Suiting Up

So this here was my final artwork for an art class I have here in college. I thought I'd just upload it here is all. 

The piece coincides with the artist statement I was asked to write, and my subject was armor and its personal and intimate relation to its wearers.

Artist statement:

"    Armor is more than just a means of defense. These protective suits have grown to help give identity to man, and to aid him in all his endeavors. In my works and the works I adore (written or otherwise), I see armor and all themes related to it as something like air. That is, something that is perpetually in our lives but which we hardly ever really notice or think too much on. Armor becomes our second skin. In my pieces I attempt to convey this unity of being -- that the man gives armor the purpose and the armor gives the man the ability -- through portrayals of suits and their wearers coexisting in partnership against a common opposition or for a shared purpose. Armor is donned by people from all walks of life, from explorers to soldiers, from engineers to scientists; and indeed, even to those who simply go through life hoping for the best. In this sense, armor becomes man's companion when all other companions fail him. The relationship formed therein, that the man should bear the weight and discomfort, and that the armor should bear the pains of the world, fuses flesh and steel until often we see not the man, nor the armor, but something which blurs the boundaries of both, becoming more.

    My largest written projects have all been published on a by-chapter basis on the fanfiction website FiMfiction.net, under the username Delvius. Most of these stories have my aforementioned themes on armor, usually in the form of paragraphs wherein the main character either describes their identity as being related to their armor or elaborates on the need for the armor to adapt to the new worlds they find themselves in (and thus how their identity as persons morphs, and all the while some form of armor is donned by them). Furthermore, just about all my characters in these stories don some form of armor themselves that is integral to their character -- it is part of what would set them apart in terms of description or appearance, serving as personalized 'second skins' just as much as battle gear.

    When it comes to graphical arts (and I admit I am far less skilled in these areas), I attempt depict lifelike figures in postures and situations that either a) can be undergone by anyone, highlighting that armor is company for anyone in whatever scenario, or b) that are, by nature of the depicted scene, dangerous and would require specialized functionality to survive. Situations in this second category highlight armor not just as companion, but as enablers of deeds and acts far beyond regular human capacity. In whatever case, however, the armors I draw all clearly have an affiliation -- the Roman armors are worn by Roman soldiers, the knightly armors are worn by knights, etc. -- and because of this I clearly depict the fullness of these individuals' public identity and role, to be judged thereon by observers."