This comes from an interesting question that JB asked on the Star Trek forum.

To my eyes JB has long been good at portraying races without falling into either of the three traps most fall into; descending into an insulting caricature; idealizing those races and making them god like in their beauty (and thus uninteresting): or worst of all; drawing a white face and painting it a different color. 

But then I'm a white guy, and I could be missing something.

I'm working on some comic strips and due to the constraints of the type of art I'm using I ran into a problem along these lines when I decided a character was going to be Chinese: No matter what I did I couldn't make him look Chinese without it looking like a racist caricature, and if I downplayed those elements that lead to that problem he no longer looked even vaguely Chinese. I'm still working on it and hope to get something soon but it's a struggle and I wonder if some cartoonists shy away from non-white characters out of a worry that they'll get it very wrong and look like racists? Maybe it's safer to stick to an all white background for those artists? I did manage to work up a black character that I thought worked in black and white without making the mistakes, but again it occurs to me that I don't really know if I made those mistakes because I'm not black and might not have the sensitivity needed to see the problem.

This is the face:

Obviously it's not as good as the Boondocks characters, but I hope it works and I also hope it's not insulting to anyone.

Also, not nearly as cool as Wallace's avatar, which I think hits all of the buttons and makes none of the mistakes while still being simple and easily repeatable.

I think if you're worried about drawings of non-white "racial" groups coming out like a caricature, the best thing to do is start with working off photographs, trying to draw (without tracing) some easily recognizable black or asian etc. actors or celebrities the way you would any white actor. Look for the things that make that one face unique rather than the things that make the face "black", "chinese" or whatever.  Don't worry about ethnicity, just relax and try to capture that one person's likeness the best you can. With some practice, on a variety of faces, you'll find a way to make it work for you.

The problem is not about Chinese characters, wheter it's a charicature or not. It's wheter it's a charicture done by white people, in an old style invented by racists being afraid of the "yellow danger" as we called it in Europe. This charicture "style" had the eyes slanted inwards. Compare it with the second picture, not a racist picture, where the eyes lower parts are horizontal (but the girls head is tilted).

In the end, when it comes to portraying races and ethnicities other than my own, I have applied the same rule I apply when portraying women: think of them first and foremost as people.


*In the first issue, he was given the same skin color as the other Howlers.

In the end, when it comes to portraying races and ethnicities other than my own, I have applied the same rule I apply when portraying women: think of them first and foremost as people.

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Not only is that a great tip for drawing it is how we should live our lives in regards to other races/ethnicities.

altho unfortunately the people complimenting me apparently missed the point

Maybe they thought your black Jesus had been hanging out with the Essene community and was just a little darker due to the rigors of ascetic life?