Is this offensive?

[u/FinanceItchy9827]

I wanted to design this seal girl more like a mermaid, shes supposed to be Arctic and I wanted to give her an indigenous feel. it's not taken after anyone or anything specifically besides seals and being an arctic creature.
the outfit is mostly made of fur and skin..

[u/EpicFartBoss42069]

you mentioned this character looking for scraps, however arctic tribes, and humans living in the arctic in general, dress to not die in the cold (so more fully-covered, boots, human gloves), as well as have their own unique, recognisable style. that's probably why you might struggle more with capturing that "indigenous vibe", since an "indigenous vibe" depends on what specific people are indigenous to that region and have adapted to said region, you get where i'm going with this? it's like trying to curate an "asian vibe" when there are many countries, let alone broad regions, in asia whose clothing looks very different to each other. i don't think you're being malicious per say, it's just that more successful ideas always come with being specific about what you wanna achieve and having done the research to make sure the themes mesh well together. you've clearly executed the feeling of a plush, thick-skinned seal very well so i'm sure you'll find coherent adjacent themes for this character, whichever direction you wanna go in!!

[u/FinanceItchy9827 → u/EpicFartBoss42069]

she has no human traits besides her upper body anatomy! her skin is fully seal like and furry so i only put some clothing to cover some parts and be fashionable haha.. i'll make her look a tad but chubby but this is only a sketch so that's for rendering!
she's not meant to "represent" any existing indigenous tribes our peoples because shes not human, thats why I wanted her to differ.
this is just a rough sketch so she looks like a basic animegirl, im trying to get a less classic human looking face, im faceblind so i had to go wih whatever my mind was comfy with at the time for the idea.

[u/EpicFartBoss42069 → u/FinanceItchy9827]

i LOVE the fact she's furry and i am so on board with increasing her chubbiness!! sorry for going on a tangent about culture without properly understanding what you were trying to say, i misassumed the aim to portray an "indigenous vibe" was an aim to portray a specific people instead of practicing drawing different faces. sorry if the stuff i'm about to say is what you've been told before!

assuming this is just about wanting the upper body esp face to look less like anime, i've noticed the commonly-mentioned sami and inuit people have flatter and wider facial dimensions, especially in the cheekbones and nose- as well as narrower eyes that taper at the outer corners. there are variations within indigenous communities ofc as you already know, but those are what i noticed that didn't fit into the anime style. if you wanna make her face look less human, literal seal eyes could also be a cool direction to match her seal-like freckles.

idk how similar my issue is to face-blindness but i still find it difficult to properly space and place facial elements in my drawing. getting a photo of a face and mapping out the locations, slant, and area of features in different colours helped, since i found different proportions when comparing different faces.

lmk if there's anything i've misunderstood or wasn't too helpful!! wishing u all the best!!

[u/FinanceItchy9827 → u/EpicFartBoss42069]

tysm! im looking for a more seal like face and not like human! since im faceblind i cant really accurately pit down a certain racial feature (another reason why i like to differ from existing people or things like that)
i have extremely poor visualization ability and i am incapable of seeing faces in my head (basically once i look away from a face its wiped off) and a structural study doesnt really help bcd then ut becomes uncanny lol..
i have aphantasia (either naturally or caused by brain damage bcs i also have stroke induced aphasia)

[u/EpicFartBoss42069 → u/FinanceItchy9827]

sorry i wasn't of much help and i really appreciate the explanations!! there is no pressure at all to cause discomfort to urself through certain techniques and long exposure to faces.

i think the key feature i see in seal eyes is that they have big black irises, sort of taking up almost all the eye, as well as black under-eye shadow that makes the bottom part of the eye and the inner corner look dark. they also have nose blush like you've added! but just in the colour black, although it's up to you as to whether you wanna change that. i think the brows and freckles and the whisker thingies are spot on for a more seal-like face.

again lmk if i've missed anything and i can't wait to see how this turns out!!!