I don't think there's a "right" answer to this question in the first place, and it's pointless trying to make an hard assumption on it, tbh. It's natural to subconsciously draw influence from things one likes or relates to, but people do different things for different reasons. Making the assumption "Oh, they draw X a lot, so they must be attracted to this" is also really a very general and unfair (and sometimes dangerous) assumption to make about someone---and it's this kind of assumption that leads to, er, unwarranted drama. Unless they tell you why point blank, there's really no way to actually know. Just because something is true for a lot of people doesn't make it true for everyone.
Do you prefer to draw the gender that you like/are attracted to?
My friend and I couldn't come to a conclusion on this. She was certain it was based on attraction. However, she recently read a post here where everyone agreed that most people prefer to draw their own gender because that's what they're familiar with and was was surprised to see such a consensus. My friend and I prefer to draw men despite being women attracted to multiple genders including our own (although I do find myself crushing more on men).
Let me know how it is for you (or take the poll if you're a lurker). And let me know if you'd like to be notified when we post the results!
edit: i just want to note that by attraction i dont strictly mean sexual/romantic. it can be aesthetically too.
edit 2: i'd also like to note that the purpose of this is not to make assumptions, everyone has their own reasons as to why they may choose to draw a gender. we'd just like to see what it might be like for the majority of people!
edit 3: i am back with poll results, we had a total of 161 participants from here, the artistlounge subreddit, gaiaonline, deviantart, and artfol. You can see the tables with the results and nifty charts here!
Highlights:
Straight women: 50% prefer to draw men, 43% prefer to draw women
Gay women: 77% prefer to draw women, 15% prefer to draw men
*Bi women: 69% prefer to draw women, 28% prefer to draw men
*Other women: 50% prefer to draw women
Straight men: 79% prefer to draw women, 16% prefer to draw men
Gay men: 92% prefer to draw men, 8% prefer to draw women
*Bi men: 69% prefer to draw men, 13% prefer to women
*Other men are split equally between men and women
There was hardly enough data for the non-binary category so I'll include the biggest here
*Bi non-binary people, 40.00% prefer to draw men, 33.33% prefer to draw women
*Bi refers to anyone with two or more attractions and Other mostly consists of people who said they had no preference. There weren't enough responses/similar answers, to divide any Other category into anything meaningful.
Also! many people stated that they draw their preferred gender for the opportunity to create better versions of themselves, because they preferred characters of that gender in media, because of an inability to draw another gender, because their preferred gender possesses certain trait seen as limited to that gender (ex. long hair), or because they related more to their own gender (these respondents were mostly writers). Several straight men, in particular, stated that they drew men as children but preferred drawing women when they grew older. There were more common ones, but I don’t recall them at the moment.
I'm a woman, attracted to women, but i draw more men than anything else. It isn't attraction based and i don't think its aesthetic based, its the fact that most of my OCs are male because i generally feel like i connect to male subjects more than female ones. Because of this connection, i prefer to draw dudes.
I like guys but I don't have many guy characters and I don't draw them too often. (with the exception of U'О̄tamu; he's too cute!)
However, since I'm a girl, I find it easier to write female characters, my fursona's female and I draw her a lot, and making new female characters comes more naturally to me.
It's not like the guys I draw look too much different from the girls, though. I only draw eyelashes on extremely feminine characters, and none of them have a more human female body shape due to... err... implications that I don't feel comfortable drawing. The only way to reliably tell if one of my characters is male or female (besides the occasional eyelashes, or a real muscular body shape that I rarely draw) is to ask me. Even then there are some exceptions; Skiv, for example, is pretty muscular but is indeed female, and I might end up drawing Wiggs, a male, with small eyelashes.
(side note: I am fine if you draw art for my characters and give the girls eyelashes; the reason why I rarely draw them is more of a design choice than anything else)
Actually it'd make sense for me. I'm a non-binary pan but with stronger leaning to girls, and those are the ones I like to draw the most. I think I do well drawing women, men and non-binary folks all equally (I struggle a bit with bigger shapes as buff or chubby, need practice) but if left on my own devices I think I'd draw more girls ^^" could be for mere aesthetic appeal too.
Lemonylulu we're not making assumptions about anyone, we are asking them how it is for them specifically and they only respond if they want to. We're making it in the form of a poll because its an easy way to do so. Whatever results from this doesnt mean its a certain way for everyone it'll just tell us how it is for the majority of the people who do respond. It's just how research and statistics work. Plus I'd say most people who have answered are having fun thinking about it.
KaraAirbender It's interesting that even though in your style they dont look too different you still lean towards drawing one, but it makes sense, it seem like for people who write and have OCs they go towards the one they relate to the most instead. thanks for your input!
yeya Er, yes. I'm aware how research and statistics work. The initial wording of the post about "coming to a conclusion" just makes it sound like there was a definitive answer being sought after here. Apologies if it comes across as hostile, but it's not an accusation---just a reminder for those that need to hear it.
It's a good thing people are having fun with this, and I'm definitely glad. But when collecting this type of data I think it's important to take that angle into consideration as well. Toyhouse is a much smaller community, but I've seen this become a very serious issue on other sites.
I'm nb, I'm bi & I draw men exclusively. I love women, but femininity is a sore point for me personally, which definitely impacts the kinds of stuff I'm happiest creating, especially visually. I prefer to read/view stuff about women (to break the monotony of the sausagefest) and write about men (the majority of my irl socialisation has always come from guys, for whatever that's worth)