History Main / FurriesAreEasierToDraw

* As Creator/WaltDisney sought to drastically improve [[ArtEvolution animation quality and standards]] in his cartoons throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, this trope became apparent in full force. Far and away the best and most revered Disney animation of the period tends to be either animal characters such as WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse, WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck, WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}}, WesternAnimation/TheThreeLittlePigs, [[WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}} Jiminy Cricket]], Disney/{{Dumbo}} and Disney/{{Bambi}} or stylized caricatures of humans such as [[Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs the Seven Dwarfs]].

* As Creator/WaltDisney sought to drastically improve [[ArtEvolution animation quality and standards]] in his cartoons throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, this trope became apparent in full force. Far and away the best and most revered Disney animation of the period tends to be either animal characters such as WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse, WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck, WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}}, WesternAnimation/TheThreeLittlePigs, [[Disney/{{Pinocchio}} Jiminy Cricket]], Disney/{{Dumbo}} and Disney/{{Bambi}} or stylized caricatures of humans such as [[Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs the Seven Dwarfs]].

* ''Webcomic/CoachRandom'' had some characters drawn as dogs because the artist was under a deadline. [[http://coachrandom.zzl.org/Chronological/comic-189.xml In one strip, he has humans and a dog side-by-side, showing the difference in how the artist drew them.]] His humans are quite detailed. The dog, not so much.

* As Creator/WaltDisney sought to drastically improve [[ArtEvolution animation quality and standards]] in his cartoons throughout the 1930's and early 40's, this trope became apparent in full force. Far and away the best and most revered Disney animation of the period tends to be either animal characters such as WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse, WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck, WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}}, WesternAnimation/TheThreeLittlePigs, [[Disney/{{Pinocchio}} Jiminy Cricket]], Disney/{{Dumbo}} and Disney/{{Bambi}} or stylized caricatures of humans such as [[Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs the Seven Dwarfs]].
** Not to mention, most Disney films from the 30s to the 50s used {{rotoscoping}} for the human characters, which may have had something to do with this trope.

* Creator/WarnerBros WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes, back in the day, had a lot more animal characters than humans. There were really only three recurring ones at the time: [[TokenHuman Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam and Granny.]]

** The book has a fair few fourth wall breaks where creator Creator/ArtSpigelman addresses readers directly and discusses some of the metaphor's limitations. When Spiegelman is at his most medium-aware - the scenes where he visits his psychiatrist - he draws the animal faces as explicit masks worn by humans. There's also an ambiguous scene regarding a concentration camp inmate who claims to be a non-Jewish German; Spiegelman initially draws him as a mouse but then redraws him as a cat when asking his father's opinion on the truth of the inmate's story.

** The book has a fair few fourth wall breaks where the author addresses readers directly, and he discusses some of the metaphor's limitations. When Spiegelman is at his most medium-aware - the scenes where he visits his psychiatrist - he draws the animal faces as explicit masks worn by humans. There's also an ambiguous scene regarding a concentration camp inmate who claims to be a non-Jewish German; Spiegelman initially draws him as a mouse but then redraws him as a cat when asking his father's opinion on the truth of the inmate's story.

Oddly enough, there doesn't seem to be much of an UncannyValley equivalent for animals aside from photorealistically rendered CGI animated animals and real animals in live action films that talk or make humanlike facial expressions. There is almost no equivalent of UncannyValley for any [[CartoonCreature extremely]] [[InformedSpecies stylized animals]], monsters, alien characters, or giant robots. After all, there aren't any PettingZooPeople running around in the real world. This means that there isn't any right or wrong way to draw cartoon animals, so it's impossible to be close but not quite there.

* ''VideoGame/{{Lugaru}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Overgrowth}}'' by [[http://www.wolfire.com/ Wolfire Games]] are LowFantasy [[ActionGame fighting games]] that take place an island that is populated entirely by [[FunnyAnimal Borderline]] PettingZooPeople. There are [[WordOfGod three official reasons]] for that:

* Subverted in Stan Sakai's ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo.'' Stan is perfectly capable of drawing recognizable and distinct humans - but his "furry" characters allow new readers to grasp the essentials of his regular cast very quickly and easily. The character Katsuichi is powerful, insightful and reserved, so he's [[KingOfBeasts a lion.]] [[TricksterArchetype Kitsune]] is fun-loving and cunning but essentially amoral, so she's a fox. Gen is fearless, powerful and easily angered, so he's a rhinoceros... and so on.

* Inverted in many {{Manga}}, {{Anime}} and {{Animesque}} fanart. [[LittleBitBeastly They'd generally draw the character human but with features of their animal self in the form of ears and tails]]. It's a case of Humans Are Easier to Draw.

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Manga And Anime ]]

* Inverted in many {{Manga}}, {{Anime}} and {{Animesque}} fanart. [[LittleBitBeastly They'd generally draw the character human but with features of their animal self in the form of ears and tails]]. It's a case of Humans Are Easier to Draw.
* ''Anime/WolfsRain'' is one of the few works that turns this trope on its ear. The animators had far more experience animating appealing human characters; their animal characters tend to look a little off. So there are whole episodes in the series where the animal characters spend all their time [[HumanityEnsues in human form]] (ItMakesSenseInContext) when there is no particular reason to do so.
* Yoshihiro Takahashi's works tend to invert this. Especially the anime adaptation of ''Anime/GingaDensetsuWeed'' - the dogs can look so strange as to be cringe-worthy. ''Manga/GingaNagareboshiGin'' suffers from this as well, but not nearly as badly. Humans in these series, on the other hand, tend to be rather well-drawn.

