Glue blobs to create texture. Then covered in wet leather and left to dry.
This wasn't bumpy enough so I tried using board pins to make the bumps. The issue with this was I had to pin it down and as a result it has now got holes left in it.
Finished Dried leather.
This didn't work, as the bumps couldn't be seen and didn't last very long. The texture fell out and didn't work.
So with the experiments above. I honestly don't know. I went a bit crazy in Poundland and didn't know what to do with them so tried to create a texture. What I learnt from this was Anna don't do stupid experiments like Jon told you in Foundation but you didn't listen.
Anyway back to how I made the prettiest Armadillo in the world. It all started (imagine Balamory with the balloons and that music) back when I found out my sewing machine foot had broken and decided to fix it. I needed to solder it back together and borrowed my dad's soldering iron. I couldn't fix the machine but I was left with a soldering iron that also transformed into a leather branding machine. I didn't know at the time that is what it was but thought I would try it anyway and got this to start with, ignore the paint at the minute that didn't work very well.
I really like the texture it left, one because it is simple and secondly it stays and doesn't disappear like the 1st experiment.
I did wonder where I was going to get all the leather from to make the armadillo and then my dad suggested the upholsterers shop nearish where I live. I popped in and ask if he had anything spare, the next second he walked out with a humongous plastic bag of leather scraps.
The leather was coated on one side, a weird plastic substance. This side didn't work with the soldering iron and just melted the plastic stuff and went a horrible pinky colour. Below is an experiment using trying to make the stripe section.
I then started experimenting on the other side.
It work so much better and this side has the furry texture that you can imagine the feel of from this photo. Look just on top of the armadillo, there is a slightly furry texture.
I next wanted to work out the circula texture on the shoulder blades and back. The panel below has 3 types of brander on it with a small circle one surrounding. I didn't want an exact copy of the skin firstly because I didn't have the equipment and secondly because it looks as interesting and doesn't have to be perfect but I want to incorporate it by having the small circles surrounding. As can be seen again in this picture.
Really wish blogger had a crop tool.
Contestant number One, imagine Shrek, has a beautiful triple circle pattern with a very natural appeal to it.
Contestant number Two, has a football type effect and...
...and Contestant number three has a tile type effect.
Drum roll please and the winner is Contestant number One.
I felt this was the most sensible choice as it was quite similar to the pattern but also has a nice simple effect.
These were all the options I had on the soldering iron, I only like the top three as the bottom two have a lot of them coloured in.
This was a texture I found, reminded me of armadillo skin.
Working out the band pattern was interesting. I had to work out how to create the triangles. The ones below were not quite big enough. They were created with the tool just below that.
These end triangles were created with the top end of this tool. I had a lot more control and used a rolling action to create big, small, wide narrow or crooked triangle shapes. It was a lot easier than before. That tool made the all very generic and looking at the skin, like on any animal nothing is absolutely perfect.
These are more practices of how I could create the edge of the shoulders and back joining section.
Below is an example of the combination of effects I have decided to use and had to make sure they would go together. I was really happy with it so used it.
This is me actually covering the shoulders with the texture. As you can see I am stamping circles sort of in lines and then added the small circles around it.
I think it is a really successful technique.
You might want to laugh at this, my first attempt at the head. I didn't have a picture of a head in front of me and this was the result. It isn't even cut out correctly.
This was my second attempt. I wasn't happy with it and asked my sister what she thought. 'Anna it is rubbish, it just isn't drawn very well' love you too Eleanor. So I had to change it.
What I have done is looked at the head and the weird texture on the front of the head is basically random circles. I didn't have an attachment for this and realised if I took the attachments out the soldering iron was the perfect shape for the pattern, I clustered them together and got the right effect. I then coloured in the part underneath that and made it a bit darker just by pretty much using a quick colouring in action.
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