A couple months ago, I was cleaning out my storage shed in the back yard and came across these two wooden shield blanks that my wife bought years ago. I’m not sure what they were ever used for but it occured to me that they might look good painted up and posted next to my front door so I thought I’d try my hand at that. I’ve since cleaned them up, stripped off the old lacquer and sanded them down.
They are about 11"x13" in size and in the shape of a Swiss Escutcheon. I have worked up a design which I have attached to this post. I am generally pleased with the presentation but that white space at the top is not sitting well with me. Does anyone have any suggestions of what I could use to fill that space?
Additionally, I was thinking of painting the motto in gold and the background in a dark gray but I am open to suggestions for those colors as well. Thanks for your time!
I’d just go for some decorative scroll-work on the top part.
I agree with Kevin. Or you could try the word Smith.
This is going to look awfully nice Matthew. Perhaps some diapering in gold to pick up the gold lettering?
I hope we get to see it when finished.
Thank you to everyone for you suggestions. I have also considered crossing a couple broom plants in that space to pick up that design element from my crest. I think I’m going to have to actually get the rest of it painted up before I decide what to place there. I’ll post it up once its done (in who knows how long). Thank you all again for your input.
It’s been something akin to 7 or 8 months since I first mentioned anything about this. In a different thread Guy Power mentioned something about needing inspiration for these projects and he was absolutely correct. I think I must have had them primed and a base color applied days after my first post. That’s where I came to a dead stop for the most part. My wife and I have had many struggles with my eldest son over the past 7-years (he is 20 now) and the latter part of last year / beginning of this year was among the worst. Thus the lack of motivation I suppose.
I think I got around to sketching a properly divided shield on the larger one sometime in January. I may have then colored up that shield sometime in February. At that point I was just stuck again because I couldn’t get the charges the way that I wanted them. That prompted me to create the last digital rendition of my arms and charges that fit the bill.
My next issue was translating those charges from a digital media onto the wood. After a few bad sketches and some repainting, I finally got the charges penciled in the way I wanted them. That probably happened maybe two weeks ago. About a week ago, I got the hawk painted up and I completed the wolf about two days ago.
I was going to wait until I had the motto lettered up before I shared but who knows when I’ll be motivated to do that so here is my work in progress. Please keep in mind that I am not a great painter. I am using acrylics as I feel oils are less forgiving and I haven’t painted anything other than the walls of my home since around 1993. There is still some retouching to be done but with what I have had going on I am just very pleased to be this far along in this process.
As an aside, through all of the struggles my wife and I have faced in the last year, coming to this forum and reading about and learning of heraldry from all of you has been, for me, an immense comfort and way to maintain my peace. I thank you all for that.
I completely redid my kitchen a year and a half ago. And when I say "completely" I mean everything except the last bit of trim on the cabinets ... which I’m sure I’ll get to one day. There will be a time to finish it, but enjoy what you have. What you have there is great.
This looking very nice Matthew… keep on truckin’! :D
WOW you sir are truly gifted that is already looking great!