I would like your collective input on the mantling for my full achievement. I’ve been playing with a few ideas and wanted to see what you thought. I do believe, though, that I have reversed the "front" and "back" in the clip art I have used, so keep that in mind.

http://www.hectorcito.com/heraldry/AchievementSampler.gif

a. Vert doubled Argent

b. Vert and Gules doubled Argent

c. Vert double Argent semy of pine cones Gules

d. Vert semy of pine cones Or doubled Argent

e. Vert and Gules semy of pine cones Or doubled Argent

d. Vert doubled Or

I’ll place my vote for the first one.

Sandy Turnbull;53424 wrote:

I’ll place my vote for the first one.

Ditto….....

One, definitely

I vote for A. but if it wasn’t for the red on the torse in B., I would’ve voted for that one instead.

I would have to vote for 1 (a) also.

One all the way.

Yes, definitely A, although D isn’t too bad.

The final decision, of course, is yours alone, Kenneth.  However, "a." seems to be the most aesthetically pleasing in relation to your shield.

Boring it may be to have another, but I join my voice to the chorus—the first.

You seem to want something "different" though—in which case I would agree with the previous comment that two, without the red in the wreath, would look good too.

K=

Drawn more accurately, does everyone still prefer the Vert and Argent? Or is it the actually Argent and Vert that everyone prefers? (If the distinction is clear.)

I assume, if the blazon of the mantle were undefined, the artist would use the colors of the wreath. Is that correct?

http://www.hectorcito.com/heraldry/AchievementSampler2.gif

g. Vert doubled Argent (more accurately drawn)

h. Argent doubled Vert and Gules (more accurately blazoned and the wreath is now Argent and Vert)

i. Vert doubled Argent semy of pine cones Gules (more accurately drawn)

No takers on the pine cones, huh? I thought it was a nice carryover from the sprig of pine in the groundhog’s paw.

My votes is for A., D., and F. in that order. The first one is the normal one, besides the colors are very calm, (though I hold vert and argent in high regard as they happen to be my tinctures too )

F would be my final choice, but it seems more ‘closed’.

Whatever you prefer is the final choice, though.

Cheers,

Figure ‘a’ is of course the traditional arrangement of mantling and torse in heraldry. I do rather like the semey of pine cones in theory, though because two metals and two tinctures are already in use on the field, the pine cones charged on the mantling would make the overall achievement rather busy (thus distracting from the field rather than complimenting it).

h is pretty nice too, i’m changing my vote to h

The norm in most heraldic traditions is for the mantling to be of the principal color in the arms lined with the principal metal. One can achieve contrast in the achievement through the arrangement of the mantling; no two emblazonments will be exactly the same.

You can see what I’m talking about with two Marie Lynskey emblazonments. The first is of my arms, which have a metal background. She has draped the mantling so that the black surrounds the upper area of the shield, giving a good contrast.

http://americanheraldry.org/pages/uploads/Armorial/McMillan_ahs_l4.jpg

The other is Hassan Kamel’s. Hassan’s shield is mainly green, so Miss Lynskey has surrounded it with mostly white.

http://americanheraldry.org/pages/uploads/Armorial/kamel_ahs_l2.jpg

Yet in both cases, the mantling is of a color lined with a metal—it’s just the artistic treatment that makes it look more color than metal or vice versa.

David Pritchard;53461 wrote:

I do rather like the semey of pine cones in theory, though because two metals and two tinctures are already in use on the field, the pine cones charged on the mantling would make the overall achievement rather busy (thus distracting from the field rather than complimenting it).

Ditto.  Semey mantling sounds good in theory, but it usually just detracts from the arms themselves in practice (IMHO).  However a good artist might pull it off, so I’d still say D if you want them.

B/H are pretty nice, but a bit too "Christmas-y" for me.