Historically Accurate El Dorado

Being the history geek that I am, I guess it is kind of surprising that I haven't really done a "historically accurate" animation series before, but after seeing that awesome Buzzfeed Disney Princess video, and of course all the amazing art on here, I was inspired to make my own.  I guess it is better late than never!

As I've said before elsewhere, from an artistic standpoint, I'm not at all bothered by the animated designs of the characters in Disney and Dreamworks films. They weren't documentaries after all so in most cases they didn't need to be accurate, and in animation in particular, it is more important to convey character and style in the designs.  I am not trying to "fix" anything because I don't think there is anything to fix!  That being said, it can still be fun to learn how your favorite characters might have looked if they had existed in real life.    

For my series, I am trying to be as accurate as I possibly can.  I'm taking the country of origin, the social class, the culture, and the specific decade into mind (instead of just a general sweep of multiple decades), and also adapting the colors and styles to fit what was available and worn everyday.  I will try to keep the characters recognizable where I can, but I want to make my pictures realistic and so some elements of the original designs might be altered in the process.

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For my first picture, I decided to do the one "Non-Disney" film I will be including, which also happens to be one of my favorites - Dreamworks' "The Road to El Dorado"!  I haven't seen much "historic" art for this series and I thought it would be a good place to start.  This movie takes place in 1519, the year Hernan Cortez discovered the Aztec civilization.  Obviously in the movie, Miguel and Tulio discover it first!  This one was pretty easy since I actually had a specific year to work with, so I tried to find fashion that fit each character.  Maybe Miguel and Tulio were gods, considering their clothes in the movie were almost 300 years ahead of their time!

Miguel was actually the easiest to translate.  In southern Europe at the time, men would wear a ruffled, low necked chemise under a colorful doublet with huge, baggy sleeves - much like Miguel's shirt in the movie.  Men still wore hose at this time too.  I changed Miguel's hair a bit based on a Raphael painting.  I also gave him a fuller beard since men didn't really wear goatees in 1519.  And of course I had to draw his lute!  I based it on the more typical design you see in 15th and 16th century paintings.

Tulio was more of a challenge - apparently, when you make him accurate, he looks kind of like Jesus.    His original outfit did not resemble 1510s clothing at all so I had to be more creative.  First of all, I drew his hair loose (based on another Raphael painting).  Since he wouldn't wear sideburns and a soul patch, I could draw him either clean shaven or with a beard.  He looked too young when he was shaven so I found a picture of a beard with a similar shape.  To suit Tulio's more careful style, I gave him a high-necked chemise and doublet with the puffed sleeves of the early 16th century.  He is also wearing a blue jerkin to mimic his shirt from the movie.  Tulio's hose are different, his are in two parts, with garters holding up the lower portion - I thought it did a good job of drawing attention to his skinny legs! 

Lastly, I'd have to say Chel was the most interesting to draw!  Although El Dorado in the movie has some elements from different Mesoamerican cultures (and although the "real" El Dorado was in Colombia), it most closely resembled the Aztec culture, which was also confirmed by the arrival of Cortez in the movie.  Many of the scenes in the movie like the sacrifice, feast, and game of hip ball were also inspired by Cortez' real life adventures.  A lot of information about the Aztecs has been perserved in a series of books called the Aztec Codices, which were drawn by the Aztecs themselves, so that was a great primary source.  Every single woman I saw in the codices was wearing the same kind of outfit, which is much less revealing than what Chel wears in the movie (in fact, in the movie, Chel is actually wearing a male loincloth!).  An Aztec woman's clothing consisted of a woven cotton skirt called a cueitl, and a matching blouse called a huipil that fell to her elbows and knees.  They were usually plainly decorated with red bands of color.  Aztec commoners like Chel would not wear shoes.  Married women had a special braided hairstyle that looked like horns, but the codices also show some images of (probably unmarried) women with long hair and bangs like Chel's.  In Aztec culture, only "shameless" women wore cosmetics, but I don't think Chel would care much about her reputation, so I gave her red lipstick, and I also gave her hair a purplish cast, because some Aztec women dyed their hair with indigo.   Because Chel was likely a lower-class woman, she wouldn't have had much jewelry, maybe a plain pair of bone or shell ear plugs.  But I gave her a pair of jade bracelets and gold ear plugs, because I thought Tulio probably gave them to her when he had his "godly" status in El Dorado.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun doing the research and designs for this picture.  I think I will do a few of the rarer Disney heroines next too, so look for those in the next week or so.