I was admiring your work with the Buckskin flower portrait. I immediately recognized the flowers as Indigenous inspired (beadwork/ embroidery). The small details of the beaded sash (or I'm assuming beaded, I could be quill. From your art it's hard to distinguish the exact technique and material used. Beautiful by the way. What I'm wondering is that, are you Indigenous and if so, what community do you belong to?
Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed the portrait! No, I am not Indigenous, but yes, you are correct about the inspiration. Actually, the most immediate inspiration was the character’s outfit. Yvon is Ojibwe, and in the show he wears a black coat embroidered with designs in white thread. The floral motifs I used in the wreath of the illustration are copied directly from his sleeves. While collecting reference shots of his clothing for this, I ended up doing more research on Indigenous (particularly Ojibwe) embroidery and beadwork, and the use of colors on the flowers in my portrait was inspired by that.
Indigenous beadwork and embroidery are so beautiful, and I tried to be as faithful to the exact designs on Yvon’s costume as I could in my homage. I collected some of my inspirations here in this post looking more closely at his outfit. Including a close-up of his rifle strap, which yes, I think is probably quillwork. :)
