So you might be saying: Lion why a guide on drawing black people? Well young blood it’s because a lot of people cant…seem…to draw…black people..Amazing I know.
Racist (caricatures) portrayals of black people have been around forever, and to this day people can’t seem to draw black people like they are human. If your artwork resembles any of the above even remotely your artwork is racist and offensive. If you try to excuse that as a stylistic choice you’re not only a terrible artist, but racist too!!! Congrats.
Whitewashing is also a problem. A lot of people refuse to draw black features on canonly black characters. While this example isn’t colored, lightening the skin-tone of a character is also considered whitewashing. So lets start with features!
Now all black people have different noses thats a no-brainer, but black noses tend to have flatter bridges, and wider nostrils.
Please stay from triangular anime noses and small button noses.
Your drawings should not depict black people with abnormally large noses. (Especially if you do not draw other characters this way)
If you feel like the way you draw lips on black characters is offensive or resembles a caricature,it probably does and you should change it. ABSOLUTELY AVOID PLACING LIPS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE FACE.
Hair is so diverse! Please get used to drawing braids, locs,kinks and coils! If you can learn to draw ringlets and long waves you can learn how to draw black hairstyles.
Add clips! Learn how to draw baby-hairs and never be afraid to add color Pinterest and Google are free my dudes! Also try using square brushes for blocking in coils.
OK THAT’S ALL YOU GUYS
This is good but very limited, black people don’t all look like west coast Africans, it’s a big blind spot a lot of us who had our ancestors enslaved from the west coast have, especially black Americans due to comparative homogenity.
While it’s good to avoid racial caricatures, there’s no one sort of face for a black person. While it’s good for people who only draw typical European features to move away from that, it’s a good idea for people to be aware of all the different people who would be considered black Africans:
Such as Ethiopians
Who look different to Ghanaians and Nigerians
And north Africans such as Tunisians
Who look different to those from the Congo
And special mention for black people of the Pacific, melanisians with Fijians, aboriginal people, Maori etc who are often considered black without needed to be African
