@ask-whitepearl-and-steven / ask-whitepearl-and-steven.tumblr.com
Have any of your students talked about your comics whether they know it's you or not?
My students don't speak/read English that well, and they're not even aware of Steven Universe as a thing. I think I've only met one child that even knew what it was. They could not care less about what I draw, and I'm not about to tell them anything of it. 😂
i understand that its cool to receive fanart, but ur really lenient about people who draw these characters thinner than they really are, and as a steven universe blog with art that is really respectful about bigger bodies its really disappointing to see u supporting these people skinnyfying fat characters
I'm a teacher. I teach kids from ages 8 to about 15 (currently I'm teaching younger grades, but I've worked a lot with the older demographic as well.) So take what I say with the comfort that I at least know a little bit of what I'm talking about.
Why does this matter? Because a lot of the fanart that is gifted to me by this community comes not from adults, but from children. Sometimes, they're teens who have been drawing for a few years! Sometimes they're younger kids who have only recently begun to develop their skills.
Here's the reality - drawing bodies is hard. ANY bodies - skinny ones, fat ones, unusually shaped ones. In order to get good at it, you have to draw them a lot! And in order to draw, you need to find ways to practice. Usually, this happens by the budding artist looking around at other artists and copying them. Or looking at tutorials.
Here's another reality - unfortunately, the majority of art online, the majority of tutorials online, don't touch on drawing larger characters. They simply pretend it's not a thing. Finding references to larger people can take work! Getting started drawing larger people if you only have skinny-people references... is hard!
I teach English to students who have never learned English before. From 8 year olds to 15 year olds, you know what the one thing that remains constant is? Learning happens best through kindness and positive reinforcement. Not through shame and grabbing the child's attention and smearing it in their mistake like you're punishing a puppy that peed on the floor.
In fact, yelling at people of ANY age about their mistake pretty rarely gets them to stop making that mistake. What ends up happening more often is that they end up hating that activity altogether.
There's a reason I consciously and indiscriminately reblog all sorts of art - all of it has something that the artist excels at. Do all of them have great body proportions that are correct for the character? No. Some art is clearly made by people who are not used to drawing anything except super skinny characters!
But all of them ARE kind enough to read my comic, which I try to fill with body types that are diverse, true to the show itself. And that, in and of itself, is exposing them to art styles that don't have to over-rely on anime or CLAMP-esque noodly kids that look like they just popped out of Wonka's Laffy machine.
So yes, maybe they draw Steven or Rose too skinny. But they're also looking at Rose and Steven and clearly find them adorable, and maybe someday, they'll try something different for a change. It's not my job to rub their nose in the fact that they haven't gotten the chance to experiment yet. It's also not my job to ignore them if they don't have the 'correct' proportions, because like it or not, that's also punishment.
I do make it my job to try to reblog the fanart I see and promote it, because getting positive reinforcement and being encouraged to continue to experiment with art is what will make kids and teens AND adults confident enough to go beyond the socially-accepted weight-limit for MCs.
I know it can feel demoralizing to see a lot of character with your body type erased and made skinny as if that's a 'prettier' version of them. But 90% of the people drawing Steven skinny aren't doing it because they hate you. It's because they haven't been told it's ok to draw characters chubby. Or fat. And the unlearning part of that sort of thing is a process that needs support, not shame.
I don't expect you to be kind if you're hurt by that. You can react any way you want, and anger is a healthy emotion in this case.
But if you want ME to react with malice on your behalf, then I'm afraid I won't. I have another job to do, and that job is teaching with kindness.
Why are you that mean to your fans like seriously, you realize that your comics exists because of your fans! There are people that are actually paying you and you still treat them like trash! Like if your fans are that annoying and retarded why don't you shut down the blog instead of just complaining and telling us how annoying are we?!! And no I do not say you should work for free and No I don't say that going on a Hiatus is bad but can you stop treating YOUR fans like that?!!
Okay, let’s have this discussion.
1) My comics don’t exist because of my fans, they exist because of me. I draw my comics, and I draw them regardless of how many people follow me. Do you think I draw them because I get paid? I have a Patreon, which hardly covers the costs of my Student Loans every month. You think I’m rolling in dough here?? You think I honestly sit down every day and think “boy, I can only draw a comic because my fans paid me!”
2) It’s interesting that you think that me sometimes getting annoyed at people is the same as “treating people like trash”. Have I cursed at my followers? Have I called them trash? I’ve certainly never come close to using the ‘r’ word like you already have, in your ask alone - seriously, fuck off with that nonsense. How old are you? Has no one taught you basic decency? I’m here to tell you that using that word is NOT okay.
3) All I ask is for a little bit of critical thinking before sending me an ask. All I ask for is a little bit of an awareness of what it feels like to work and work and work to release 90+ comics in 5 months, and then go on hiatus and have someone go, without any good reason: “Um. Don’t do that?”
Am I supposed to smile and wave like some sort of political figure and let people walk all over me just because they sat up in their toddler chair, threw their spaghetti at me and yelled “NO! FAN WANT MORE COMIC NOW!!!”
I understand that in this society, you have been accustomed to looking at artists as a ‘commodity’.
I’m just a ‘thing’ to you, I’m supposed to be polite, always cheerful, always kind and nice. I’m not allowed to react negatively to anything - I’m just here for your consumption, and if you don’t like my taste, you’re fully justified in spitting me out, crushing me underfoot and yelling “BAD ARTIST, DIDN’T DO WHAT I WANTED YOU TO”.
But the thing is, I’m a human being, and I work on these comics. They don’t just magically appear out of thin air when a fan donates to my Patreon. You guys are not obligated to pay me - the whole comic is free. 90% of the people who consume this comic offer me no financial incentive to keep going.
At the VERY least I’m allowed to have emotions to the extent of “no, I won’t just agree with everything you say, that sounds unreasonable”.
If you think me not letting YOU walk all over me like I’m nothing is the same as “treating fans like trash” then you have a very, very high opinion of yourself.
Seriously, I know that I get snappy sometimes, and perhaps I HAVE hurt some of you somehow. I’m not perfect. But please TALK to me about it instead of shouting from behind the anon curtain.
