Names- Hawkeye and Nurturing Heart  
Series- United Ponies of America  
State- Iowa  
Media- Ink and Colored Pencils
 
Finally to the last of the “I” States, Iowa hehe. This state proved to be another one where I couldn’t initially think of anything, so I did more researching then normal of it. FYI, I have written out all of the states’ notes on what they’re going to be, but I had to look up Iowa again to remind myself. So for those native to Iowa, I really hope I did your state justice here. The title is based on the fact that most of Iowa’s land is for growing agriculture, it’s biggest product being corn.
 
Hawkeye- Iowa is known as the Hawkeye state, which is based on a real person, Chief Black Hawk of the Sauk tribe. I found pictures of the man and based Hawkeye’s design around him. I wanted to make him a bit more darker, but I didn’t have a lot of dark tan tones. His cutie mark represents the 3 feathers I’ve seen Black Hawk hold in a few pictures.
 
Nurturing Heart- On the back the Iowa quarter, there’s the line “Foundation of Education”. After doing some digging around, I found out that Iowa prized it’s education system and was one of the states to spearhead the public school movement in America. The Quarter’s design is also based on Iowan Artist Grant Wood’s painting, “Arbor Day”, so I based Nurturing’s mane colors from that. I wanted to give her a very sweet disposition, so I went with pastels for her coat coloring. Her cutie mark is the school house found in the painting.
 
I am happy with the overall result. Next state will be Kansas.