New Member to Begin Designing

 
werewolves
 
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werewolves
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29 April 2011 23:03
 

The blazon might be something like…

Per chevron ermine and sable a chevron Or, in dexter base a mullet Argent and in sinister base a mullet Or

 
kkb-ia
 
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kkb-ia
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29 April 2011 23:34
 

You could have the per chevron and the chevron counterchanged in colors… and move the stars into the chevron. Yet this would be 4 tinctures (fur, gules - red, sable - black, and argent - white)

http://www.customgiftsandarts.com/other/jcar_coa2.jpg

 
kkb-ia
 
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kkb-ia
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29 April 2011 23:42
 

Like Mike’s concept of thinking of designing your arms around doing this for your gr grandfather or even further back.  Go take a look at the BADGEROW arm design post.  It started our to be my husband’s arms then thought maybe I should design one for his EKA (5th grandfather back).  Then these arms could be indifferenced in some manner for his male decendents…. like adding the embattled annulet charge to the base for my husband.

 
J. Stolarz
 
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J. Stolarz
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30 April 2011 00:27
 

I’ll just throw my two cents in on this.  I don’t really think it’s right for a person to design a coat of arms, for a paternal ancestor that has been gone for hundreds of years…or gone at all for that matter.  It was their own life, they didn’t ask you to make an arms for them, and how do you know if they’d agree with your design.  It would be like coming up with a design for my grandfather, slapping it down in front of him and saying "This is your coat of arms, and I don’t really care if you like it or not.  It’s your arms, because I say it is".  Creating a coat of arms for a long dead ancestor is like trying to create a generational coat of arms, and an old legacy…that never actually existed.

*Dismounts soap box*

 

On the positive side, one of the interesting things you may consider doing is designing a coat of arms with your father, and see what the two of you can come up with that you may both be happy with.  Then you can either adopt his arms fully as your own as well, or adopt the main element of it and change it to you personally.

 
j.carrasco
 
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j.carrasco
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30 April 2011 00:32
 

kkb-ia;82286 wrote:

You could have the per chevron and the chevron counterchanged in colors… and move the stars into the chevron. Yet this would be 4 tinctures (fur, gules - red, sable - black, and argent - white)

http://www.customgiftsandarts.com/other/jcar_coa2.jpg


Kelly this is actually very interesting.  I have been thinking a lot about what everyone has been saying and I think something like you’ve designed could work.  I would change the gules to vert and add a 3rd star in the chevron.  My entire family (mom, dad, my sibs and I) all graduated high school with the colors of green, black and white (we went to 3 different high schools) so this could tie all of us together.  Also, by adding the 3rd star it would be an allusion to the 3 children (myself and my sibs), but also my mom was the oldest of three and my dad was the oldest of 4.  So there was at least 3 kids in all 3 sets of families.

 
Kathy McClurg
 
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Kathy McClurg
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30 April 2011 20:35
 

Quote:

I’ll just throw my two cents in on this. I don’t really think it’s right for a person to design a coat of arms, for a paternal ancestor that has been gone for hundreds of years…or gone at all for that matter. It was their own life, they didn’t ask you to make an arms for them, and how do you know if they’d agree with your design. It would be like coming up with a design for my grandfather, slapping it down in front of him and saying "This is your coat of arms, and I don’t really care if you like it or not. It’s your arms, because I say it is". Creating a coat of arms for a long dead ancestor is like trying to create a generational coat of arms, and an old legacy…that never actually existed.

*Dismounts soap box*


*Stepping up on soap box*

 

I disagree.  But not entirely.  Designing arms in honor or in memorium of a member of the family is just that, an honor.  I would advocate doing the honor for someone you know or knew vice someone way far in the past.  If you know them, you can decide if you think they’d be flattered.  It would be like designing arms for my father, giftwrapping them with much care and presenting it to him at an appropriate time.  In my case, with the note, "I miss you daily."

 

*Stepping over to new Soap Box"

 

Everyone has their reasons for designing arms, whether to memorialize a family member or to design something recognizeable of themselves to pass to their family.  Why I did it or why anyone else does it is definitely their own.

 

*Stepping down from soap box*

 

About the shield Kelly has put forth, I’m not particularly fond of it, it looks "bottom heavy" to my eye.  I like the shield by Joshua better and would like to see them with Azure and Vert vice all Azure.  Another option might be to put all three mullets in base conjoined.

