Tutorial For Drawing Characters With Down Syndrome!

First slide. The title reads "drawing characters with Down syndrome". Below that: "myth that I need to get out of the way before the actual tutorial: [caps] people with DS do not look the same [end caps]. They share similar features, but there is no one face that every person with DS has. Most people with DS won't have every single trait, just pick what works for your character." Around that are three actual photos; from top to bottom; a photo of the actress Gigi Cunningham, a Black woman in her 20s posing with her hands on hips; a photo of Zhou Zhou, a Chinese man in a suit conducting an orchestra; portrait photo of Georgie Wildgust, an elderly white man smiling to the camera. Each photo is captioned with the person's name.

Second slide. Title reads: "face shape". Subtitle: "the vast majority of people with Down syndrome are fat. If you know how to draw double chins etc. you will have an easier time, Not every person with DS shares these features. They're just common." Next to that text box are two drawings of a featureless bust with a sharp jawline and defined cheekbones, with big red X next to them. Below that reads "play with shapes like rectangles, circles, trapezoids!" featuring each of the shapes. Under them are renditions of characters with Down syndrome with faces based off the shapes: a South Asian woman with hearing aids with a square face, a white person with hoop earrings and a round face, and a Black man sporting a buzzcut with a face widening at the bottom. Text below reads "notice the lack of defined jaw and short, wide neck." Under that are three simple sketches of people with Down syndrome from different angles with the aforementioned features highlighted.

Third slide. Title is "body". Subtitle reads: "Down syndrome affects the body shape too. Again, the majority of people with DS are fat". Below that are two stick figures, one tall and skinny, second short and fat. The latter has "most people will be closer to this: short, fat, short neck" written next to it. Below the former reads "some people with Down syndrome are skinny and/or average height but they're a minority. like
Sofía Jirau (she's like 4'10)". The last sentence has an arrow pointing to a photo of Jirau - she's a skinny Latina woman posing with her hands spread out and excited expression. The next section is titled "things most people don't know". Text box reads "some people with DS have clinodactyly of the pinkie finger. Basically the top section of it is curved inward". There is a drawing of exactly that next to it. Below is another drawing of a hand, with two creases marked on the palm. The text reads "You know how how almost everyone has 3 creases on their palm? Well people with DS have 2. I know 99% of people don't draw palm creases but it's cool".

fourth slide, called "eyes". text reads "probably the most characteristic feature, so it's important to get right. People with Mosaic Down syndrome (more on it later!) will often have this as one of the few visible traits". top right has a close-up of a blue iris with white dots going around the pupil. It's captioned "these white spots going in a circle are called Brushfield spots. A lot of people with DS have them". Below that is a step-by-step tutorial on drawing eyes. First step focuses on the general shape, with the text reading "there's a lot of shapes to choose from: almond; round; upturned; + more but these are most common". Each of them has a drawing attached. Step two focuses on eyelids. Text reads "pronounced eyelids, both bottom and upper ones. They have a very noticeable crease". There's two pairs of eyes with heavy eyelids under that. Step three shows wrinkles around the eyes. Text: "some people with DS will have creases around the eyes + large bags under the eyes; if you have a simpler artstyle probably skip this one". Attached drawing shows a pair of eyes with wrinkles coming form the upper eyelid on the outer side and bags under the eyes. Step four reads "give them strabismus [many exclamation points]! I know artists are allergic to drawing strabismus if it's not for a joke but crossed eyes are actually awesome [awesome in all caps], (ok not all have strabismus but like half do)". Drawing attached shows a person with DS and strabismus.

