Video – Techniques of Digital Heraldry

Tracing Heraldic Art in Clip Studio

In this video class for Ansteorra King’s College, Lady Elionora inghen Ui Cheallaigh provides an in-depth tutorial on tracing examples of armory from scans or photographs to produce digital images which can be used by the reenactment community.

The primary application used here is Clip Studio (Windows/Mac, $50) but the techniques are generally applicable to most other modern digital illustration software. There’s also some brief discussion of related tools, including how to convert images to vector art and assemble complete devices in Inkscape.

Examples of some of the other art that Lady Elionora has traced can be found on her artist’s page at the Traceable Art site.

An Introduction to the Pictorial Dictionary & the SCA Heraldry Wiki

Mistress Sofya La Rus recently filmed this video, edited and produced by Lord Ivo Blackhawk, which provides a brief introduction to two useful online resources: the Pictorial Dictionary of Heraldry at mistholme.com, and the SCA Heraldry Wiki at scaheraldry.info.

Using GIMP for Emblazons

Jehanette de Provins, Her Majesty the Queen of Northshield, teaches classes on how to create armorial images using GIMP and images from the Book of Traceable Heraldic Art, and recently recorded a session for viewers at home.

GIMP is an open-source software package for pixel-based illustration, in the same vein as Paint and Photoshop. As a Mac user, I find the interface to be a bit clunky, but it’s free, it includes a lot of features, and it runs on a wide variety of operating systems, which makes it a useful tool.

Make sure to turn your volume up to follow the presentation!

“What Is a Coat of Arms and What Was It For?”

This video provides a decent introduction to the medieval use of armory for a non-specialist audience.

“How Do I Get a Coat of Arms?”

This friendly video by Mistress Morgan Donner of An Tir with Baroness Alianora Greymoor provides a useful introduction to folks in the SCA who’re interested in registering some armory but don’t know were to start.