[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* The art of ''Roleplay/RubyQuest'' is half this and half ShoutOut to ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing''.
** This series also clearly displays an interesting side effect of this trope: furries are easier to tell apart. Ruby Quest is done in a ''very'' simplistic style. The different animal features make it possible to identify who's who.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* As Creator/WaltDisney sought to drastically improve [[ArtEvolution animation quality and standards]] in his cartoons throughout the 1930's and early 40's, this trope became apparent in full force. Far and away the best and most revered Disney animation of the period tends to be either animal characters such as WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse, WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck, WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}}, the Disney/ThreeLittlePigs, [[Disney/{{Pinocchio}} Jiminy Cricket]], Disney/{{Dumbo}} and Disney/{{Bambi}} or stylized caricatures of humans such as [[Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs the Seven Dwarfs]].

* ''ComicBook/{{Maus}}'': Drawing all the characters as mice or other animals is the only significant [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality acceptable break from reality]] that this explicitly biographical comic tolerates.

* This is almost certainly why ''Pluggers'' uses furries, since the strip is about Midwestern senior citizens.

* Because they found humans to be extremely hard to draw and animate with the technological limitations of the time, most of Pixar's earlier films primarily had either [[WesternAnimation/ToyStory toys]], [[WesternAnimation/ABugsLife insects]], [[WesternAnimation/MonstersInc monsters]], or [[WesternAnimation/FindingNemo fish]] as main characters. It wasn't until 2004's ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' that humans became a large part of the characters in their movies ([[WesternAnimation/{{Cars}} though not always]]).

--> 1. [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman They didn't want to depict human-on-human violence]].\\
2. [[TakeAThirdOption They didn't want to be limited by]] typical MedievalEuropeanFantasy tropes and [[FiveRaces races]].
3. This trope.

-> # [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman They didn't want to depict human-on-human violence]].
-> # [[TakeAThirdOption They didn't want to be limited by]] typical MedievalEuropeanFantasy tropes and [[FiveRaces races]].
-> # This trope.

* ''{{Lugaru}}'' and ''{{Overgrowth}}'' by [[http://www.wolfire.com/ Wolfire Games]] are LowFantasy [[ActionGame fighting games]] that take place an island that is populated entirely by [[FunnyAnimal Borderline]] PettingZooPeople. There are [[WordOfGod three official reasons]] for that:

** 1. [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman They didn't want to depict human-on-human violence]].
** 2. [[TakeAThirdOption They didn't want to be limited by]] typical MedievalEuropeanFantasy tropes and [[FiveRaces races]].
** 3. This trope.

* Ilya Savchenko claims he even can't draw animals other than toucans. His works include parodies of ''[[http://toucan-house.com/ House M.D.]], [[http://acomics.ru/~depth-of-delusion The Matrix,]]'' and ''[[http://acomics.ru/~stoolmaster Lord of the Rings.]]'' With all characters [[EverythingIsBetterWithPenguins as toucans]]. (No translations, unfortunately.)

* Doc Nickel (artist for ''Webcomic/TheWhiteboard'') has explicitly stated that he used anthropomorphic animal characters because he couldn't draw humans for crap. According to several of his posts on the forums in August 2011, though, he was working on overcoming the problem with drawing humans, with more human characters being given actual details instead of undefined "floating bubbleheads", and [[http://the-whiteboard.com/autotwb1405.html the results]] [[http://the-whiteboard.com/autotwb1403.html were impressive]]. But a few months later he decided to drop humans altogether. He did use [[http://the-whiteboard.com/autotwb1481.html generic human faces]] to replace "the no-necks" when he retroactively coloured strips for winter and spring of 2012, but after that all one-shot characters have been anthropomorphic animals. Also of note is converting [[ThoseTwoGuys Larry and Daryl]] -- the no-necks who gained some depth over time -- to [[http://the-whiteboard.com/autotwb1853.html squirrels]].

* Ilya Savchenko claims he even can't draw animals other than toucans. His works include parodies of [[http://toucan-house.com/ House M.D.]], [[http://acomics.ru/~depth-of-delusion The Matrix]], and [[http://acomics.ru/~stoolmaster Lord of the Rings]]. With all characters [[EverythingIsBetterWithPenguins as toucans]]. (No translations, unfortunately.)

** [[http://lackadaisy.foxprints.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=184 Once in a]] [[http://www.lackadaisycats.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=218 while she also]] [[http://lackadaisy.foxprints.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=312 draws the cast]] [[http://lackadaisy.foxprints.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=328 as humans]].

* Subverted in Stan Sakai's ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo. Stan is perfectly capable of drawing recognizable and distinct humans - but his "furry" characters allow new readers to grasp the essentials of his regular cast very quickly and easily. The character Katsuichi is powerful, insightful and reserved, so he's [[KingOfBeasts a lion.]] [[TricksterArchetype Kitsune]] is fun-loving and cunning but essentially amoral, so she's a fox. Gen is fearless, powerful and easily angered, so he's a rhinoceros... and so on.

* As WaltDisney sought to drastically improve [[ArtEvolution animation quality and standards]] in his cartoons throughout the 1930's and early 40's, this trope became apparent in full force. Far and away the best and most revered Disney animation of the period tends to be either animal characters such as WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse, WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck, WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}}, the Disney/ThreeLittlePigs, [[Disney/{{Pinocchio}} Jiminy Cricket]], Disney/{{Dumbo}} and Disney/{{Bambi}} or stylized caricatures of humans such as [[Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs the Seven Dwarfs]].