fifth slide. first section is titled "nose + mouth area". text reads "this is pretty loose and not every person with DS even has visible differences there, some might only have some, etc". Below that is a drawing of a man with DS wearing a yarmulke. The text next to him reads "nose is generally flat; no philtrum (the part between lips and nose is smooth); nose can be smaller and higher up (slightly); smaller upper lip*; tongue is physically larger, some people might stick it out". The asterisk leads to a text box: "again though, people with DS look different from each other and these are Relative. A Black person with DS might have a slightly smaller lip while a white person can look like they don't have upper lips at all". Relevant sections have arrows leading to a drawing of a Black woman with visible lips, and a white guy with very thin lips. Second section is titled "side view". It features drawing of a white woman from the side. Text reads "eyelids still very visible" with a diagram on how to draw the characteristic eyes and eyelids from the side. Lower text box reads "flatter face with flat nose bridge and small upper jaw; chin often sticks forward. For a lot of people the chin and nose will protrude a similar amount". The aforementioned features are all color coded on the drawing.

sixth slide, titled "additional things and stuff". below it is a small sketch of a face with the ear visible, the earlobe isn't hanging freely. text: "earlobes are connected! ears are smaller, rounder, and set lower". next to that are two drawings, one of a pair of glasses and other of hearing aids, the later accurately captioned "world's worst drawn hearing aids". main text reads "Down syndrome comes with vision loss (very often) and hearing loss (not as often but still a lot)".
Diagram below has three drawings of different people with Down syndrome, titled "there are actually three types of Down syndrome". First drawing is captioned "Trisomy 21", it shows a fat South Asian woman with hearing aids and cataracts with classic DS facial features and vitiligo. Text below reads "95% of people with DS have this one; what you think of when thinking Down syndrome; has most or all the features". Second drawing is of a fat white woman with short dyed hair and hoop earrings with the same common facial characteristics, titled "Translocation 21". Text below reads "3% have it; there are some genetic differences but visually not so much; has most or all the features". Third drawing shows a Black woman with pink afro hair with heavy-lidded, upturned eyes and round ears but otherwise no DS-coded features, titled "Mosaic 21". Text reads "2% have it; 'partial' Down syndrome; some people don't know they have it; has few to most features". On the side there is a clip art thumbs up emoji with a png background with "hope this was helpful" written over it.

tutorial for drawing characters with Down syndrome!

DISCLAIMER... please keep in mind that this is an introductory drawing tutorial and has some generalizations in it, so not every “X is Z” statement will be true for Actual People. it's more of an overview of features that are common in people with Down syndrome, not meaning to imply that every person with DS has all of them 👍👍 thanks

if you draw any characters using this feel free to tag me!!

More Posts from Rosehen96 and Others

rosehen96

1 year ago

You know what? Im breaking my silence. Im TIRED of people missing Jess’ character on purpose. Like, everyone can use context clues and fill in the blanks for every other character but somehow Jess is the only one taken at face value? Jess is being seen as a cold, detached, mean bitch by fans but I cannot determine whether we even watched the same movie.

Let’s address the elephant in the room, because she is a black woman who is NOT a mammy character, people criticize her harsher. Jess was MORE than Miguel’s “lackey”. She had her own thoughts and opinions. She definitely had her own personality and feelings about the entire situation. She lowkey stalled time to give Gwen chances to fix her mistakes.

If Jess was as cold as Miguel and such a “bitch”, she would’ve left Gwen the first time. Let’s not forget that Miguel was fully about to leave Gwen with her own father holding her at gunpoint, JESS vouched to bring Gwen under her name. Jess put her OWN position at risk to help Gwen and it required that she do her job accordingly. Jess made the boundary VERY clear, she is NOT Gwen’s mother. She is NOT her friend. I seen people argue that “Jess’ maternal instincts” should’ve kicked in to protect Gwen” but fully ignoring that Jess HAS A FAMILY! Jess is PREGNANT with her OWN child. Her instincts DID kick in and she chose her dimension with her family in it!

