Widecombe fair - Jan Stewer

Jan Stewer in the 1947 animation by Larkins studio

 I can't remember when we decided to turn the character of Jan Stewer into a woman but the idea has been around pretty much since the beginning of the project. I know it was our tutor Tony's idea and we were happy with it. Everything is nicer when it is not just a large group of one gender. 





Our main  inspiration for her design came from this image of the BBC show "Land girls":

 

The dungarees and headscarf are something we particularly wanted to keep. I really like this design idea, mostly because of my personal fondness for dungarees but also because it's not a look I have seen in a lot of animation before. I also think it fits the setting of Devon and the fair quite nicely given that we are primarily exploring a farmer's world.

These are my iterations of the design so far:

She is quite young and fearsome although I like the idea of keeping the gun from the 1947 animation and turn that into a silly weakness she has. There is a tendency for female characters (especially in male-dominant groups) to be too perfect. I believe that is a symptom of the artist's/film-maker's desperate attempts to not appear sexist. This fails of course, as the inability to see women as complex characters (which has to include flaws) is in itself sexist.
I hope we won't fall into that trap. This is a subject for an entire essay but for now, suffice it to say that I believe things need to change and one of the things I want to do as an animator is work on that change and make it happen. If Studio Ghibli can do it, there is no reason why we couldn't do it too.