How To Draw Asian Characters

I LOVE this post and wanted to add some additional info, cause I see a lot of people who assume that drawing asian hair is the same as drawing white hair. This is not the case! There's more to it than just the color.

Image description for the original post and my addition are underneath the read more at the end.

Thank you for reading! Once again, image description for my images and OP's images are under the cut.

Just like OP, I'm only one single person, so if anyone wants to correct me or add something I missed, then go for it. And further disclaimer, there are exceptions to everything I've said in this post, and it only applies to East and Southeast asian people who are either not mixed or white-mixed, as those are the hair types I'm most familiar with.

Edit: AUGH I FORGOT TO mention this but @ everyone in the comments talking about blue eyes on biracial asians, here's another guide I made that goes over color inheritance for biracial people:
https://6480n.tumblr.com/post/633074808569069568/making-this-guide-because-i-see-this-question-time

Text Description: Drawing Asian Hair. Source: I'm also Asian

East and South-east asians generally have really thick hair! When drawing E/SE asian characters, it's great to take this into account, because many hairstyles that are popular in E/SE asia look different from hairstyles in other countries.

Some General Tips:

- Short hair is straight and stiff. It will not lay flat without the use of hair gel.
- Because of the stiffness, hairstyles generally have a lot of volume, without being wavy or curly.
- For short hairstyles, the hair whorl is important to keep in mind when planning out the direction of strands.
- Some people have hair so thick that it sticks straight out from the scalp with a short enough haircut.

[Three images of asian men with different hairstyles. One has a sleek, sideswept fade, captioned "hairstyle with gel, many people with short hair will use gel to maintain the shape." Another has an upswept fade, captioned "hairstyle without gel (I think)". The last one has sleek shoulder-length hair. end image]

- Hair is not curly unless permed. Short curly hair is becoming popular in young men, while women of all ages may make their hair curly or wavy.

[Image of a man with a short curly hairstyle. Simple drawing of a person with short hair and lines indicating hair direction, captioned "hair whorl and direction, "natural" hair". Simple drawing of short hair lying flat, captioned "hair smoothed back using gel". Simple drawing of short curly hair, captioned "hair with a perm". end image]

- For longer hairstyles, the ends of the hair normally curve inwards.
- Long hairstyles tend to be smooth and look solid, unless it's a perm.

[Image of a woman with long wavy hair that fades from black to lavender, captioned "dyed and styled hair–this style is more popular for younger generations". Image of another woman with a sleek brown bob, captioned "more "natural" style". Simple drawing of a shoulder-length hairstyle with arrows indicating that the ends of the hair curve towards the jawline, captioned "more common". Simple drawing of a shoulder-length hairstyle where the ends flare out and then curve inwards, captioned "less common". end image]

- The ends of the hair don't normally "fray", they tend to group together in the same direction.

[Drawing of a clump of straight hair ending in a sharp cut, captioned "natural hair ends". Drawing of two clumps of curly hair with layered ends, captioned "styled hair". end image]

- Dyed hair is pretty popular. Most common are gradients, bleached hair, or lighter brown colors.

- Remember that even with dyed hair, eyebrows and eyelashes stay un-dyed (for the most part).

- The "Asian girl with a streak of blue/purple hair" trope is not very accurate at all. If you want a character with dyed hair, look up popular styles in E/SE Asia or asian diaspora.

[Image of a woman with shoulder-length straight hair, which fades from black at the roots to pink to orange. Caption reads "A dyed gradient hairstyle with dark roots". end image]

Finally:

Skin: Moles are super common for E/SE asian people! Freckles are uncommon but possible, and mixed white/asian people might also have them.

[Drawing of a face with freckles and another face with random moles. end image]

Teeth: I also wanted to point out that the idea that east asians have crooked teeth, especially large buck teeth are a VERY RACIST STEREOTYPE with a bad history.

This is not to say that asians CANNOT have crooked teeth, but if you aren't east asian, please try and avoid drawing east asian characters with prominent buck teeth, a visible gap between their buck teeth, or lots of crooked teeth. A missing tooth or prominent canines is fine.

[Drawing of a smiling face with normal teeth, with a green checkmark under it. Another drawing of a smiling face with large front teeth, with a red X marked under it. end image]