I have tried to draw or paint T’Pring on several occasions during my life. Below is a comparison of the very earliest painting and the latest.
Many people when they look at my paintings of T’Pring ask whether she was Chinese, because her eyes appear to be slanted or the crease above the eye seems missing. Is this an idiosyncrasy of my painting style, or is the Vulcan’s ethnicity mostly in the eyes of the beholder?
In the old Star Trek episode “Amok Time”, T’Pring was introduced as Spock’s betrothed, a full blooded Vulcan who despised Spock for being a half-breed.
What do Vulcans look like? Well, they look like humans, only they have pointed ears, slanted eyebrows, and they never smile.
However, in the clothing of T’Pring and in the palanquin in which T’Pau was carried, we see East Asian influences. The makeup artist who helped Arlene Martel dress for the part must also have thought that Vulcans should look a little bit East Asian. Arlene Martel was the American born daughter of two Austrians of Jewish ancestry. She was definitely not Chinese or any other kind of East Asian. However, Martel was noted for being able to alter her appearance to almost any ethnicity when she was playing a part. I talk about this in the video embedded below.
Recently someone told me that T’Pring could not have had the eyes I gave her in my painting, because she was Jewish. Well, I’m pretty sure T’Pring was not Jewish. She was a pure blooded Vulcan who looked down on human culture. As for Arlene Martel, I have no idea about her religion. Nor does it particularly matter what the actress was. She disappeared entirely when playing a part, as any good actor would do. My painting is of T’Pring, not Arlene.
Also, just so you know, there are East Asian Jews who do in fact have Chinese ancestry. I wrote about some of them in Our Lady of Kaifeng. So being Jewish would not preclude T’Pring from looking Chinese had the Vulcan decided that she wanted to convert to Judaism. But that is an alternate universe I do not care to explore.
Related
https://rumble.com/vb96jp-how-to-paint-tpring-from-star-trek.html
