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Description
-LONGDESCRIPTION IS LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG-

The controversy surrounding the upcoming Last Airbender movie was a wake-up call to me that I need practice in drawing non-Caucasian characters, and a few months later I’ve finally heeded that call. Since “Bollywood Aliens” is more or less my favourite Space Goofs episode and has been for a long time, Zibouya seemed like the ideal guinea pig.

While I was at it, I decided to pay tribute to another potentially racially controversial movie, and celebrate Disney’s welcome return to traditional animation (which officially happens *today!* I'm uploading a celebration pic on time... well, technically it's ONLY JUST the 12th where I am, but “where I am” can fuck right off because the movie hasn't been released where I am yet anyway). The characters at hand fit the scenario PERFECTLY, but even so I didn’t want to go for a straight “one set of characters cosplaying as another” pic... instead I decided to really go for drawing another culture and race.

Like the movie for Disney, this picture represents a number of firsts for me: for one, it’s my first Deviation to be scanned at 600 instead of 150 DPI, since I only recently discovered my scanner went that high. So click Download for a HUGE, and I mean complete-no-no-for-connections-of-less-than-average-speed-or-stability huge, version of this picture as well as my future ones

Secondly, it’s my first time doing lighting for a specific time of day (sunset), even though I’m extremely unhappy with the result. Third and perhaps most importantly, it’s the first time I drew reference for fanart from something other than just the show’s source material, which was a refreshing change of pace for me, and definitely something I’ll be trying again. I was actually a bit surprised to look at the features of Indian women and go “...actually her original design is pretty accurate already. Way to suck the fun out of it for me by being awesome, Xilam.”

I didn’t know if this particular outfit would be worn with or without a veil, but I decided she looked better without one. Please correct me if you know anything about Indian formal wear, though. Also, please excuse how horribly off-model Etno looks; I found the way he was turning out too cute to fix it.

Once it was coloured, Zibouya looked more Pakistani to me than Indian, and the sunset more like a sunrise – but I’m glad, because the fact that I can tell the difference means I’m either improving, or as picky as a pro at anything should be.

The characters were done in plain colour pencils and the background very quickly and sloppily in watercolour paint.

References: head shape , outfit , Etno :XD: , [link] [link] and background , various deviations you can see if you search for “Bollywood” (I forgot to bookmark them )
Inspirations: Chiefly the teaser for the movie , this picture and, of course, the SG episode, but also *davidkawena ’s PatF fanart, which can be found here.

I want Disney's next traditionally animated fairy tale to be set in India and inspired by its mythology and art. They’ve already had Arabic, Native American, Romany, Greek and oriental heroines, and now they have an African-American one... now all they need is an Indian beauty like Zibouya. And no, I don’t count the chick at the end of The Jungle Book.

...oh and by the way, when I say “I Don’t Care About Pageviews” on my main page, I couldn’t be telling the truth more, but I was checking my gallery stats recently and apparently I’ve hit 1000 views. Not caring about pageviews doesn’t stop me from caring about the people giving them, so thank you, everyone.

Description
-LONGDESCRIPTION IS LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG-

The controversy surrounding the upcoming Last Airbender movie was a wake-up call to me that I need practice in drawing non-Caucasian characters, and a few months later I’ve finally heeded that call. Since “Bollywood Aliens” is more or less my favourite Space Goofs episode and has been for a long time, Zibouya seemed like the ideal guinea pig.

While I was at it, I decided to pay tribute to another potentially racially controversial movie, and celebrate Disney’s welcome return to traditional animation (which officially happens *today!* I'm uploading a celebration pic on time... well, technically it's ONLY JUST the 12th where I am, but “where I am” can fuck right off because the movie hasn't been released where I am yet anyway). The characters at hand fit the scenario PERFECTLY, but even so I didn’t want to go for a straight “one set of characters cosplaying as another” pic... instead I decided to really go for drawing another culture and race.

Like the movie for Disney, this picture represents a number of firsts for me: for one, it’s my first Deviation to be scanned at 600 instead of 150 DPI, since I only recently discovered my scanner went that high. So click Download for a HUGE, and I mean complete-no-no-for-connections-of-less-than-average-speed-or-stability huge, version of this picture as well as my future ones

Secondly, it’s my first time doing lighting for a specific time of day (sunset), even though I’m extremely unhappy with the result. Third and perhaps most importantly, it’s the first time I drew reference for fanart from something other than just the show’s source material, which was a refreshing change of pace for me, and definitely something I’ll be trying again. I was actually a bit surprised to look at the features of Indian women and go “...actually her original design is pretty accurate already. Way to suck the fun out of it for me by being awesome, Xilam.”

I didn’t know if this particular outfit would be worn with or without a veil, but I decided she looked better without one. Please correct me if you know anything about Indian formal wear, though. Also, please excuse how horribly off-model Etno looks; I found the way he was turning out too cute to fix it.

Once it was coloured, Zibouya looked more Pakistani to me than Indian, and the sunset more like a sunrise – but I’m glad, because the fact that I can tell the difference means I’m either improving, or as picky as a pro at anything should be.

The characters were done in plain colour pencils and the background very quickly and sloppily in watercolour paint.

References: head shape , outfit , Etno :XD: , [link] [link] and background , various deviations you can see if you search for “Bollywood” (I forgot to bookmark them )
Inspirations: Chiefly the teaser for the movie , this picture and, of course, the SG episode, but also *davidkawena ’s PatF fanart, which can be found here.

I want Disney's next traditionally animated fairy tale to be set in India and inspired by its mythology and art. They’ve already had Arabic, Native American, Romany, Greek and oriental heroines, and now they have an African-American one... now all they need is an Indian beauty like Zibouya. And no, I don’t count the chick at the end of The Jungle Book.

...oh and by the way, when I say “I Don’t Care About Pageviews” on my main page, I couldn’t be telling the truth more, but I was checking my gallery stats recently and apparently I’ve hit 1000 views. Not caring about pageviews doesn’t stop me from caring about the people giving them, so thank you, everyone.