Red Wolf, Violet Wolf & White Wolf

A wolf trio pack symbolizing three real-life Native American leaders (Russel Means, Dennis Banks, and Clyde Bellecourt) who fought against corruption and racial injustice during their time in South Dakota.
First, I vector traced over real wolves(for portrait) with adobe illustrator in each individual illustrator file. But it took me some time since I was using geometric shapes for their faces, and I made up the color palettes for each of them based on what their names symbolized. Then I moved onto the background, using an actual image of South Dakota, and vector traced over that too, in another illustrator file. It sounds easy, but trust me when I say I had to figure out the colors and the movement of the patterns since it's based on a real-life image and the colors/shades blend, lol. After that, I made the feathers and each circular platform the wolves will sit on for the shot. Lastly, I pieced the feathers with the circular shapes, then I placed the wolves onto the background scene file and positioned them in the circular platforms, merging them into one project.

I made this design because I wanted to do a wolf illustration. But I was also thinking back to my assignment on the Oglala Sioux Nation and the Pine Ridge Reservation. And the constant injustice they went through to this very day. I also thought about historical Native American figures of the Oglala Sioux Nation that I talked about when I was working on my final history project(Russel, Dennis,& Clyde). Because they were brave at heart and fought for their people, I wanted to make something that shows who they were/are. That they were/are warriors at heart and didn't break no matter the pressure. Also, I think wolves are just cool in general lol.