Category: Traceable Art

Autumn Art Updates

Over the last two months, more than a hundred new entries have been added to the Book of Traceable Heraldic Art, putting it on track to pass five thousand charges and fields some time around the end of the calendar year.

I’m pleased to welcome first-time contributors Di Amador and Sneferu ex Artemisias, and extend my thanks to returning artists Saewynn aet Cnolle, Vémundr Syvursson, Iago ab Adam, Jessimond of Emerickeskepe, and Maryan Hoskyns.

If you’ve drawn heraldic line art that you’re willing to share with the community, or would like to find another way of getting involved, please drop me a line! Continue reading “Autumn Art Updates”

JSON Data for the Traceable Art

As part of my effort to facilitate the development of a successor to the current, somewhat jury-rigged system used to publish the Traceable Heraldic Art collection, I’ve been working on exporting the current data in a format that could be imported by someone developing a successor system.

You can now retrieve nearly all of the textual content of the collection via a series of JSON data files which are automatically rebuilt each time the site is updated. Continue reading “JSON Data for the Traceable Art”

Traceable Art at Summer’s End

During the last three months, over 225 new entries have been added to the Book of Traceable Heraldic Art, bringing the total to 4,800 images plus appendices.

Some of these illustrations were provided by first-time contributors Drystan ap Ercwlff, Elizabeth Riverwood, Groza Novgorodskaia, Kolosvari Arpadne Julia, Ragna stórráða Úlfsdóttir, and Sadhbh Bheag — thank you all, and welcome to the team.

Likewise, my continuing appreciation goes out to returning artists Saewynn aet Cnolle, Jessimond of Emerickeskepe, Iago ab Adam, Vémundr Syvursson, Forveleth Dunde, Owen Tegg, Thora Brandsdottir, Aine ingen Gilla Crist, and Estelle de la Mer. Continue reading “Traceable Art at Summer’s End”

A Database Schema for the Traceable Art

Following the writeup of An Idiosyncratic System for Publishing the Traceable Heraldic Art, I put together a few notes laying out some of the kinds of data managed by the current system with an eye towards a possible design for the schema of a future database implementation: Continue reading “A Database Schema for the Traceable Art”

Seeking A Technical Collaborator or Successor for the Traceable Heraldic Art

As we approach the fifth anniversary of my Traceable Heraldic Art project, and given how terribly overcommitted I am with numerous projects underway, I wanted to let folks know that if someone with a strong software-development background was interested in developing the next generation of the system that hosts that collection, I’d be open to collaboration and eventually turning it over to someone else to run.

This recent blog post lays out some of the background on how the current system works and what I hope might some day replace it, and links to the source code and data files I use to build and update the site. A successor system might be coded very differently, but I would hope that it would still support the current functionality and enable the development of new capabilities, so it seems likely to be of similar complexity.

This doesn’t mean I am about to abandon the project, but I have spent somewhere about four thousand hours on it already, and would like to free up some time to work on other things. If you’re a combination web-development nerd and armorial-art nerd, and you’re interested in spending years of your life improving and maintaining a much-valued community resource, drop me a line!

An Idiosyncratic System for Publishing the Traceable Heraldic Art

[Note: The below is a lightly-edited revision of an email message I sent to a contributor to the Traceable Heraldic Art collection who asked about the technology used to update the web site. It’s somewhat rambling and may not be of interest to most, but I figured it was worth putting it in the public record. — Mathghamhain]

In hindsight it would have been sensible to tackle the creation of the online Traceable Heraldic Art collection as a web database project, but for historical reasons that’s not at all how it’s architected. Continue reading “An Idiosyncratic System for Publishing the Traceable Heraldic Art”

Traceable Additions for May

Another two hundred and forty illustrations have been added to the Book of Traceable Heraldic Art during the last six weeks.

I’m not much of artist, relying on others to share their illustrations, so I’m very pleased to welcome Alessandra Sartor as a new contributor, and give thanks to the continuing efforts of Iago ab Adam, Jessimond of Emerickeskepe, Saewynn aet Cnolle, Forveleth Dunde, Elionora inghean Ui Cheallaigh, Malys mac Néill, Zubeydah al-Badawiyyah, and Estelle de la Mer.

Continue reading “Traceable Additions for May”

April Additions to the Traceable Art

Over the last six weeks, another 230 new illustrations have been added to the Traceable Heraldic Art collection.

This steady pace is made possible by the contributors who send in art to share with the community, and so I would like to welcome the newest illustrators to join the project, Forveleth Dunde and Séamus Uí Chonchobhair.

For their ongoing efforts, my thanks also go to returning artists Saewynn aet Cnolle, Owen Tegg, Jessimond of Emerickeskepe, Iago ab Adam, Gunnvôr silfrahárr, Elionora inghean Ui Cheallaigh, and Vémundr Syvursson. Continue reading “April Additions to the Traceable Art”

New Clip Art Files Posted Without Gray Fills

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback in response to my questions about black-and-white and transparent images for the Traceable clip art library.

I’ve kept the original grayscale files, as some people find them useful, but I’ve now also added a bunch of new file formats, including “outline” files which have only black and transparent pixels, and “B&W” files which have only black, white, and transparent pixels. I hope that these help with the “light gray fill” issue as well as the jagged edges I’ve noticed showing up in raster art due to anti-aliasing and flood fill tolerance settings. Continue reading “New Clip Art Files Posted Without Gray Fills”