposite? Whys that???
Absolutelyyy
Like, a blue character is all normal and shit but imagining somebody with another body type or someone queer or disabled is too much?
Great video, 5 out of 5 cheeserolls
Why not all of that
I loved Storm from that video and this video. "Same body syndrome" is a problem with some art, and diversity in art is very useful. I love your art, and this drawing is amazing.
Diversity is exactly why most of my stories have the main characters being extremely diverse. My comic has a main protagonist who is Latino with PTSD, hearing problems in one ear, muscle pain in his arms due to burns that leave scars. His best friend is a neurodivergent boy with ADHD who is also albino. His love interest is a plus size German girl whose best friend is a little black witch with vitiligo. The oldest in the group are a black boy and an Asian boy who are both queer, and their brotherly figure who keeps them safe is a trans man. Also the protagonist's sister is a black, plus size woman and a lesbian secretly dating a princess from an ice kingdom.
Is it a lot? Yes. do I care? no! I want diversity, and it's my story, I'm going to make my characters as diverse as I want! and no one can stop me! >:3
FREE WILL. (also all of those characters sound so cool- and probably makes the story so much more interesting!)
@paranoid_ratt It's a fantasy world but I'm building the world and I'm taking some inspiration from real world cultures, specifically the clothing and fashion present in different nations in this world. Especially since the characters come from different places or are of descent from different places. I'm trying to be careful not to do anything offensive, because at the end of the day I'm just a white Brazilian woman, I don't want to do anything that offends someone's culture. I just want to give diversity to the characters.
@@laraprisma6381Eu sou do Brasil tbm!!!😆
@@Len_l14 yuppy!!!😄🥳
as someone who has same body syndrome i completely agree with this and i think artists should try much harder to diversify their art. its also very helpful and makes you really think about your own biases even if theyre subconcious! (im still actively working on getting over my "forgetting not everyone is white and has my body shape" mindset)
Yea I feel so annoyed at myself whenever I think of a character I’m reading in a book as white by default
Yes I agree completely!!
Honestly, I’m like halfway through the video but I need to talk about this
I remember reading a book strictly because it was post apocalyptic and had two queer character. I fell in love instantly. It was my favorite genre with relatable characters. But I didn’t see any disabilities other than a temporary injury and I remember being sad by that. Especially since it was a story about a pandemic wiping out most of the population. Then the second book came around and there was a mention of post-traumatic arthritis and my favorite character made a joke that I found so relatable. He made a joke about how that diagnosis made him sound old and that he was going to tell kids to get off his lawn. As someone with arthritis at a young age, I found that relatable but the topic wasn’t touched up on much after that.
Being someone who’s so in love with post apocalyptic genres, I often make conversation about how people would survive in those situations. I often get laughed at by friends that I’d die off fast. I’m a very smart person, I just have a disability getting in the way of things sometimes. Hearing that joke over and over honestly got depressing.
I really wish there was more disability and queer representation in post apocalyptic media. I’ve only found those two books mentioned earlier. It feels isolating to not have that representation in such a beloved genre
What's the book name
@ all that’s left in the world by Eric j brown
What disabilities and stuff would you like to see more represented? I’m curious cause I wanna make more realistic characters. Even if they aren’t main characters per say, I still want to know cause I don’t want all my characters to be the same
Might I recommend Izzy At the End of The World by K.A. Reynolds?
@ thank you so much
Thank you for talking about this, people do really need to stop commenting on body types, etc.
I have been trying REALLY hard to not just be making one body type. So I VERY much appreciate this! ❤❤❤
Thanks so much for taling about this
YESSSS you're so right!! i also want to create work that at least SOMEONE sees themself in and especially those who might not feel seen otherwise. fantastic job putting that into words!
also your storm design is awesome!!!