 

Of course, I am also not fond of the CA bear, I think he looks like a "dancing" bear… as do many animals in heraldry with that pose… Hence I do use "demi" alot.  Sorry for all those in CA and such, it’s merely my very silly opinion.

 

<I’m the splashy color type myself - just last week we were putting together a 4 page paper, a systems engineer had 5 pages of notes on things affecting it and assumption and such - I told him, "Let’s just write the bloody thing."  I figured all that other stuff would come out during the process of answering the issue.>

 

That’s what refridgerator testing is for.  wink

 
j.carrasco
 
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j.carrasco
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01 May 2011 02:18
 

Kathy McClurg;82306 wrote:

*Stepping up on soap box*

I disagree.  But not entirely.  Designing arms in honor or in memorium of a member of the family is just that, an honor.  I would advocate doing the honor for someone you know or knew vice someone way far in the past.  If you know them, you can decide if you think they’d be flattered.  It would be like designing arms for my father, giftwrapping them with much care and presenting it to him at an appropriate time.  In my case, with the note, "I miss you daily."

 

*Stepping over to new Soap Box"

 

Everyone has their reasons for designing arms, whether to memorialize a family member or to design something recognizeable of themselves to pass to their family.  Why I did it or why anyone else does it is definitely their own.

 

*Stepping down from soap box*

 


Thanks for the discussions on here!  I can see, and appreciate, both sides of this argument and that’s where I’m having some problems.  Originally, the ideas I can up with was to create a set of arms for myself to show who I am and what I’ve accomplished.  I never really thought about it as being a familial thing.  But, that could be considered the entire point of heraldry.  Something is designed for a family and then passed down for generations so I can see how trying to think back a few generations and designing from that point forward would be beneficial.  My problem is that my dad and I have virtually no relationship whatsoever, so the idea of trying to design something with him (or for him) in mind just doesn’t work for me.  So I can appreciate J. Stolarz’s comments about not designing for the dead.

 

On the other hand, I can appreciate Kathy’s comments about designing something to honor the dead.  It’s important to recognize where you’ve come from but I think that if you focus solely on looking back and designing from that standpoint than all you’re doing is creating an "honor" for them, not necessarily something that you can you now and future generations.  I guess there is no real answer to this.  As Kathy stated, designing is different for everyone and what you choose to do with it is up to you, just as long as it has meaning and you feel comfortable with it.

 

My struggle (as I’m sure is everyone’s when they’re designing the first time) is to come up with something that is still me without getting completely lost trying to honor the past.  The good thing is that I’m thinking about the design in a completely different way now.  All of my original ideas have been scrapped (well, not scrapped but moved to the crest) and I have several different ideas floating around in my head that I think could be nice and accomplish everything I’m looking for.  I just want to let them roll around in my head a little more before showing them on here.

 
j.carrasco
 
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j.carrasco
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01 May 2011 02:19
 

Does anyone know of any good programs to use to try and create mockups?  I have illustrator but I’m not that great on it and don’t really know how to create a shield on it.  I’ve tried finding clip art online but that’s not really helping.  Is there anything else out there that I might be able to use?

 
J. Stolarz
 
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J. Stolarz
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01 May 2011 02:33
 

I like inkscape, because vector graphics are superior :p.  It’s also free so it’s hard to beat.  If you want to learn how to use it, go to learndigitaldesign.com and watch the tutorials to get a feel for the program.

 
Kenneth Mansfield
 
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Kenneth Mansfield
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01 May 2011 14:51
 

jcar;82313 wrote:

Does anyone know of any good programs to use to try and create mockups?  I have illustrator but I’m not that great on it and don’t really know how to create a shield on it.  I’ve tried finding clip art online but that’s not really helping.  Is there anything else out there that I might be able to use?

If you already have Illustrator, there’s no need to go to a different program. If you’re looking for clip-art that can be used to create mock-ups, just visit Wikimedia Commons. Type in, for instance, "bears in heraldry" and you’ll get a number of examples. Any of the SVG files can be opened and manipulated in Illustrator. You could purchase Armorial Gold, which is a vast clip-art archive, but unless you have a need to create a large number of heraldic achievements using only historic examples, you’re better off learning to draw.

 
 
Kenneth Mansfield
 
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Kenneth Mansfield
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01 May 2011 15:24
 

J. Stolarz;82279 wrote:

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p122/BrokenChainsX/Shield-3.png

Trying to combine some of the things you’ve mentioned before.

As has been noted, this probably is not original. Oh, wait. All it takes is a cursory check of good old Google!

