Rainforest Tribes?

My research into this hasn't been as fruitful as I hoped, and I can see me going down a road of fantasy stereotypes that already exists. Therefore, as well as the bits and bobs I've found useful from tribes, I believe it's the high fashion element that will aid me the most in creating attractive forest characters (with the practicality of tribes lifestyle and culture)

I have to remember that the final design must be a good marriage between practicality, faith in the earth, and fashion/attractive design. That is how I've broken down this research:

Practicality/Tribes

As mentioned, I looked at a few existing tribes that rely on the rainforests. I found that most of them are too naked...Luckily, I picked up many practical tips to help me along!

- Ankles covered in bracelets, to avoid poisonous bites
- Often topless for both male and female, but the bottom half is covered by plants, or animal hide
- In the Huli tribe, men allow their hair to grow as to be able to weave feathers, flora and other objects into their hair and ceremonial head dresses.
- In the Himba tribe, girls cover their hair in otjize, a mixture of butter fat and ochre. This is to protect their scalps, for beauty (they often get fake plastic hair and add this to their hair styles) and the reddish-brown colour links them to the earth, blood, and the Himba ideal of beauty.
- Face painting in tribes is for several different reasons; Hunting, religion, military, sun screen or scaring enemies.  Different colours also symbolize different things from the west (yellow = death, black = life) but it varies from tribe to tribe. They are made with natural substances, and it is an art, and techniques exist for it (e.g. using a soft feather to make patterns, etc)

Himba tribe women hair

Faith in the Earth

So I'm tackling my Gaian faith first as always. I want my forest people to be beautiful, ethereal and naturally covered in plants, but to further show how dedicated they are to the earth, I'm going to introduce a few fantasy plants. The first being a 'soul vine'. In my sketches last post, I included a flower and roots on everyones chests. A seed planted from childhood into the chest near our hearts, and the seed grows and blossoms from the person as they grow. In many ways, its a parasite, but to them it's becoming one with plants. To check if plants could be sustained by humans, I found online two cases of plants growing in lungs! Mine however will be the surface of the skin. The vines will wrap around the person, and will point up towards the sun. The design ties in with the ethereal and fantasy style and reminisces of art nouveau.

The Season: Summer by Alphonse Mucha

Fashion Designs

Referring to the fantasy designs I've looked at. These are existing but also inspiring. I mostly adore how the Slyvari represent nature, but they ARE NOT human, unlike my characters:

But they still show how creatively flora can be worn to cover and look beautiful. Simarly, this is how fashion tackles wearing flora; to be covering and beautiful. So I already listed some in my previous post in a moodboard, but here is one I couldn't fit...:

It's just come to my attention that I've researched alot of females, feminine clothes and flowers can be seen as 'girly'. But as I've tried with the other cultures I've created, there is no bias between females and males, so the boys will also wear flowers. :)

Taking every element from here, I'm going to create afew more concept sketches in sketchbook then jump over to digitially painting the final-ish concept designs! :)