Purpledragongirl on DeviantArthttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/https://www.deviantart.com/purpledragongirl/art/Blue-Armadillo-363746898Purpledragongirl

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Blue Armadillo

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Description

In Design at the moment we are doing a visual study. As part of that we have to research a number of contemporary designers in a chosen area such as contemporary illustration, photography etc. I decided to focus on Eric Carle as one of my designers. He is famous for his children's books such as, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." However, I put some of my own style into this work. Mine is a little bit more structured and realistic. I have included the steps that I took below so that you can try and make your own if you wish :D

1. First I found some reference images of armadillos and I then drew a sketch which broke up the armadillo into simple shapes and obvious sections.

2. On Photoshop I created line art from the sketch (you could use live trace on Illustrator or trace it by hand). I then printed this onto a piece of regular cartridge paper as well as on my choice of coloured paper for the background.

3. The next stem was to paint papers with watered down acrylics, using a square brush with tough bristles in order to create textures. Carle uses watercolours, but mine didn't give a very intense colour so I gave up on them and went for the acrylics.

4. After applying a sort of base coat to the papers, I painted over some of them and then used the end of my brush to create swirls, showing the colour beneath.

5. Once the painted papers were dry I began cutting out the sections of the cartridge paper with the line art on it (using a scalple is best, but a small stanley knife may suffice). As I cut each piece out I traced it onto the painted papers and then cut those pieces out, before sticking them onto the coloured paper.

6. As a final touch, I used white acrylic paint to add the highlights in the eye to make it stand out more (the dark blue around the eye didn't create enough contrast with the black). This also gives the armadillo a more life-like quality.

Well, there you have it!

"Brown Stag" - [link]

"Blue Armadillo" (c) me :iconpurpledragongirl:
Image size
3487x2460px 1.23 MB
Make
Canon
Model
MG5300 series
Date Taken
Apr 2, 2013, 4:57:35 PM
Comments5
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kontratwili's avatar
This is wonderful I really love the gradient of blue that starts of with a relatively medium blue on his head and  progresses to a deeper blue near the tail. As for the inspriation I can clearly see the references to Eric Carle, I especially love the play of textures and shades which were definitely a signature of his, I kind of wish he had a blue armadillo in one of his books when I was a kid. I remember as a kid reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"  and "The Mixed-Up Chameleon" those books were and still are wonderful, just like this armadillo.