Jess was stuck in a rock and a hard place. She obviously wanted to help Gwen (considering she brought her in at the cost of her own position) but UNFORTUNATELY, GWEN messed up. Gwen saw Miles and that ultimately led to Spot escaping. You can love these characters and acknowledge that every character had their OWN thoughts and motivations that led to fuck ups. It’s not right to try to make Jess sound worse than the man who fuckin replaced his dead self out of grief, was about to leave a teen at gunpoint, and had an entire society of people chase a teenager who wanted to save his dad.

Don’t get me started on the “she’s fighting crime while pregnant argument” because we can accept superpowered people but NOT the possibility that their bodies are more resilient. NOT TO MENTION THAT PETER B HAS A WHOLE BABY ON MISSIONS???? Like, no one is calling him a bad father so what’s different with Jess? Miguel was mean as fuck to Miles upon meeting but Jess doing her JOB is considered being “mean”.

Then the “I didn’t see her enough to connect with her” is fair until everyone can somehow create entire {TERRIBLE} mischaracterizations of Hobie, Pav, and Peni who (arguably) had just about the same amount of screentime. She also shares traits with every other spider person with being snarky and quick-witted while being completely grounded. She’s literally one of the spider people that Miguel fully trusts but somehow the fandom erases her and goes “He loves Peter B and Lego Spidey🤪🤪”

Like, it’s crazy how people find it so easy to erase Jess and Margo (Spiderbyte) in fanworks for things they easily dismiss from other characters and it’s feelin like misogynoir. Like, Margo and Hobie served the same purpose with deciding to go against Miguel for Miles, yet only Hobie and Gwen gets that credit.

AND THEN THE MANY EXCUSES WHEN IT COMES TO SHIPPING! People keep hating on Jess/Miguel because she’s “obviously pregnant and married” but go right around and ship Miguel with Peter B. Same with Margo/Miles because it’s a bunch of “Miles and Gwen are obviously endgame” ANDDDD???? Since when did every ship HAVE TO be canon in order to be a ship? It’s especially crazy because I BARELY EVER see those comments on Miles/(Peni, Pav, or Hobie) or have no problem with having all the boys huddled around Gwen. The double standard is glaringly obvious.

In conclusion, some of you mfs dont deserve ATSV.

You Know What? Im Breaking My Silence. Im TIRED Of People Missing Jess’ Character On Purpose. Like,

Tags

across the spiderverse fandom critique

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rosehen96

1 year ago

Sorry for being negative, I’m just a bit disappointed that after looking through the Earthspark Optimus tags on and off on different occasions weeks apart, it seems like the only thing the fandom has to say about ES Optimus is finger snaps and dad jokes. :/ (And also a handful of people already trying to frame him as a bad person lmao)

Watch for it, when more episodes of Earthspark come out and a conflict with GHOST inevitably arises, people are going to be raging at Optimus for being “stupid” or “self-righteous” or “blind” for working with GHOST and start calling Megatron and/or the Decepticons right about everything because they spent so long focusing on “haha funny dad Optimus” that they forgot about the other parts of Optimus’ character like… idk, not wanting to colonize planets? Not wanting to start wars with entire species that didn’t want to be involved in the war in the first place? Being willing to make compromises even at risk to himself and his own because he wants to treat everyone fairly?

Idk I guess I’m just a bit salty because it genuinely seems like all this fandom wants is “funny dad Optimus” and nothing else. Like you will give them funny dad Optimus who’s ALSO complex and morally gray but people will only ever talk about the former part. And then when Optimus inevitably makes a mistake and bad things happen, people are probably going to treat him as if he’s stupid or an asshole when he ends up not being the Perfect Unproblematic Fave that people seemingly want him to be.