Azure a Chevron Or between three Mullets Argent belongs in England to Ceelye of St. Ives (dating back to the visitations of 1620) and in Scotland to Mvrray of yt Ilk (Foreman’s Armorial) and to both Murray of gaske and Neisbet of that Ilk (Sir David Lindsay’s Armorial ca 1599).


kkb-ia;82283 wrote:

What you think.

Not keen on blazoning but something like

Ermine per chevron sable two stars of different metals a chevron Or

http://www.customgiftsandarts.com/other/jcar_coa1.jpg

My thought on Ermine is its a fur which would bring something of the bear in the sheild and it would open up the color and metal tincture rules just a tad.

kkb-ia;82286 wrote:

You could have the per chevron and the chevron counterchanged in colors… and move the stars into the chevron. Yet this would be 4 tinctures (fur, gules - red, sable - black, and argent - white)

http://www.customgiftsandarts.com/other/jcar_coa2.jpg

It is my personal opinion that using the fur Ermine to allude to a bear is as ridiculous as using the animal Ermine to allude to a bear. Aside from that, the composition of these examples doesn’t look very good to me. Other opinions may differ.

 
 
Kenneth Mansfield
 
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Kenneth Mansfield
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01 May 2011 16:09
 

Something like this would tie in your Spanish roots and still clearly represent your nuclear family (the three siblings), wouldn’t it?


<div class=“bbcode_center” >
http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/7748/carrasco001.png
</div>

 
 
j.carrasco
 
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j.carrasco
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01 May 2011 18:11
 

Kenneth Mansfield;82322 wrote:

Something like this would tie in your Spanish roots and still clearly represent your nuclear family (the three siblings), wouldn’t it?


<div class=“bbcode_center” >
http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/7748/carrasco001.png

</div>


Kenneth you read my mind with this one.  After moving all of my original ideas up to the crest I having been seriously considering using an oak tree on the shield.  I knew that would tie in to the more spanish roots but it also ties in to my home town as we had tons of oak trees all around us.  One of the new designs I’m working on uses the oak tree as the main focus.  I just think my idea might have too much color in it for it to work.  I do really like this one as another option though as it seems to have the big pieces I was thinking about.

 
j.carrasco
 
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j.carrasco
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01 May 2011 18:45
 

So here are some of the new ideas I have.  I’m hoping that I can write these out correctly so if these are wrong please let me know the correct way to blazon them.

1)  Per bend Vert and Sable, bend wavy of four Sable and Vert, and over all three mullets bend sinister palewise Argent.

 

2)  Per quarter Argent and Vert ermined Argent, over all on a pale Sable a bear rampant Argent (or 3 white stars in the vertical instead of the bear)

 

3)  This is one that is totally different, and I think might have too much going on.  Per pale bleu celeste and Azure, in chief dexter a sun with human face in full splendor Or, in chief sinister a crescent moon with human face Argent, over all a mound Vert with oak tree proper  I am also considering putting a white border around this one but, again, it all might be too much.

 

I am also thinking about something with three stripes (Tri-Fess?) of green, black and white but can’t really think about what to do with it so not sure that will work.

 

Thoughts on these?

 
Kenneth Mansfield
 
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Kenneth Mansfield
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01 May 2011 19:40
 

jcar;82326 wrote:

1)  Per bend Vert and Sable, bend wavy of four Sable and Vert, and over all three mullets bend sinister palewise Argent.

Your bend is going to violate the tincture rule it sounds like.


jcar;82326 wrote:

2)  Per quarter Argent and Vert ermined Argent, over all on a pale Sable a bear rampant Argent (or 3 white stars in the vertical instead of the bear)

Maybe.


jcar;82326 wrote:

3)  This is one that is totally different, and I think might have too much going on.  Per pale bleu celeste and Azure, in chief dexter a sun with human face in full splendor Or, in chief sinister a crescent moon with human face Argent, over all a mound Vert with oak tree proper  I am also considering putting a white border around this one but, again, it all might be too much.

I think you’d do better to have the field per pale Azure and Sable and then instead of your oak tree being proper, make it either per pale Argent and Or or per pale Or and Argent. If you want the border, you could divide it between the two metals, too.


jcar;82326 wrote:

I am also thinking about something with three stripes (Tri-Fess?) of green, black and white but can’t really think about what to do with it so not sure that will work.

It would be tierced in Fess Vert, Sable, and Argent.