Artistic technique in Heraldry

My heraldic art is a mixed of techniques that combine the manual realization with the digital process. The reason is that, for each specific creative activity, I try to choose the technique that best suits the goal I intend to achieve.

Drawing freehand

The natural motives are especially suitable to drawing freehand. I go through this job straight with black ink, without previous pencil schemes, with as long as possible ink traces, without lifting the pen, using 0.1 mm thin feathers, making scrolls automatically, without passing twice through the same point with the same movement. This technique comes from the automatic tracing as referred to in the third stage of the article entitled pictorial evolution and influences.

In figures with an eye I always by it and then follow by the right ear, the hair of the head, left ear, neck, back, tail, circulating at the maximum possible speed in the clockwise direction, skirting the figure to the left front leg, where I stop. Then, I do return to the right ear, down to the nose, mouth, tongue, chin, the lower part of the neck, circulating at the maximum possible speed counterclockwise, bordering the figure until the left front leg, where I stopped in the first round.

This tracing technique has the advantage of generating long lines, which seem to circulate freely, but it has the disadvantage of admitting neither mistakes nor retracings. In case of errors, the suitable choice is to finish the figure, to see the final result and be able to detect possible points of special difficulty towards the end of the tracing and right after to trace the whole figure again in a blank sheet, using the previous one as visual support. The reiterated result is to have to follow this process several times up to reaching a satisfactory level of execution. As a curiosity, I've noticed that the 1^st figure often contains errors of ink path, the best is usually the 2^nd and in some cases the 3^rd, but from the 4^th on, although there is no longer errors, the result is often more baroque.

Technical outlining

For the tracing of some figures, especially geometric, I use classic technical drawing skills. In this way vair, vairy, divisions, geometric ordinaries, bordures, checkys, etc. are calculated and outlined technically.

In some cases figures that are delineated technically are also hand-touched in order to compare techniques and be able to select the most suitable technique for the ongoing coat of arms.

Tincture of elements

In order to tincture field, ordinaries and charges I always start with plain colors and metals. In fact all my shields always have a version in plain colors. Then I build the volumes by means of lightings and shadows and applying appropriate finishings, by adding and removing hues and texturing surfaces. In some cases I do this process on the whole shield, in other, more laborious way, each field, ordinaries and charge is treated separately. This technique of working on flat base colors for later lighting and texturing follows my previous graphic work on color coated paper, which are described in the first stage of the article entitled pictorial evolution and influences.

In the final stages I try and choose the best of two options as applied to the already tinctured and finished charges:

• Represent them outlined in sable with its original layout.
• Let the tincture of the shield's field give them their final delineation.

Working process

I perform the workflow mainly over sheets size DIN, in vertical orientation, attaching to drawings annotations, metadata, samples of color, etc. I make and archive these DIN forms sequentially as I go through the steps described in the section entitled heraldic creation methodology.

At the end of the work, all of these DIN forms together, make up what could be called a «making-of» of the coat of arms, that is, the history of their creation process.

Appleton Studios

David B. Appleton studies, researches, teaches, and writes about heraldry, and through his blog, he shares his heraldic knowledge with us, as well as through publications and presentations.

David B. Appleton is open to questions from his readers and provides advice on heraldic topics in which he specializes.

His blog is Blog.AppletonStudios.com and his website is AppletonStudios.com, from which he offers his services related to the world of heraldry, its dissemination, and knowledge.

Since 2009, David B. Appleton's heraldic blog has been an endless source of knowledge, images, ideas, curiosities, original reflections, and links to heraldic sites selected by him.

Heraldry: Musing on an esoteric topic

David B. Appleton stands out for his continuous analysis of all types of heraldic manifestations, which he finds everywhere, in the world we live in: from those we have inherited from ancient times to the fiercely current, from books to cinema, from fashionable clothing to urban furniture, from east to west and north to south, including those that appear in logos and emblems, those using traditional techniques and those created or disseminated through new technologies, on ships, sports cars, and airplanes, on porcelain, facades, and stained glass, on television, on t-shirts and coins, in auctions and universities, in comics and sports, etc. with a systematic publication rhythm, more than 2 posts per week, nothing heraldic escapes the record and genuine analysis of David B. Appleton on Blog.AppletonStudios.com, which I highly recommend.

---

Categories: Link, Interpreted, Personal, Coat of arms, Without divisions, Freehand, Soft metal, Illuminated, Outlined in sable, Canting, Heraldry and heralds, Argent, Azure, Gules, Vert, Chevronel, Between, Apple, Slipped and Leaved.

