Lion blanket graphing, part 1

So, pulled out the graph paper and the crayons. (The small person who is going to get this blanket was very funny and into the whole drawing process; stole lots of graph paper and made his own version, was generally a hilarious help.) Have decided what I really need to get is a large set of colored pencils, because using a five-years-old's set of crayons to graph out something this detailed is a big ol' pain and doing this in colored pencil might make it so only one set of charts need be created. Right now the plan is do a rough up with crayon, then go back and chart it to a key using regular pencil and maybe adding color with pencil later.

Here's my translation to graph paper:

Please note that I have not bothered filling in the gold quadrants of the shield. My failure to do so really annoyed the five-year-old. The quadrants are also not straight, but this is my rough draft for color placement.

In the interest of making this a viable project, I've cut down the number of colors. I think I will need yellow, gold, tawny and medium brown, red, brick, silver, grey and black. Some line detail in the helmet and lion as well as the tongue and claws I think I'll embroider in later on.

I'm still not sure about what material to use. Cotton really appeals as it's snuggly and washable, but doing intarsia with cotton, well, doesn't appeal at all. It would make a heavy fabric prone to unraveling.