Merida the Skinhead Girl

I've been working on this for a week now, and alas it is finally done. This is basically a tribute to both 'Brave', as the movie that completely changed my life, as well as a tribute to my youth as a punk back in the day, which were also the best years of my life. I got the whole idea of turning Merida into a punk (and even a skinhead) when I was watching a vintage documentary about punks and skinheads from the 80's last week, called 'UK/DK : A Film About Punks & Skinheads' ([link]). I got so excited about it, that I picked up my pencil and paper, and just started sketching away, right after watching the documentary. I basically placed Merida in each and every single one of the punk scene's best and worst subcultures in history.

At first, I was planning on working on ten artworks, but this plan was later scrapped because the last two artworks were actually terrible. So, at the last minute, I cancelled the last two pieces and instead decided to upload the remaining eight. I definitely felt comfortable drawing Merida in all the outfits and 'uniforms' of the many punk subcultures, simply because I used to be a rusty and crusty punk myself back when I was only 12! Those were the days for me, running around with my punk friends, listening to old punk records from the 70's and 80's, causing a little bit of havoc here and there, as well as not giving a fuck about whatever the adults said about us. So, for Merida, I can totally tell that she fits right in with the whole punk scene, simply because she herself is very rebelious in the movie, and quite anti-authoritarian too. That is what attracted me to Merida in the first place; she was a real rebel, just like how I was when I was in my early teens and running around with punks and skinheads alike.

Here, we see Merida as a skinhead girl. I'll be honest here, I've had more skinhead friends than my punk friends back then and this was a bit of a recollection for me. Though, throughout the years, both the punks and the skins were always against each other in many ways, it was never that serious and they both are still seen as 'brothers' in the scene. I got the idea for turning Merida into a skinhead when I thought about one of my favorite Welsh Oi! bands, The Oppressed, and they had this song called 'Skinhead Girl' ([link]), which was really catchy and infectious. Apparently, Merida had to sacrifice some of her hair to really get that skinhead girl look.