vellumed:

the village chief

i recently bought jessica julius and maggie malone’s the art of moana, and it was such a beautiful and enjoyable read! i was inspired to draw moana again; this is how i imagine an older moana would look as the village chief of motunui.

i decided to marry parts of the designs of both motunui villagers (such as tattoos) and their voyaging ancestors (such as fresh vegetation) for moana’s village chief look, also making sure to use a lot of red, which is the color of royalty, and to throw in whale teeth into her necklace, which only royalty would be allowed to wear. the story of moana, after all, is about how moana found and defined her identity when she set out to fulfill her ancestors’ quest and how she connected herself and her people to their ancestry in doing so.