External links:

• Interpretation of his coat of arms.
• Interpretation by Xavier García at Appleton Studios.
• Interpretation by Xavier García at Dibujo Heráldico with his blazon in English and Spanish.

Root: Appleton, David B..

Canting arms, apple ~ appleton.

Argent, two Chevronels Azure between three Apples Gules, slipped and leaved Vert.

Escudo de plata, dos tenazas de azur acompañadas de tres manzanas de gules, talladas y hojadas de sinople.

Coat of arms interpreted by me with: a round-bottomed shield shape; the field in flat tincture metal Argent; the figures outlined in Sable and illuminated in Azure, Gules, and Vert; and all with a rough finish.

A summary of the heraldic blog of David B. Appleton can be found among my recommended links on the heraldic universe.

---

Blazon keywords: Without divisions, Argent, Azure, Gules, Vert, Chevronel, Between, Apple, Slipped and Leaved.

Style keywords: Rough, Illuminated and Outlined in sable.

Classification: Interpreted, Personal, Coat of arms, Canting and Heraldry and heralds.

Bearer: Appleton, David B..

Slipped and leaved

The terms slipped and leaved, which are applied here to the apples, can be found in [Avilés, J.; 1780a; page 321 and figure 138] when describing the coat of arms of the «Kingdom of Granada in Spain», which states «Argent, a pomegranate proper, showing its seeds Gules, supported, slipped, and leaved with two leaves Vert».

slipped and leaved, being in the blazon of Granada, are also in the blazon of the coat of arms of Spain and its kings. We read this in [Avilés, J.; 1780b; page 321 and figure 138] where he writes «...Quarterly with a point Argent, a pomegranate proper, showing its seeds Gules, stemmed, and leaved with two leaves Vert, which is of Granada».

---

Blazon keywords: Apple, Slipped and Leaved.

Bearer: Appleton, David B..

The collaborative blog Heraldica Nova is an initiative of the Dilthey-Project «The Performance of Coats of Arms» of the University of Münster which aims to study medieval and early modern heraldry from the perspective of cultural history.

It was founded in 2013 by Torsten Hiltmann and it has been funded by the Volkswagen Foundation and Fritz Thyssen Foundation’s initiative «Focus on the Humanities».

---

Categories: Link and Heraldry and heralds.

External links:

• Julia Ziegler, Dear heraldists: How did you learn to blazon?.
• Dear Mr. Salmerón.

Ownership

Blazons, coats of arms or other heraldic objects shown on Blason.es, or any of its associated heraldry domains, belong to their respective owners, which are always identified on this site together with theses blazons or coat of arms or other heraldic objects. But the copyright and the intellectual property of the creation and/or the artistic rendering of these blazons, coats of arms and other heraldic objects belong to me for being the heraldic artist whose specific terms can be agreed with the person who has commissioned the heraldic service.

Authorization

Only theses owner or their legal heirs could give you their authorization regarding the copy, use, reproduction, transformation, etc. of these blazons, coats of arms, or heraldic objects.

Antonio Salmerón Cabañas, «The Book of the Coat of Arms of Wolves Sable and Unicorns Argent», Ediciones aContracorriente, first edition, ISBN 978-84-941511-8-7, Madrid, 2014.

---

The chapters of this book are organized to systematically record all information regarding the creation of a coat of arms and its variants, from its initial conception to its various final interpretations, through intermediate designs, their uses, meanings, registration, communication, and even their different imaginary and artistic recreations.

The chapters are as follows:

• On the ideation and creation of a coat of arms, its derived versions, and other complements.
• On the ideation and creation of a first ornament and its possible enhancements.
• On the ideation and creation of a second and definitive ornament for the coat of arms.
• On designing acts of manifestation, documents, and heraldic frames based on the coat of arms.
• On the meaning of different elements and the symbolism within the coat of arms.
• On the records of the coat of arms and its public communication.
• On the certifications of the coat of arms.
• An imaginary history about the evolution of the coat of arms over the centuries.
• An artistic recreation of the journey back from the future to the past.
• Covering various subsequent and prior variations and combinations.
• Covering other interpretations of the same blazon made by different heraldic masters.

My intellectual property of the illustrations in this book is registered in [Salmerón Cabañas, A.; 2014a].

---

Bibliographical reference of century XXI.

Author: Salmerón Cabañas, Antonio.

The following article cites this bibliographic reference:

• Salmerón Cabañas, A.; 2014a

Sigue por: Institutions cited by name.