The Little Armored One

In the past few years I’ve rarely have the chance to do a traditional piece. That is until a few weeks ago when I had the opportunity to brush up on my skills, and took it to draw a nine-banded armadillo.

This piece was inspired by the state that I’ve grown to love these past two years. I recently have started to finally feel like a Texan. Maybe it takes me a few years to get adjusted to new areas before I feel comfortable in them, because looking back I could say that it took a few years before I felt comfortable in my college town. (The only other time that I’ve relocated.)

Anyways, I wanted to create this piece with my new acceptance as a Texan in mind. At first glance this state is just like many others, but when you start diving deeper into the community here you can find surprises at the gorgeous diversity here. Which in the armadillo is depicted as flowers and stripes within the design.

My first concept sketch was digital because I wanted to get the pose right before I started on the pattern. But I also took this as an opportunity to practice the details.

When I found a pose I liked, I went on to figuring out the flowers I specially wanted to use for my design. They are all ones picked that are known for growing wild in Texas. (Ex. Bluebonnets, Pinkladies, Black-eyed Susans).

The biggest challenge was figuring out how to draw the flowers in a way that made them distinct without being colored.

I’m hoping this one will be the first of many traditional pieces I will to create for future artist alley booths I hope to run. Fingers crossed anyways.

A few details on the materials of this piece: