Escudo de Castilla y León Libro abierto, hojas de plata, filo de oro, guardas de gules, tapas de sable.

Wade, W. C.; 1898

William Cecil Wade, «The symbolisms of heraldry or A treatise on the meanings and derivations of armorial bearings», 186 pages, 95 black and white pictures, Robert Holmes Collection, published by George Redway, London, 1898.


Although Romanticism sought the symbolism of the heraldic elements, I believe that the meaning of the elements of the coat of arms, if they have it, is provided by its creator or first bearer. In any case, the content of this symbolic book is the following:

William Cecil Wade, 1898, cover and pages 78-79 y 61
  • The origin of armorial bearings; page 11.
  • The symbolic side of heraldry; page 13.
  • Heraldic colors and metals; page 35.
  • The furs of heraldry; page 38.
  • The meaning of heraldic lines; page 40.
  • The symbolisms of the ordinaries; page 43.
  • The division lines of the shield; page 55.
  • The colors of the common charges not symbolical, chapter with 2 paragraphs only; page 57.
  • Symbolisms of the common charges; page 59.
  • Crowns, mitres, episcopal hats, etc.; page 138.
  • Examples of symbolisms of colors and armorial bearings; page 149.
  • Cadency and differencing; page 154.
  • Alphabetic index; page 162.

Bibliographical reference of century XIX.

Classification: Symbolism, In black and white and English language.

Author: Wade, William Cecil.

Bibliographical reference mentioned in the following article:

External link:

Internal resources: WadeWC1898.SymbolismsHeraldry.pdf.

Separador heráldico
Escudo de Castilla y León Libro abierto, hojas de plata, filo de oro, guardas de gules, tapas de sable.

Emblemata; 2002

Baron of Valdeolivos Emblematic Chair, of the Fernando el Catolico Institution, of the Centre of Scientific Research (C. S. I. C.) and of the Government of Zaragoza, «Emblemata», Volume 8th, Emblemata Aragonese Magazine about Emblems (E. R. A. E.), 454 pages, 58 pictures, ISSN 1137-1056, Legal deposit Z.3.937 1996, printed by the Cooperativa de Artes Gráficas Librería General, Zaragoza, 2002.


Bibliographical reference of century XXI.

Classification: Magazine and Castilian language.

The author is Cátedra de Emblemática Barón de Valdeolivos.

External resources:

Internal resources: Emblemata2002.Volumen08.pdf.

Separador heráldico
Escudo de Castilla y León

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 1st figure often contains errors of ink path, the best is usually the 2nd and in some cases the 3rd, but from the 4th on, although there is no longer errors, the result is often more baroque.

Artista03 23 LoboSableProceso jpg

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.

Artista03 24 YelmoPlataTecnico jpg

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.
Artista03 25 ElefanteOro jpg

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.

Separador heráldico
Escudo de Castilla y León Áncora de oro y la divisa enlace.

Heraldica Nova

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».

We need your input: How did you learn to blazon? by Julia Ziegler
How did you learn to blazon? my contribution to this question

Categories: Link and Heraldry and heralds.

External links:

Separador heráldico
Escudo de Castilla y León

Ownership of blazons and coats of arms

SalmeronA 26 o09 Sombreado Marmoreo jpg

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.

Separador heráldico
Escudo de Castilla y León Libro abierto, hojas de plata, filo de oro, guardas de gules, tapas de sable.

Salmerón Cabañas, A.; 2014b

The Book of the Coat of Arms of Wolves Sable and Unicorns Argent

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.

The author is Salmerón Cabañas, Antonio.

The following article cites this bibliographic reference:

IntelectualP 24 Registro Libro Isbn jpg
IntelectualP 24 Paginas 112 113 jpg
IntelectualP 24 Paginas 114 115 jpg
IntelectualP 24 Paginas 116 117 jpg
Separador heráldico
Escudo de Castilla y León

Institutions cited by name

SalmeronA 26 Insignia Cristalina jpg

~ E ~

~ R ~

~ S ~

~ T ~

This list of academic or heraldic institutions is closed, because I only include those institutions that I cite.

Separador heráldico

Sigue por: Domínguez García, J.; 2008.

 

Dr. Antonio Salmerón y Cabañas,
,
Paseo de la Castellana 135, 7th floor,
28046 Madrid, Spain.