This is not a callout journal, this is generally about some rather wanton name calling going on, on Twitter. (Yes, I finally started being active, and I finally had to say something)

The Twitter thread can be found here: https://twitter.com/AdleisioArt/sta.....84407008608256

But I am going to copy-past stuff here to a degree.

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I am kind of tired of people trying to call out someone as racist or otherwise simply because they cannot clearly tell the difference between someone trying to depict and represent a specific culture or group of people versus borrowing elements from that culture or group in the context of fantasy art.

We as humans have been making art for.....literally tens of thousands of years, and being that cultures do not live a vacuum, many styles of art have subtly and unsubtly influenced each other over the years. Examples would be finding Celtic Knot art on more than just the British Isles. Domed architecture is found in various forms across the world, Greek, Roman, Islamic, Indo-Pacific, etc. Architecture is one of the most traceable forms of artistic design that can show influence from one to another culture.

Like, one of the most prominent modern examples of referencing an aesthetic is basically any and all medieval fantasy worlds. Many have similarities, and many are different, but a vast majority of them mix and match armors, weapons, sword types, and etc. all from eras in Middle European history that would never overlapped historically. And most of us seem to get this, and understand that that media is not supposed to be representing Middle Europe with anything other than an aesthetic appearance. Hell D&D is incredibly anachronistic with allowing references to more modern things, with one prime example being Vox Machina. It is strictly fantasy is how it is using its aesthetics.

But yet, there are people in the fandom who would maintain that the same is not true for indigenous/tribal aesthetics that are both shared across the globe, and more specific elements that are found in specific regions limited to a single continent or even heavily influenced by a specific continent. But that would create a double standard, that they are fine with fantasy depictions of other cultures, but not anything remotely hinting at their own, even if it is only very superficially similar. And me, being the person of logic that I am, hate double standards. Artist are influenced by the world around them, and always have been, and always will be.

It is literally what gave D&D to begin with, it is what has allowed things like Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, etc to exist, and other fantasy worlds you can think of. E.g. Innistrad from MtG referencing a lot of things while being coherently its own plain while making heavy reference to Gothic fiction, which pulled from it's own influences to create those fictional stories. Or Ixalan which pulls from both the age of Piracy and Exploration and Central American cultures to borrow general influences for design. Or Amonkhet for its reference to Ancient Egypt while still making it its own thing, so that it wasn't trying to representative.

None of those are remotely racist. While there have been specific individual elements that people have pointed out as being problematic, those are some very specific points which they also offered corrections for when going forward. That is something which WotC can make actionable changes for going forward. But broad stroking an entire depiction being racist or problematic doesn't offer a solution or help the situation, and it make it possible for someone to make a correction going forward. We are only human and can only hold so much knowledge in our skulls. Even though I have friends who have studied more than plenty of Japanese culture, there are things which he still gets wrong from time to time.

Like. there are obvious depictions of groups which can be called stereotyping in bad face. Such as historical films using heavy amounts of eyeliner on Arab people. Or hose Geishas from Japan were depicted as prostitutes in western media is has been fundamentally false, or using a specific ceremonial headdress from Native American cultures in costumes, when those headdress hold a very specific meaning to that culture.

What isn't bad faith use of aesthetics is when take general styles and aesthetics rather than certain specific objects and elements and reuse them for something that don't mean. Much like how Spear Pillar in Pokemon draws upon Greek/Roman architecture influences while not using eithers specific's style. Again, any medieval fantasy setting.

Like the key difference is the amount of specificity with which something is being depicted. Much like how we can classify a painting as Impressionist versus Classical, it is because those two styles have difference design languages. Impressionism has it's characteristics much like how Celtic Tribal aesthetics has it's design characteristics which make it feel Celtic vs Roman. Like, by identifying what makes something feel Celtic, you can then use that AESTHETIC and influence for design without it trying to be representative of the Celts themselves.


That is what DarkNatasha and just about every other artist does. If they are wanting to depict a specific culture or ceremony they will do their research, But because DN's art pulls from more than just Native American, but also Gaelic, and other, it is clearly a fantasy design that has its own unique existence separate from, but influenced by those designs.

If there is a specific object or element that is depicted, and you can point it out, and offer a solution in turn. THEN and only then have your created an opportunity for actionable change, because just broad strokes is not informative, and name calling is not going to help anyone, especially the artist, who is merely human.