My wife’s arms

 
Michael F. McCartney
 
Avatar
 
 
Michael F. McCartney
Total Posts:  3535
Joined  24-05-2004
 
 
 
22 August 2006 15:41
 

Just a couple of observations:  The historical reason for having charges face dexter is that, in crafting heraldic flags, the pole (hoist) is also to dexter.  If you were riding (or driving) with your banner on a pole or spear or whatever, you would want the charge facing forward, ergo to dexter.  (Note that the "back side" of the flag would also show the beastie facing the hoist or pole, even though that would make the flag seem "backwards".  I’m not expressing this very well, but think of a US flag—the blue canton is always at the hoist, never the fly, whichever side you’re looking at.  Having the stripes all emanate from the hoist & the blue canton in the fly would seem, for lack of a better word, weird…)

RE: the vertical division line—you are of course free to use any of the varied lines of division, but on the outside chance that your better half might at some point want a banner (flag) of her arms, have mercy on her bleeding fingers.  A straight line uniting two different colors is much easier to sew than one of the fancier ones—& with luck you could find a bicolor flag in the right colors from a commercial flag store, and not have to sew the vertical dividing seam at all—merely paint or applique or embroider the charge(s) on the "stock" commercial background.  A straight seam will also be a lot stronger than any of the varied division lines, if the flag is actually flown outdoors.  (Of course if you just paint the design rather than sew it, this isn’t a problem, but painting half the field will present its own problems of getting a nice even coat, fading or cracking paint, etc.)

 

Similarly, if you might want to have the arms carved or engraved, etc., a straight line will generally be easier than a fancy one.

 

FWIW…

 
Patrick Williams
 
Avatar
 
 
Patrick Williams
Total Posts:  1356
Joined  29-07-2006
 
 
 
22 August 2006 18:17
 

This week I apparently have too much time on my hands: here’s the best rendition I could do of the arms Joseph was talking about-

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g29/PaddyW_photos/linus3.jpg

 

When I turned the Falcon around, I also had to make the wand thingies bend sinister for the bird to be able to grasp the upper one. And I had to change the bird from Or to Argent, so I beaked and armed and orbed it Gules.

 

N.B.-Joseph’s original idea, as I read it, was basically to flip Linus’ first try around, so the bird faced dexter and have it reach across the center line to grasp the upper wand thingie. I tried that, but it left a huge blank space in the dexter chief, so I made the charges bigger, counterchanging the wand thingies and, well…you can see the results.

 
Linusboarder
 
Avatar
 
 
Linusboarder
Total Posts:  732
Joined  20-08-2006
 
 
 
23 August 2006 19:26
 

I like that idea Patrick. I will have to work on that. I might just use the falcon and put it in the middle and use the hearts with the ermines in it (on your other one) and put that on the shield somehow.

 
Patrick Williams
 
Avatar
 
 
Patrick Williams
Total Posts:  1356
Joined  29-07-2006
 
 
 
23 August 2006 19:44
 

If it would be of help, I could probably email you the jpegs. But once you get your ideas solid, I’d really suggest contacting a heladic artist to draw it up for you. There are several here, I believe. Donnchadh is one, and as he’s just starting out his work is good and his prices are even better. Using clipart, you’ll just wind up with a ‘cookie-cutter’ look; everyone will have the same falcon! An artist will give you a well-drawn and individual piece of art.

 
Michael F. McCartney
 
Avatar
 
 
Michael F. McCartney
Total Posts:  3535
Joined  24-05-2004
 
 
 
23 August 2006 21:47
 

There are at least two advantages to using clip-art, or rather ordinary hand-drawings, during the design phase—

First, its cheaper/faster/easier to emblazon (depict) any number of variations for your "refrigerator test"—save the big bucks and/or high-class talent for the final-final design.

 

Second, the standardized artwork will "level the field" between various designs so you won’t be seduced by one particularly nice emblazonment, b ut rather focus on the design itself.  Remember that heraldically, any rendition, however ordinary, is "correct" so long as it is true to the written blazon.  Therefore (IMO anyway) the selection of a design should focus more on the "blueprint" behind the drawing, and less on the excellence of any one rendition.  Ideally your chosen design will "work" as well with mundane aretwork as with a masterpiece—because there is no guarantee that future artists will all be masters.  Of course, once you have a sound design that resonates with you & yours on a design level, you can have it emblazoned as often, and by as fine a series of artists, as your purse will allow.

 

My thoughts of course, others may differ.

 
Donnchadh
 
Avatar
 
 
Donnchadh
Total Posts:  4101
Joined  13-07-2005
 
 
 
23 August 2006 22:19
 

Thank you for the compliments Patrick and I agree that in this case an artist might be able to help Linus render the "unique" charges better than clipart can so as to make a more informed decision.

Good points Mike and in general I agree with you on this. For example, Patrick had a basic clipart design from which I could begin. However, as Patrick will tell you, not all clipart will appear "right" for the charge and may inadvertently change the appearance of the design. In truth it can be, though not usually, a hindrance. I personally feel that the more "unique" the charge the more you may want to have someone render it so it appears OK and you can look at several options.

 

Again with Patrick’s arms - Patrick I hope this is OK to talk about - I had a couple of variations of the Japanese Fire Dragon from which Patrick could decide if he wanted the bipedal version or the quad. Etc.

 

I don’t know about other artists, so I can’t speak for them at all, however I always draw pencil and ink sketches of not only the arms in mass, but also separately and even the charges as well if there is a question about what form these charges should take. In Patrick’s case my first rendition of the hand was more cartoonish ("squared comic book style") and Patrick asked for it to look a little more realistic and so I did and it worked out.

