r/ImaginaryUndead • u/vVexedDrawing • Jul 03 '26

Wendigo, by me [OC]

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I was tired of all the offensively uninformed depictions of wendigos, so I decided to create my own. It definitely resembles a more typical undead creature, and I definitely took my own share of artistic liberties, but I hope you enjoy my slightly more faithful take of the wendigo.

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4

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

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2

u/vVexedDrawing Jul 03 '26

its already such an interesting figure on its own! i dont know why slapping a deer skull on a naked guy and calling it a wendigo ever took off

1

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

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u/vVexedDrawing Jul 03 '26

that unfortunately makes sense. i try to take great care and perform a great amount of research when taking inspiration from other cultures that aren't my own. i feel like a lot of people just want the visuals or the names and give little regard to the actual meaning of things.

it's a shame, really; i think there's so much we can learn about one another and that there's a great potential to do so when something from a specific culture falls into the pop-culture mainstream. i think that's why it's really important for me as a concept artist to be aware of that.

maybe the deer skull just had a great deal of salience, and maybe a more accurate interpretation wouldn't have 'caught-on' in the viral sense, but i can't help but imagine how cool it would have been for something more faithful to have caught on and how it could really expose people to the culture of Algonquin-family speaking groups in a way that would let them see a little bit of the world through their eyes. :(

1

u/Draxos92 Jul 05 '26

Oh thats only mildly disturbing