american indians

I was originally searching for more references to Indian cultures following my post on the art of mendhi, however my search returned with images of American Indians and their tribal face paints; which highly intrigued me, so I looked into it further....

I discovered an artist called K.Henderson who paints portraits of American Indians, which allowed me to get a better idea about the type of face painting that they use. The Plains Indians originate from the Great Plains in North America, followed the grazing and migration of the buffalos, and lived in tipi's to accommodate their nomadic lifestyle. Here are a range of his paintings...

I love the idea of the handprint over the mouth and think the bright blue tones he has used on the face add a great burst of colour to the monotonous outfits. The feathered headdress is a fascinating accessory and more recently has become a 'cool' item to wear. I noticed it was commercially available in retail stores around the summer time, and a popular piece to wear to festivals, River Island stocked this colourful take on the headdress on the left; whereas Topshop stocked a more toned down version with earthy tones, on the right.

The feathered headdress has recently been used in music videos to accessorise the artists. Wiz Khalifa wears one in his 'It's nothing' video, Lana Del Rey dons one in her new 'Ride' video, and a classic image that comes to mind finally is the headdress and face paint featured in the Dub Phizix 'Marka' video:

I think that if I will try and source a headdress or maybe even construct an interpretation of one using the hair of my model for my final image