I work as a small illustration artist and I just got another three pictures in. One of them in centred around Japan since my client is having a presentation there. I draw raccoons for her and this specific piece is supposed to be a tanuki and the raccoon interacting in a respectful maner.
That’s why I’m here:
Are there cultural details I can integrate that would show respect?
Are there details I should avoid because they are disrespectful?
Are there cute eastereggs I could integrate that show that I’m trying to be thoughtful about this?
Since I can’t post my work (both because no picture attachments and I can’t since it’s paid work) I’ll try and describe the details I have added:
Raccoon and Tanuki are sitting at a round table that’s close to the floor and the raccoon is pouring tea for the Tanuki. The design of the tea set is yet to be finalised but I had a specific Japanese tea set in mind. In the foreground on the table there is a wooden tea set board (?) and a tea pet (I decided on a frog because I find them cute). The tanuki has a straw hat, the sake bottle, the tiny notebook and is very round and happy looking. The scrotum won’t be visible due to the table, my client wants it that way. There are a few empty speech bubbles above both to imply a conversation. The raccoon is also looking happy and is kneeling. I wanna make it visible that the raccoon is pouring tea for the tanuki first (because I assume that’s respectful). I would also like to know if the sake bottle and the notebook usually have the same characters on them, I’ve seen some infographics and pictures but they don’t seem to be same (but I can’t read kanji so maybe they are and it’s just different fonts/styles)
Thank you to anyone willing to share some thoughts and knowledge🦝