Clothing & Nudity

I had to make this page because I wanted to make a naturist character (Alsa)!

At the time of writing (and for the foreseeable future), Alsa is the only character who self-identifies as a naturist and practices frequently.

Also, for the purposes of this explainer, the word "naturist" is used as a synonym for "nudist" - the two terms vary slightly in definition, but I find "naturist" to have a slightly more positive connotation, although the association with nature does not always apply.

Why is Alsa naked all the time? What is "naturism"?

If this is your first introduction to the concept you could probably just read the Wikipedia page on naturism and learn a lot.

But as a TL;DR - if you can accept that nudity is not inherently sexual, and that some people would prefer to be nude in non-sexual contexts, that's all you need to understand. If you're a furry (and if you're reading this you probably are), you've seen Zootopia and you've seen the "Naturalist Club" scene, and this is the same concept. Furries are animals, and animals don't wear clothes!

But your other characters wear clothes!

True! As much as furries are animals, they're also human(oid) and depict very human behavior and scenarios, and my characters in particular almost exclusively behave like humans.

What about "featureless" nudity? Your other characters are depicted nude often - are they naturists too?

Great point! No, they're not, because featureless nudity is meant to convey a different connotation than full uncensored nudity is.

Featureless nudity is incredibly common in both furry art and in mainstream anthropomorphic cartoons, but more often than not it's meant as a design simplification and not explicitly meant to convey nudity. Since anthros are meant to depict human behavior, it's typically implied that a human in the same situation would be clothed.

Simply put - if an anthro character is depicted as featureless, that's analagous to a human wearing "casual" clothing. If they're depicted as fully nude, that's analagous to human nudity.

And no, this doesn't mean their bits somehow disappear - it's a form of art shift where clothing is selectively omitted depending on context.

Is this a sexual thing?

No. I mean, not necessarily. Of course it's normal for adults to find each others' bodies attractive, but finding someone attractive is different from committing a sex act, and clothing never stopped anyone from checking someone out anyway.

But that's not the intention of depicting a character nude in a non-sexual context - rather it's a form of body positivity and acceptance, conveying the idea that our bodies can be considered complete and dignified on their own, without the need for modesty.

But your characters have sex! Quite often, in fact!

True! Nudity not being inherently sexual doesn't mean that sex is bad or that naturists can't enjoy sex, only that nudity and sex are separate concepts. It should be pretty obvious whether a particualar art piece is intended as sexual or not, based on whether it depicts a sex act.

Does this mean I have to always draw Alsa nude?

No, she can wear clothes if the situation requires, or if you're not comfortable drawing nudity.