This couldn’t be more true and I love that you are sharing this as it helps people think that they’re story is worth telling. Thank you ❤
so here with you. ive been trying to un-societalize(?) myself from the "norm" of characters, im trying to make my art more diverse, POC charatcers, queer characters, disabled characters, ect. it can be a bit difficult to design a character with an experience that isnt mine, but that's the fun of designing characters imo
This is such a real take on this and one that i think should be done and talked about more. It took me YEARS to be happy w/ myself and my art because it often doesn't fit popular mrdia.
Kinda funny realization for younger me was that I didn't realize I was queer, because I didn't realize I *could* be 😂 the only queer characters I was exposed to were gay men. WDYM a girl can like other girls??? 😂 Its funny looking back but really made me realize just how internalized stuff like that is from suxh a young age
Edit: just in case I didnt word this right, this isn't hating on gay men guys, i was just saying thats about all i was exposed to as a kid. Everyone including gay men need representation in media
As someone who is very diverse almost clicking every box I can say do whatever you want with your art you don’t HAVE to make your art diverse at all, you shouldn’t feel the need to draw something just so you can reach a quota or have a target audience, art is supposed to feel natural, now if you’re an artist that’s work is going out to be shared with the public like character design or commissions etc, you should practice diversity and I believe every artist should practice diversity, people will rag on you nowadays for drawing non diversely calling you names for not doing so which is just odd but draw whatever you like and what you want to draw but if you want to expand yourself as an artist and expand your overall knowledge drawing diversity will make you draw diversely without a second thought, it’d be natural and often times you wouldn’t even think about what you’re drawing or how diverse it is because it should feel natural because it is natural to be diverse, you shouldn’t panic thinking about “oh I didn’t make this person diverse enough” “I have no diverse people, I’m probably this or that” “will people call me this if I don’t draw that?” Just practice because if you want to be a good artist you will need to draw a lot of unique and impressionable work and you can’t have that if you’re not making your art diverse, just practice.
I don't think I realized how much I needed good representation until I watched half of one of my fandoms decide that one of the main characters in a series was a male leaning nonbinary character. I had never realized that I'd needed that kind of representation in my life until then, and it was cathartic to see all the depictions of this character as nonbinary
I have a sorta chubby girlfriend nd i absolutely love EVERYTHING about her. I could never call her those names (I can’t even write them). I find her equally attractive and beautiful nd I always try to boost her confidence because I know that her body is BEAUTIFUL just the way it is, so people that judge chubby characters/people are just terrible to me, I honestly can’t even imagine doing/saying such shit.
I LOVE THIS COMMENT THIS GAVES ME FAITH IN HUMANITY THANK YOU
I have EDS and it's so rare to see characters with my condition - i saw one in spiderverse, while they had a minor role it still was very nice :)
I HAVE EDS TOO!!!! I love charlotte weber so much- (she’s the spider-man with eds lol) and yeah it’s never really represented partially because no one believes it exists which sucks
I have hEDS!! I love giving my ocs it
Carajo !!!!!! Gracias a Dios audio latino!!!
Saludos desde Perú!!
exactly to everything, and yes the joy i get when i find ONE character who's genderqueer or trans is crazy...people are so underrepresented, like its a struggle to even find a book with the representation you want and don't even get me started on tv/movies 😭😭
This is unrelated to the topic of the video (which I completely agree with you about) but I love the way you rendered the fabric for the art piece you did in the background of the video!!!
Diversity matters because if everyone was the same it’ll be boring
I stumbled upon your channel and lustened as i sketched, i'm glad iv'e found you the commentary was really true!
Awesome video! And I adored your X-men redesigns btw!!! They were so cool! Also you’re so right, diversity needs to grow in art, it really, really does.
Diversity in my art is something I am focusing on a lot recently, especially regarding color. I come from central european state in which people of different color than „white” are not really common and definitaly not seen in media that often. I still vividly remamber the time I drew all my black characters with straight or slightly curly hair because I didn’t understand how other types of hair work. I felt so emberessed. I honestly wisch someone had told me back than.
