Sometimes submitters know that they want a device that looks authentically like the period arms of a particular time and place, but aren’t sure where to start.
My general advice for this situation is to spend an hour flipping through a couple of armorials from that culture to get a feel for the range of arms typical in that environment.
Continue reading “Brainstorming Armorial Designs From Period Sources”At the January 2021 online KWHSS, Vémundr Syvursson presented a class on using Inkscape to create armorial illustrations.
[Update, October 2024:] This page previously contained an embedded video player, but that seems to have stopped working; you’ll need to click through
SENA devotes over 10,000 words to conflict checking armory, which the below guide attempts to summarize in one-twentieth of the space.
Many details have been omitted, so references are included to the relevant sections of SENA to facilitate additional research as needed. Continue reading “A Revised Armory Conflict-Checking Checklist”
At the conclusion of an armorial design process, whether self-guided or in consultation with a herald, when you’ve found a device that appears to follow all of the rules and is free of conflicts, there can be an urge to rush it off to your kingdom’s submissions herald ASAP — after all, it’s perfect — and registration takes so long, you better get started now — and worst of all, what if someone else registers it first?
At this point, savvy practitioners will urge you to pause for a moment and catch your breath.
Tanczos Istvan drew my attention to a book of arms I hadn’t previously encountered, “Scottish Arms: Being a Collection of Armorial Bearings, A.D. 1370-1678, Reproduced in Facsimile from Contemporary Manuscripts, With Heraldic and Genealogical Notes” published by Robert Riddle Stodart in 1881.
It contains a selection of Scottish armory excerpted from over a dozen different period sources, organized into two volumes; the first contains plates reproduced from period sources, while the second contains heraldic and biographical data about each of the individuals whose arms are shown. Continue reading “Stodart’s Survey of Scottish Arms”
During the month of February, the College of Arms organized a online Virtual Heralds Point during which people could sign up for consultation with heralds who would guide them through the submission process for names and armory.
Below is a collage of armory I worked on as part of this event. (The rowan berries in the bottom left are a badge I did for myself during VHP but submitted directly.) Continue reading “Armory Submissions from Virtual Heralds Point”
One of the first questions commonly asked by newcomers to the world of armory is “what colors can I use?”
This seemingly-simple question has multiple answers, depending on how deeply you want to dig in, and it does involve learning some basic heraldic jargon, but the it’s worth mastering these foundations. Continue reading “An Introduction to the Tinctures”
Most people who’ve had any contact with the Society’s College of Arms would recognize the badge of the Heralds — “vert, two straight trumpets in saltire Or” — which may generally be displayed by anyone working for or associated with the College.
But there wasn’t a distinctive badge reserved specifically for the artists who assisted the College by illustrating armory, a role that in period was referred to as a “herald painter.” (For more on the history of herald painters, see this essay by Robert Parsons, who held that role for the British College of Arms.) Continue reading “A Badge for Heraldic Artists”
A recurring challenge when illustrating armory that contains complex sable charges is how to handle the internal detailing that is often provided by fine black lines within a charge of any other color, but which disappears when the charge itself is black.
For example, consider the clip art pomegranate shown below. If we color it entirely black, as shown in image 2, the internal detailing disappears and it’s difficult to identify — is this a roundel wearing a crown? One viable approach is to use a dark gray color for the fill, as in image 3, which allows us to still see some details, but sometimes that’s not enough contrast, and there are contexts in which using shades of gray like this isn’t a viable approach. Continue reading “A Technique For Internal Detailing On Sable Clip-Art Charges”
Any set of colors can be used for armory if they can be unambiguously interpreted as heraldic tinctures.
It’s not uncommon to use different palettes in different contexts or for different arms, depending on the project and bearer’s tastes. Continue reading “Hexcodes for Heraldic Tinctures”
