Why cartoon characters wear gloves [video]
youtube.comSummary of the video from https://subsip.io/summary?youtubeUrl=3R3cvbLsbAk
Why do animated characters wear gloves?
The reason why animated characters often wear gloves can be traced back to the early days of hand-drawn animation. The main theory is that gloves saved time for animators. Drawing rounded edges and simple shapes like circles and spaghetti-like arms was much faster than adding realistic details like elbows and knees. Since hands posed a problem in terms of visibility on fuzzy black-and-white film, gloves provided a clear contrast against the characters' bodies. Additionally, gloves brought non-human characters to life and made their gestures stand out, adding to their expressive appeal. However, there is another influence behind the tradition of animated characters wearing gloves that is rooted in vaudeville and blackface minstrelsy. Early cartoon characters were portrayed as mischievous and rebellious but good-natured, much like the characters in minstrel shows. Performers in early animation often performed on vaudeville stages, where they wore loose clothes, had painted faces, and wore white gloves. Although vaudeville declined in the 1930s, gloves remained as a part of the cartoon style that was expected by viewers. Overall, the tradition of animated characters wearing gloves can be attributed to practical reasons like saving time and providing contrast, as well as cultural influences from early stage performances and vaudeville shows.
Hint: hands are very difficult to draw. Also faces and that’s why most cartoons are animals.
Anime faces seem very easy to draw. Granted I don’t watch anime, so I could be missing something, but it’s not like they are going for photorealism.
You can note how little effort is put into many manga noses.
Are big noses flattering? No. Are they hard to draw? Yes. Get rid of them!
A generic anime-style face is really simple to draw while still being highly expressive which helped it gain popularity in comics, illustration, and animation, but it's also really flexible. There's a lot more variation in anime faces than some people think and artists can invest the time to be fancy or not according to time/budget.
The abstraction also means that you can change things up for emphasis (really exaggerating features, pushing extreme expressions, or switching art styles entirely) without it being as jarring as it would be if the characters were photorealistic
I thought gloves came with connotation of work, purpose, and sometimes class. Gloves signify intent and social position at a glance.
I guess when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail