How to Draw Pocahontas

Description: In this tutorial on Dragoart.com you will be learning how to draw a person from history, and that is a Native American woman called Pocahontas. Her story is a part of American history and is embedded in America’s history books all over schools and libraries. I chose to use the image of Pocahontas form Disney’s animated movie they put out back in 1995. Their story is a little different than how it really happened. Pocahontas was the daughter of Chief Powhaten of the Algonquian Indians, and was born in 1595 on the lands of Chesterfield Virginia. In 1607 English colonist landed in Virginia and immediately began building housing structures and barriers. At this point the young woman was only about 12 years old and this had been the first time she ever laid eyes on the white man. Out of many English men there was one she found most interesting and his name was John Smith. As John Smith told his story on how he meets Pocahontas, he was leading an expedition through the land of Jamestown and was later captured by a handful of Indians. A few days later he was brought to Chief Powhatan which was nearly 12 miles away from where he was captured. Now, according to the story that is documented by John Smith, he was first welcomed by the Chief and offered to eat food from the feast they had readily available. After filling his tummy he was taken aggressively and he was forced to spread his entire body across two slabs of stone. With Indians standing over him ready to beat him if ordered to. According To John Smith, a young Indian girl ran over and stopped them from what ever they were going to do and took him in her arms and removed him from the stone slabs. The Indian Chief then said “they are friends and now I will adopt Smith as my son”. Now if Smith's story is true, Pocahontas' actions were probably one part of a ritual that was traditional with the Indians. As most of you may know, the two became close friends and for the next year Pocahontas was a frequent visitor to Jamestown she would be accompanied by other Indians and they did a lot of trading. They exchanged food and furs for hatchets and other trinkets that Englishmen possessed. Her lively character and poise made her appearance striking, and she was very fond of John Smith. She use to stop and visit with him and talk for hours at a time when ever she came into town. In October 1609, John Smith was injured by a gunpowder explosion and returned to England because the injuries were bad. After returning to the fort they told her that her very good friend John Smith had died. She was distraught, she left and years later married an Indian named Kocoum in 1610. She was later kidnapped by Englishmen and was taken to the fort where she eventually met up with John Rolfe in 1613. He is the one that taught her the Christian religion and educated her in reading and writing. They eventually married and after a brief encounter with the friend she thought was dead (John Smith), she died in 1617 from pneumonia and was buried in a churchyard in Gravesend England. In this tutorial you will learn "how to draw Pocahontas" step by step. I hope you learned something interesting and new today, and like always have a happy drawing day.