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So, this is awesome and I love this cover painting. BUT what I find really interesting is that the artist who did this actually seems to be using some of the same strategies I use when painting cultural costuming. There's clear costuming STYLE influences in the clothing cuts... https://twitter.com/paizo/status/1304893540464549889
and the shape language used it's clearly tweaked and shifted into the fantasy space. Then there's the fact that I don't think any of those patterns are really African patterns. They don't look like anything I've seen in my research BUT they carry over the same kind of feel...
If I'm wrong then I'm wrong and that's an oops on my part but the fact that they don't look familiar to me feels interesting and validating on some of my tactics.
As I've said before, I'm not sure this is a fantastic strategy for avoiding appropriation but it's the one I've got and it's VERY interesting to me to see another artist seemingly employ the same tactic in trying to pay homage to the cultures and people that inspire a thing...
without treading into spaces you have no business stomping around in as a guest.
... ... Yeah, I think about this a lot okay!
Also I've been informed the cover artist for this is
Ekaterina Burmak who's worth a look. :)
Ekaterina Burmak who's worth a look. :)
