So some of you reading this might have heard of art challenges. And of those some of you might have also known that an art challenge called Blacktober where fictional characters are reimagined as black. This is an endeavor that I will be undertaking as well not only because I am also black, but because I am curious to see how I interpret certain characters I like to look more like myself. For the first week I decided to draw the main characters of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann as if they were black and I personally enjoy what I've manged to create. Below I have shown sketches of each and will likely color them soon.
Simon
For Simon I decided that his spiky hair would work better as dreadlocks, which as a digger I could see, along with a more broad nose. For all of these, I want them to be presented as having African ancestry while still being recognizable as their original characters.
Nia
Nia's hair was surprisingly easy to make curly which then left just her nose, as her nose hardly has and definition, and her lips which I decided to give more prominence as well.
Kamina
In my mind, Kamina was probably the closest to at least hip hop culture if not at least black culture to my eye. Actually yeah the former as the two are not the same but I digress. For me, his hair also translates well to dreadlocks that makes for a good look to me.
Yoko
With my first draft I decided to keep her hair as is but then I decided I could emulate her long hair with equally long locks.
So these pictures will be my first entries for Blacktober 2020. Time to work on next weeks artwork.