 

I’m not sure what other artists do - especially the masters - but I personally think that any artist who is commissioned to render something unique (as arms are) as opposed to designs that are drawn up and a customer could look through to find the one they like should in fact try to make the piece come together - as much as is humanly possible - in the vision of the client. Hence why I personally offer the different design styles for charges, shields, helmets, etc.

 

In this case it might be useful for Linus to stick with the clipart until he is certain of what his design should be and then employ an artist professional like myself or otherwise, as you mentioned. However, if he has trouble making these batons come out the way his mind’s eye sees them then he may want to contact an artist for help.

 

One other thing you can always contact your local college’s art dept. and see if there are some starving art students who are willing to render just the charges so you can upload them into your clipart and then use the clipart that was made for you to aid in the clipart renditions until a design is chosen. Just a thought…

 
Patrick Williams
 
Avatar
 
 
Patrick Williams
Total Posts:  1356
Joined  29-07-2006
 
 
 
23 August 2006 22:52
 

Yep, like I said: once you have the design settled…

Clip art’s great for that, but I don’t think you’ll know the total impact of your achievement until it’s done by an artist.

 
Linusboarder
 
Avatar
 
 
Linusboarder
Total Posts:  732
Joined  20-08-2006
 
 
 
24 August 2006 00:53
 

Yeah that’s definantly the idea, to have someone draw it for me. I was probably going to ask someone here (after i pay member fees smile ) or I have a friend whio is an excellent artist who could possibly do it.

I also have a very rough draft for my own but i am away from home and it’s on my computer, and i would feel guilty getting to much advice and being a non-member.

 

I found that clip art site, and I really really like It. It’s got a lot of stuff on it and it’s a great place to start for prototypes.

 
Linusboarder
 
Avatar
 
 
Linusboarder
Total Posts:  732
Joined  20-08-2006
 
 
 
28 August 2006 01:03
 

I found that heraldry clip art site.. it is pretty helpdful, even though sometimes the images are a little shaded to properly blow up and shrink down without some problems.

I have a couple I have worked on and i like the results. I want to make 2 more and see which you guys think is best.

 

Also i will probably be joining as an official member this week.

 

Cheers

 
Patrick Williams
 
Avatar
 
 
Patrick Williams
Total Posts:  1356
Joined  29-07-2006
 
 
 
28 August 2006 08:30
 

Great! We’ll be glad to have you and I can’t wait to see the work you’ve done!

 
Linusboarder
 
Avatar
 
 
Linusboarder
Total Posts:  732
Joined  20-08-2006
 
 
 
28 August 2006 23:40
 

Ok I was going to post 5 different ones, but my wife, and I, liked this version the best so for now we are going to submit it to you guys and see what you think.

http://www.uploadfile.info/uploads/9f81dbd6d6.png

 
Donnchadh
 
Avatar
 
 
Donnchadh
Total Posts:  4101
Joined  13-07-2005
 
 
 
28 August 2006 23:56
 

I like it Linus, but I’d make the falcon counterchanged as well only because the gold of the falcon will become difficult to distinguish between the gold of the field and I’m not sure how one would blazon the Vert heart with ermine spots. That being said I know of an Irish grant of arms that has used different colors than what is traditional for arms, so I guess it could work…

Otherwise I like this a lot.

 
Linusboarder
 
Avatar
 
 
Linusboarder
Total Posts:  732
Joined  20-08-2006
 
 
 
29 August 2006 00:31
 

Well i tried making the falcon all different colors (i think that’s what you mean by counterchange) and none of them worked with the gold. That’s kind of the reason i added in a shadow, maybe a slightly thicker black border would help as well.

Also each heart represents each of the twin sisters, and the ermines inside represent the twin connection

 
Linusboarder
 
Avatar
 
 
Linusboarder
Total Posts:  732
Joined  20-08-2006
 
 
 
29 August 2006 01:01
 

Reposted with some minor touchups… Brought the leg down, outlined the hearts and the falcon for better contrast etc.

(still need to go back and touch up the missing pixels)

 

Oh and i officially paid the $20 and joined as well

 
Patrick Williams
 
Avatar
 
 
Patrick Williams
Total Posts:  1356
Joined  29-07-2006
 
 
 
29 August 2006 08:51
 

Linus, counterchanging means that you make the half of the bird that’s on the Gold background Green and the half that’s on the Green background Gold. One of the basic rules of heraldry is that color does not rest on color or metal on metal.

Remember the version I did with the wand thingies behind the falcon? They were counterchanged: they were Green on the Gold background and Gold on the Green background. One big problem with that design was that the falcon was Argent (Silver metal) and half of him was on a Gold background.

 

There’s the same problem on the Green heart in your new design: the Ermine spots are Black. Color on color. As for the blazon of the hearts, that’s easy. The Green one is "on a Human Heart Vert two Ermine Spots in bend sinister Sable". For the gold one substitute ‘Or’ for ‘Vert’.

 

Here’s a couple of possible solutions for the color on color problem: either change the color of the ermine spots on the Green heart to Gold or consider changing the hearts to Erminois (Black spots on a Gold field) and Pean (Gold spots on a Black field). The hearts themselves speak well enough to the twin commection so you don’t really have to repeat it by placing only 2 ermine spots in each heart. Then we wouldn’t have to carp about color on color as Erminois and Pean are furs, not colors or metals.