The song was made back in the fifties and sung by a very sly and hip black man (he was associated with the beatniks). So I made black character in a zoot suit, i think that his overall appearance is instantly recognizable and without speaking a word we have a general idea of what kind of person he is, energetic, fun, and hip. He is based off of Prince Chawmin' from "Coal Black & da' Seben Dwarves" but the racial stereotypes will be a little toned down as to not alienate my entire audience.
Speaking of racial stereotypes, let me know about what you think about how i drew his lips I'm concerned that maybe it's a little too much, but I don't want to change it for a couple reasons. First being that they are incredibly fun to draw, not just the lips but this entire character just falls off my pencil so effortlessly. One of the reasons why it's fun to draw is that they are very expressive and i can get some good emotions out of them, I also can't wait to start animating him speaking, I'm going to have tons o' fun exaggerating the way he talks.
But another reason is that, I'm afraid that by toning it down a little he won't be as graphically recognizable, The new Disney movie that's coming out "The Princess and the Frog" which is centered around people of a darker complexion, some of the drawings just strike me as stock doodles of white people they had laying around and painted a different color. I think that if you take away the color and all you have left is the ink, most of the characters you probably wouldn't think were black unless someone told you.
I'm of course not telling anyone to draw features so exaggerated that they are offensive, but to draw something until it's universally recognizable and some of the new Disney characters they do a pretty good job at realizing this fine line, but they're human drawings also look like they are not very fun to work with.
Also, so long as your not being tasteless and just having fun, no one should be offended.
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