EXACTLY.THAT.
The peppa pig 😭
I've been making my own superhero ocs ( I'm still in the process of writing) tbh they aren't too diverse, but I'm trying to make a point with the lack of diversity, if that makes sense? the main superhero team struggles in doing their job because of their lack of diversity, they all share very similar perspectives, and can't really see outside of that
There are very few things that make me angrier than when someone says “stop designing ugly characters, make them appealing”, especially with women. Cause like what does that even mean, “ugliness” isn’t something that can be clearly defined and in pretty much every application of it when it comes to character design it always means realistic or POC. And by that same token, “appeal” isn’t just attractiveness, I mean take Cthulhu, Mickey Mouse, sonic the hedgehog, xenomorphs or Mario for example non of these characters were designed to be attractive and yet they are appealing (heck Mario originally was conceived to not be typically attractive at all) appeal is more so a design that’s pleasing to the eye, being able to look at something and say “yeah I enjoy looking at that” and while this can overlap with a character being attractive (rouge the bat, black cat, and catwoman, cyclops, gambit, and Thor come to mind) it isn’t and should never be the default when it comes to making an appealing design.
TLDR; Appealing characters should be nice visually and centering that around what’s “attractive” is a terrible mentality to have and would only serve as hindrance to a characters look. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
I've been trying to put more diversity in my art, especially with body types but I'm having trouble because for such a long time I've only realy drawn one body type
Was hoping for a little tutorial for drawing different body types? Love your art btw!
i’ve been wanting to do a little anatomy tutorial at some point!
@paranoid_ratt YAY!!
@paranoid_ratt YIPEE
I wish there was more diverse art bc to learn how to draw thing i study other ppls art to figure out how to draw different bodies. I cant draw ppl who actually look chubby or fat (dispite being chubby myself) bc i cant figure out how to get it to look right. Also realized when watching this that I've nvr drawn a disabled character... coming up with ideas now that ive thought of it
I really like the way you designed Storm. I love how you added weight on her. She looks like she could go toe to toe fighting Wolverine. I don't see her as fat. My only qualm with the specific design is that her legs are (technically) too far apart (thigh gap).
Been trying to practice other body types but im not that good quite yet, i just need to practice from references, also this is the reason i liked the Blue beetle movie reminded me of my family and culture I still like it
DID YOU GET A NEW AVATAR???
TEACH ME HOW TO DRAW HAIR LIKE THATTTTTT :O
RAHH SOMEONES FINALLY SAYS IT! JUST KNOW YOU ALWAYS HAVE A FAN >:3
aaaaaaaaaaah i love this art style so much
0:53 Your storm design doesn’t even look fat at all, she just looks a lil short and there nothing wrong with that
I definitely think that people should try to get into the media they wish to be more diverse. Art, games, books, movies, cartoons.
Even within indie spaces the games are not all the diverse and when they are it is mainly due to skin colour. People nwed to make more quality media with a diverse cast. When it comes to artist I only really know few other artist who draws diverse bodies and they are small youtubers recommend to me.
I find it hard to even find art youtubers that draw dark skin characters more than once in a blue moon and focuses on male characters or a different body shape than artist commony draw.
people like to give the excuse of "everyone should be allowed to draw what they want!" but it's the reason behind so many people choosing to only drawing the same skinny and conventionally attractive people off pinterest that bothers me. WHY as artists and creators do we choose to perpetuate the narrow and exclusive ideals that society forces on us? Like c'mon we can get more creative than that
Because I don't want people to tell me what I should write or draw? You are kinda forcing me to always make diverse designs, even when I don't feel like it
What about disabled people? Like people with cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, scoliosis, and anorexia? How should I represent those kinds of people?
it depends on your art form and how to show it, but doing research on the disability is always a good place to start and learning how to draw/write it! this can just be from online research or talking to someone with experience witj said disability. a lot of my disabled characters come from personal experience because that’s what i know best and how to portray, but just broadening your understanding will help!
