Last week I was reading The Iliad and came to the part describing Achilles' new shield, and I thought, "OMG, that is the best shield ever." Thus I had shields on the mind all week, so when yesterday evening rolled around and I was a bit bored and had Photoshop open, I played with some brushes and layer settings and made a pretty.
I can't draw to save my life, but I'm good at putting elements that other people have drawn together. The shield base is some work with the circle marquee tool, and the designs are brushes.