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transformers earthspark optimus prime fandom critique

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rosehen96

1 year ago

An under-talked about part of Columbo is the way it presents non-murderers. Most episodes have at least a few scenes where Columbo talks to people involved in the case who, you know, aren't the ones who killed the victim, and in those scenes to see a multitude of ways people handle grief (or, if not grief exactly, the simple shock of someone you know no longer being around). I'm watching one of my favorite episodes right now, the one with Leonard Nimoy as the killer, and Columbo is interviewing one of the victim's co-workers, a nurse, and she just keeps going on an on about how much better the victim was morally than her - how the victim really cared about healing people as opposed to herself, who only wants to advance her career. And in this brief, minute-long interaction you get both the comic relief of Columbo quickly realizing this woman will provide almost no useful information but being unable to get her to stop talking without being rude, and a very clear illustration of how the victim was inspiring to others and how this co-worker in particular not only admired her, but feels inadequate for not living up to her. It's a very short interaction, easy to ignore in the scope of the episode (Leonard Nimoy gives SUCH a good performance as a villain it'd be hard to talk about anything else), but it all adds a humanity to the episode that would be sorely missing without it. If you didn't care about the murder before, you sure as hell do now, and you know Columbo is a better person than the killer because he actually cares about the effect these murders have on people enough not to coldly shut down a grieving friend of the victim when she's rambling on about her feelings.

Anyway, I know this is a hot take for Tumblr, but Columbo is really great.

Tags

media analysis casual detective fiction

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rosehen96

1 year ago

being in your early 20s is crazy bc there’s people who are literally married and people who’ve never even dated and people who are trapped in their childhood bedrooms waiting to get out and people who are trying to live out romanticized dream lives and people who are completely on their own and people with multi tiered support systems and we’re all supposedly peers and none of us think we’re doing it right at all

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casual being in your 20s

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rosehen96

10 months ago

some of you need to go outside and I dont mean that in a mean or condescending way I mean it in a "you would benefit from talking to real people face to face, and developing social skills" type way

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rosehen96

1 week ago

From studying french history on the subject of Israel (it's so badly documented it's such a mess gods) on the side of France, it was basically : "yeeaah we know we were total asses to you but we still got troubles letting go of colonies and still don't want to apologize so here ! have your sacred land ! ok bye" like, instead of taking responsibilities, we gave jewish ppl a "sorry lol" gift, but the "gift" wasn't even ours to begin with. So 's not surprise Israel is such a mess. Europe fucked up.

yeah exactly

it wasn’t their land to give, basically just “Hey we aren’t going to fix your problems, but we’ll give you land that doesn’t belong to us!”

it was a clusterfuck from the very beginning.

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rosehen96

2 months ago

"Don't Skip: Read My Story & Help 🚨🙏"

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I am married to Soha Fouad,

and we have three children: Toleen, 9 years old; Wateen, 6; and Tayseer, 4.

My children from inside UNRWA shelters

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Donate to Support Ibrahim’s Fight For Survival, organized by Valeria V

Support Ibrahim's fight for survival I’m Valeria, and I’m organizing this fundraise… Valeria V needs your support for Support Ibrahim’s

The Day Our Lives Shattered

I remember the day vividly—explosions began in the distance, growing into a deafening roar. Smoke and fear engulfed us as we watched our neighbors flee in terror. We grabbed our children and ran, pushing through a sea of panic until we could run no more

The Day Our Lives Shattered

We once lived a simple and peaceful life, with my children learning and thriving. Now, we are left with nothing in a UNRWA shelter, lacking all basic necessities.

Your support and contribution can make a real difference and change our reality for the better. 🙏

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Donate to Support Ibrahim’s Fight For Survival, organized by Valeria V

Support Ibrahim's fight for survival I’m Valeria, and I’m organizing this fundraise… Valeria V needs your support for Support Ibrahim’s

✅️Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #220 )✅️.

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signal boost gaza fundraiser

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rosehen96

1 year ago

Crazy idea for a new continuity: Megatron having died multiple times

And Soundwave and Shockwave just takes a spark from a random Decepticon or captured Autobot and shoves it in the corpse and then brainwashes/programs the resulting new mind into being almost exactly the same.

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transformers ideas megatron Decepticons

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rosehen96

2 months ago