OK, so these arms are designed for a Mr. Kersnick and his kids. His ancestry is half Volga German and half Polish (and also some French… this is how he told me… so…). He is an avid fisherman and outdoorsman. Both sides of his family came to the States and became prosperous farmers.

I chose an eagle and decided to part it as per a German and Polish fashion – he originally wanted the American Bald Eagle. Now I personally prefer the noble nature of the Polish eagle, so I modeled this one on that – I am thinking about making the German half more like the German eagle… we’ll see. Now the Volga region of Russia has a blue shield with three fish and so I chose a trout (his fish of choice) in a blue base. As for the crest, I chose stag’s antlers as a nod to his outdoorsman heritage and placed between them a shaft of wheat for his family’s farming heritage - I think this is in line with German heraldry. The fleur-de-lis is for the French heritage.

I ran these by a couple of other people already including an artist I respect and he informed me that the Germans always use a helmet. Now I am trying to convince Mr. Kersnick to use one (he originally chose not to) – we’ll see what he says.

Here’s the image:

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/3720/kersnickarmscolorsketchqo7.jpg

Donnchadh wrote:

OK, so these arms are designed for a Mr. Kersnick and his kids. His ancestry is half Volga German and half Polish (and also some French… this is how he told me… so…).

(I know this could be considered tasteless, but I don’t care. this is a fastball down the middle, and I gotta swing)

Must be the Polish doing the math in this one…(ba dum da)

Ok Ok so that was bad, sorry. I just couldn’t resist an Easy Polish joke

hahahahaha!  Good one!

Denny - I agree, try and convince him to use a helmet. Without it, it looks like things start to run together.

I like the counter changed fleur dis lis, very nicely done.  Overall I think it’s a good design, you’ve captured everything he’s asked for.  I like it!

Denny,

I’m really impressed with the design and execution of this particular shield.  After looking at it for a while, I think the crest without the wheat would look (to me) very powerful.  Don’t know why, but the wheat stalk just looks out of place to me.

Cover up the wheat and let me know what you think.

I also agree that a helm would properly dress up the Acheivements.

—Guy

Thanks fellas. Colin that’s a good one. Seriously though I think he just thinks of himself as half German and half Polish and then remembers that he is also part French, but that doesn’t matter as much to him as the German and Polish ancestry…I don’t know. I was caught off guard when he told me though.

Andrew I like the fleur-de-lis as well.

OK Guy I’ll remove the shaft of wheat and see what that looks like. Mostly I was just trying to get the farming bit in there (his maternal granddad still owns and operates a farm in Kansas and he was proud of that).

What do you fellas think of making the German half of the eagle look more like the German eagle as well? I mean if I am going to go with the idea of having an eagle split down the middle showing a half-half ancestry sort of thing why not go all the way? This would for example change the position of the wing. I’m not sure…

Also I was trying to keep these more German in feel, but I really, really want to put the trout’s spots on him. However, I don’t want to ruin the simplicity of the arms by making them more complex. What do you fellas think? Trout freckles (sorry as a kid growing up fishing that’s what I always called them… lol) or no?

I think I will do that and present him with both of these and then with both with a helmet. I personally prefer helmets, but when designing an achievement for a client I always let them decide on that. He also did not want a motto and I think that is the first person I’ve done this for who has decided not to have a motto other than the good Fr. Archer and on his I was simply rendering my version of his lovely arms and not creating them from scratch.

Great design Denny, I am usually not a fan of too many colors, but this one looks really good.

Denny If you wanted to keep the farming in there, but remove the wheat stalk from the crest there’s a couple things you could do. You could change the fleur-de-lis to a wheat stalk instead (That fleur-de-lis you have could be easily altered to look like one). I don’t really like the leaves (or whatever they are) around the stalk could you just remove them and make the wheat stalk smaller? You could also replace the stag’s horns with farming tools in saltire.

Just some suggestions, they look great

Guy Power wrote:

I’m really impressed with the design and execution of this particular shield.

and
Linusboarder wrote:

Great design Denny, I am usually not a fan of too many colors, but this one looks really good.

Agreed! Excellent design! :D

Take care,

Nice job, Denny! I don’t think you should change the eagle one little bit. Black eagle, gold field…says German all over it to me. The stag’s attire alone as a crest would certainly have a more Germanic look to it, but there’s nothing wrong with the look of what you’ve already put there.

Donnchadh wrote:

What do you fellas think of making the German half of the eagle look more like the German eagle as well? I mean if I am going to go with the idea of having an eagle split down the middle showing a half-half ancestry sort of thing why not go all the way? This would for example change the position of the wing. I’m not sure…

Also I was trying to keep these more German in feel, but I really, really want to put the trout’s spots on him. However, I don’t want to ruin the simplicity of the arms by making them more complex. What do you fellas think? Trout freckles (sorry as a kid growing up fishing that’s what I always called them… lol) or no?

Excellent design.

Let the eagle as it is the balance of the design will be gone with two different halves.

a few spots wouldn’t hurt but do not make it to realistic.

I agree with those who say let the eagle be.  If the two halves are dissimilar the design will lose visual balance.

For the farming part—in the crest, how about the wheat stalk between two hand sickles?  I think you can find examples of sickles as crest devices in Germanic heraldry, & even in England e.g. Hungerford.  The wheatstalk between differences the design & IMO adds to the appeal.

(I’m a bit uncomfortable with the antlers anyway—they certainly look nice, but some may see it as the cuckold’s horns, which would be most unfortunate.  At lunch today—our local monthly get-together—one of the group had the arms of a lineage society based on illigitimate descent from British kings, nicknamed the "Royal B
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ds" with as many indicators of illigitimacy as they could think of.  The crest was a cookoo between two antlers..funny in that context, but not something I’d want to pass on to my kids!)

The suggestion of the ear of wheat replacing the fleur de lys sounds intriguing but I’m not sure how well it would work visually without actually seeing it.

Nice work!

thanks for the ideas everyone. i have some ideas i’ll put down on paper now and i’ll give the client several options to choose from. thanks again everyone.

This is a very great-looking design. Combines all those things in a simple, balanced arms. Unlike dozens of charges in per pales within per fesses within per sinisters to include the entire person’s desired symbolism on his/her life.

As for the eagle, I agree with most people, leave as is….makes it balanced.

Well done, Dennis