03/13/2014

First Nations Fairies

March 14, 2014

So, this morning I came across this article about a live-action remake of Peter Pan, and had to facepalm so hard I almost bruised myself. It was a pretty racist movie to begin with, and instead of trying to update it for the modern clime, they’ve decided to cast a non-native actress as Tiger Lily and make Peter Pan the “saviour of the Natives”. Greaaaaat. Awesome. That’s not super racist or anything, Hollywood.

Anyway, I was chatting about it on twitter and Lar (of Least I Could Do/Looking for Group) mentioned that it wouldn’t be as racist if the ‘natives’ of Neverland that they were referring to were the fairies instead of . I agreed, and one thing led to another in my head and I found myself with the sudden urge to draw Native-themed fairies. After all, there’s many North American legends about fairies and little people, much as there is in European mythology, so why not try drawing a few of those? Also, somewhere along the line, someone mentioned mermaids and I had to draw those two.

So, voila. The first fairy is based off a ladies fancy shawl dancer, since the shawls so often look like wings. I opted for beetle wings instead of butterfly because a) they’re transparent, so you can see more of her outfit and b) beetle wings look dang cool. The second figure is Octopus Woman, from one of my favorite Haida legends. She’s wearing a traditional Haida cloak, held with a seashell clasp.

If I get the time, I want to shade these in with pencil for more of a Brian Froud look, so maybe you’ll see these drawings on another sketch Friday!