@paranoid_ratt You have disabled characters?
@paranoid_ratt you have disabled characters?
yeah! i didn’t talk about them specifically in this video, but they’ve shown up in previous videos and i have more i havent even brought up here on RUclips because i don’t talk about my OCs as much
Im trying to include more diversity in my art but i keep seeing people saying that giving a character darker skin then means that the topic of racism or stuff like thay is inherently in the story, like i have a few characters whoa re tan or dark skinned and theyre mostly fantasy but none of their stories revolve around their race but so many people say that you cant just not have their skintone inherently matter and it confuses me so much (anyway sorry for the rant)
Aswell as that I'm white as hell I don't think I'm in any position to try depict issues like that when I have no experience with it
Having characters if multiple colours shouldn’t always have to include racism, what if you want a positive story:/
@@Germmillions yeah none of my thought processes for making characters is about their skin colour or body type it just kind of happens
@raylands_basement3317 literally like bro it’s just how I made the character look (I go with the flow)
i dont think that it has to be included in every story yk?
my main oc is a genderqueer and neurodivergent alien, and to me that can mean a lot ❤ even if its my own character i feel more seen when they exist
Storm looks a but different from the first time you draw her right?
Or am i stupid?
Only rules about character bodys for superheros i have is, if they fight up close, they should have muscules, if not, let them just be people, unless character wise theyd work out alot
Man I hate when they make actually good characters good or evil in terms of design or personality and they just kill off the character either literally or metaphorically by shoving them off onto the sideline like to never be seen again outside of like the one scene/episode they feature in, just so we can go back to the generic characters which may have some relatable qualities but only to a surface level
i will 100% join you in your journey
Idk why people gotta be hatin, like just let life be life bro, its not that hard
Thank you for this!
For me, the first piece of media that did and continues to make me feel seen is Ninjago, but the amount of homophobia, racism, and just bigotry in general in the fandom is insane. I honestly prefer to live in my own world with my own realistic headcanons. Great video !!
I'm easily influenced, so I've often been on the side of "mimimi, that's woke, mimimi" because of the people I talk to. they respect me and I respect them. These are points of view and I respect them if they are approached in a peaceful and mature way. but then I found a video of a character with the exact same physical body as mine and wore glasses (I'm a fat man and have kind of big breasts) and that character wasn't portrayed as a crazy weirdo or absurdly ugly. which made me very happy and I felt a connection with him. the character was not autistic like me but I still need to see the new She-ra because I saw in some sources that they have an autistic character like me and she is not portrayed as the genius that no one knows how to live with. I don't have much information so anyone who watched it will correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway, I wanted to see capable autistic people like me, I'm very flexible and I wanted to see people like me, who are capable autistic people, not geniuses, but who are strong in their abilities and who know or are learning to live with others and who Don't always be treated like the victim, the poor thing that no one understands or that freaks out over anything. I want to see myself more in media too! and when I do comics, I want to bring all kinds of diversity even if not everyone in the cast, but at least one episode has its shine and people can see themselves in them!
hello so i have Opinions on this topic
1. i think an excellent example of the difference diversity makes is seen in Leigh Bardugo's work. These are just my thoughts from when i first read her books, no hate. her debut novel, "Shadow and Bone", was extremely boring and not particularly interesting in terms of the characters (very cool worldbuilding tho). all white, the girl is skinny, you get the idea (i think she fell down a similar hole to Rat, she has a disability and uses a cane). HOWEVER, her duology that she wrote later after gaining more confidence as an author; "Six Of Crows" (and its sequel "Crooked Kingdom"). i adore every one of the characters, and there is so much more diversity. different races and skin tones, sexualities, body types, disabilities. one of my favourite characters ever tbh, Wylan, is gay and displays autistic traits (he also has a disability that i wont spoil just in case :D). the six of crows duology is my fav series ever and is so important to me, it shows what a difference diversity makes.
