A heated discussion that seems to keep popping up in the cosplay community, skin tones, has been going on for sometime now and I wanted to take a small time out of my usual commissions/comic to address it.

The big one is what people call "blackface". Where a lighter tone cosplayer darkens their skin. A bundle of people have come forth saying that its just ignorance fueled and those people are no better than the racist of the old days. There is a big difference though, love. When someone takes part of their life to work hard on perfecting everything they can to portray a character they adore, I can only assume their intention was love. No mockery. No bad intentions. No hate.

"Well color doesn't matter, just use your regular skin tone"
Sure, that's just fine too. Though some people want to get as into the character as they can physically. That's why we bind, attach prosthetics, add makeup, and much more.

"Skin tone has nothing to do with the character"
It must, if people are out there asking for more characters with certain skin tones or using words like "white washing". Skin color does matter but it doesn't need to be something negative. To portray my opinion I've drawn one of my favorite champs Ekko. Artistically do you think his hourglass/Z-drive would show up as well on light tones? Colors matter but thats alright

Colors are beautiful

"We can't just wipe away our skin though, its our life not a costume"
This could apply to tons of things. Skin tone, wealth, gender, sexuality,personality. We are who we are. Who we were born as and who we've come to be. The negative feelings towards portraying each other is I feel the past but thats just it. That's the past. People still exist that judge on skin but these aren't those people. At least by what I can tell.

People don't have to change their features to cosplay but if they want to why not celebrate with them the skills they learned to do so well.

Why do we have to be hateful?