Snape and the skinny face caricature stereotype
When drawing Snape's face, there are two types of faces. the movie version based on Alan Rickman's face, and the face based on the original work. In particular, it seems that many people draw the chin long or pointed when drawing based on the original work.
So, for a drawing that has a short or slightly round face shape... that's often considered a movie standard face.
But if you look at JK Rowling's drawings, this is what it actually looks like.
If you compare the photos, the middle photo resembles Alan from the movie, and the last black-and-white photo with Teacher John smiling broadly when he was older reminds me of Snape from the original.
Rather, like John in that photo, Snape's face has cheekbones reminiscent of a thin face and a manly jawline. Although Snape has been depicted with a thin face, a hook nose, and thin lips, he has never been depicted with a long face like Petunia or a pointed face like Draco. Rowling's other Snape caricatures likewise all had normal-sized faces (excluding the nose).
I think that the fact that Snape's face is depicted as a long-faced caricature in fan art may be a prejudice against thin faces. In fact, if you look at various faces, even a square face or an oval face can give off a skinny look.
If I were to use a photo as an example, it would be this face shape. Although this face is not long but square and wide, you can tell that it is thin. The cheekbones also look prominent.
So I think like this. When drawing a character's face, whether it's Snape or another person, I think it's right to think about various shapes rather than having a fixed idea about the shape of the face itself. I don't think the long, pointy caricature is the only real face of Snape. 'The short face is not the original, it's the movie version!' I think this in itself seems like a stereotype.
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Sometimes fanartists who draw Snape's fan art receive posting like this. "Elongated Face, Rasputin, Agus Filch" posting with these faces attached and the content written like this. “This is the real Snape’s face!”
Honestly, it may be drawn prettier than the original, or it may be wrong. But what does it matter how you draw Snape's face? free to think of faces that can only be described in words. I have seen many fights like this. This is especially true when it comes to fan art based on Alan Rickman's face. However, no matter how much denied it, it was writer JK Rowling who chose and persuaded Alan Rickman as an actor. and Fan art artists can draw with pride, so I hope they can draw as freely as they like. Whether it's a face shape or any feature.
I think I myself unintentionally feed into the long face stereotype, and that's often the fanart I favour.
It may be worth to mention that Severus is described as someone who greatly resembles his mother (I actually think the quote is flipped and it's Eileen that resembles him at Platform 3/4) and Eileen herself is described as "simultaneously cross and sullen, with heavy brows and a long, pallid face".
Not that it detracts away from your points at all, thin people can certainly have shorter faces, but there's an in text reason as to why that may be the preference.
Quote from BitterBrit on March 22, 2024, 11:05 am
I think I myself unintentionally feed into the long face stereotype, and that's often the fanart I favour.
It may be worth to mention that Severus is described as someone who greatly resembles his mother (I actually think the quote is flipped and it's Eileen that resembles him at Platform 3/4) and Eileen herself is described as "simultaneously cross and sullen, with heavy brows and a long, pallid face".
Not that it detracts away from your points at all, thin people can certainly have shorter faces, but there's an in text reason as to why that may be the preference.
Of course it's all good. However, as I wrote at the end, it was unfortunate that there could be arguments about each person's preferred method of depicting the original work (novel, illustration, Movie). I actually saw an incident like this where someone was criticized for drawings that deviated from the stereotype especially facial shapes (Rasputin, elongated face, pilchi tweet or posting). Of course, the post was deleted. Since I had some Twitter followers who had a hard time drawing Snape, I felt it was necessary to write about it. This post will be posted on the My Blog. This article is written for my Twitter followers, but I also wanted to write it for people who may have similar concerns.
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To be honest...... No one makes a fuss about Dumbledore's nose (C-shaped nose)... Not even Neville or other friends. Because I'm Snape, I get upset sometimes when I get criticized like this...