2. growing up i also only ever saw skinny girl protagonists, both in literature and television. it gave me the subconcious beleif that to be a main character, you have to have this exact body. this complicated my relationship with my body and food, which ended up becoming dangerous to say the least haha. when i see characters that arent stick thin and still main characters, just as deserving of respect, it makes me feel like its ok to not be skinny and thats honestly so healing.
LONG ass comment but this is super important and i always try to be diverse in my art excellent video k bye :)
Does this video suddenly mean you have to diversify your own art? No, it does not. Art is meant to be personal for a reason. While it’s great to diversify-even as a study-drawing what you want and what makes you happy should always be your top priority, as art is an extension of yourself.
Does this justify hate toward people who do diversify their characters or create art in such contexts? Absolutely not. If you’re allowed to draw what makes you happy, what makes another person’s style any less valid as their own personal interpretation? Even in a small context where your criticism might seem justified, at the end of the day, it still makes you hypocritical. By doing so, you’re claiming that your preference for art is more valid than someone else’s. Critiquing someone’s art into aligning with your personal interpretation ignores the fact that art is meant to be personal to each artist-not dictated by the audience.
(this comment is meant towards the viewers not the creator of the video)
What colour setting thing do you use for your shading??
i use the multiply blending mode
Currently it’s harder for me to draw skinny people so most of them would at least be considered chubby by societal standards
Nahh ai just automatically translated ur vid, anyways nice art
6:09 how did you make the red turn into a shade that fits with the shadows on every character? :o
i used the red as more of a starter color just so i knew where i was putting the shadows, then i switched that layer to multiply then played with hue until i found a color that felt right
All the ppl in the last vid said that it's unrealistic to make storm fat bc she is supposed to be athletic or something like that. They were not hating on you they were just saying
I never really cared about diversity :/ i barely do.
I agree with most points and this take is wonderful, but I feel like most people are arguing that this type of body is not really possible with superheros because they’re all supposed to be fit and athletic with all the exercise they do. Before anyone says “oh but have you seen the body types for people within different athletic fields?” Yes, I have, but the issue with this in SUPERHEROS is that superheros (unless they are strictly doing magic) do all kinds of activities, resulting in a full body workout, thus being lean! I would love to see this represented in the context of superheroes that do MAGIC and stuff tho, but it doesn’t make sense in context.
I thought the same thing, like I don't think she does up close combat much, so it could be that + a slow metabolism maybe? Like she can definitely be chubby, she doesn't have to be as slim as a model or something, just maybe a *little* more fit
I do think the redesign looks amazing though, and it is their art, so they can draw whatever they want lol
this feels so dumb to say, this should be common sense :[
Looking at your take on Storm I don’t see what the big fuss is about. Sure, it’s quite different from the original, but it doesn’t go against her character or look unappealing.
That’s my rule, as long as the reasoning is thought out and the execution is good, who cares? Plus, you gave the other characters a variety of body types that fit too.
Hi, i'm an amature artist, and writer, i'm writing a "book" and I am planning a diverse range of characters, do you have any advice on doing it well?
thank you for doing this video, it was intresting, and in general i enjoy your videos
- Blair (he/they)
hell yeaa!!!!
I don't have a problem with your design at all. I mean, hell, it's just an alternate take, this doesn't suddenly erase canon Storm from looking the way she does. I also agree diversity is important! However, I guess if you think about the genre as a whole, Superheroes usually look the way they do because of their powers or their training regime. These are characters who are constantly active and usually training very frequently, so it justifies that most of them are probably going to be fit.
Again, doesn't bother me too much most of the time, but I can at least see where some of the complaints come from at a base level. There are ways to get around all that, of course, with the way a characters acts or how their personality affects them though.
Same, I can see where some of the comments are coming from, but if they're being rude or just straight up fatph0bic, that's not ok
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I don subbdid
No
Why
Why?