For this piece I decided to venture further into various mental illnesses that have cropped up over past couple centuries. Back then, very little was understood about how the brain works and operates in regards to mental illness. In present day we may no more, but we are far off from truly understand the complexity of the brain. That isn't even accounting for how to fix it should things go awry. This has resulted in various pseudo-mental illnesses in order to explain away why someone is the way they are. For most it was easier to say those people are crazy rather than doing any actual investigation. One of these had to do with the Native American population and their respective culture. The origin of the illnesses name has to do with an Algonquin mythological creature known as the wendigo. This creature was said to symbolize the winter, starvation, and death. The creature's spirit would influence starving travelers to resort to cannibalism to survive. If they did, the spirit would proceed to posses and physically change their victims bodies. Forever hungry, these perfect hunters seek out their once fellow human beings. While that may sound like some horror story, people once had an mental illness frighteningly similar. While it didn't mutate people the very acts it cause were certainly enough to bring fear. This pseudo-illness, known as wendigo psychosis, has been predominantly seen within North Eastern American tribes. Many of these cases involved Native Americans of the Cree tribe. The mental illness was characterized by the compulsion to eat human flesh even if food is nearby. Long story short, perfect idea for new piece. This piece was done with a pencil sketch and then a sharpie final outline. various skin tones and grays were used on the wendigo. For the background I used darker browns for the trees and whites and neutral grays for the snowy areas. Bones were done with skin tones and a blender to give a bleached look as well as cool grays. Overall, an interesting piece for a very frightening idea.
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