Eric 4/29/10

So, I think I redeemed my time a bit today, since this one did not take me six hours.  I attribute that largely to the fact that they're all wearing pants, and those are pretty simple to color.  Plus, these are all clothes that I pulled from the Old Navy website, so there was little to figure out.

Something interesting that has come up, and I'm hesitant to talk about it so it's not taken out of context, is the issue of race.  Yesterday, I was asked why all of the bad kids and parents where white; and not just white, but the exact same hue of Caucasian.  In real life, some are pale, some are tan and some are in between.  Well that is because I learned ONE way to color white skin, and I used it over and over as a time save more than anything.  That, and costume sketches are illustrations, not photo-realism.

But it got me thinking: why do I default to drawing a white person with Brick Beige skin and a perfect body?  Well, I don't think there's an easy answer.  In truth, I tend to like to draw men over women as well.  I'll default to drawing a white male than anything else.  Mostly, I think I do it because I just don't think: I draw.  Today I thought about it, so I tried to represent some diversity.

I'm going to keep this more in mind from now on.  I admitted earlier in the blog that I wanted to explore more diversity in my drawing, since I've always just defaulted to what I see in the mirror.