Heraldic Art Resources

WARNING: Do not cite this page as a reference. This page is on this wiki to make the content "searchable" and easier to find. If you find the information you seek here, go to the original sources to verify the information and use them for your documentation.

Heraldic Drawing

Drawing Heraldic Charges by Master Bruce Draconarius of Mistholme

Heraldic Drawing, part 2: Monsters

SCA Graphic Resources:

Please confirm the copyright status of all these image sources before using.

Bad art is period. Francais 5231, folio 5r

• Book of Traceable Heraldic Art - http://heraldicart.org/ Fabulous successor to the Pennsic Traceable Art Project. Includes nearly 4,000 standardized images rendered in SVG, PNG, and print-and-trace PDF formats for offline use. Material drawn from Viking Answer Lady, Pennsic Traceable Art Project, Edwardian-era texts like Fox-Davies, and period armorials.

• Techniques of Digital Heraldry - blog of Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin, a driving force behind the Book of Traceable Heraldic Art

• Pictorial Dictionary of Heraldry Often called the "PicDic." Compiled by Bruce Draconarius. Copyrighted, but SCA use allowed (and permission give to use images on this wiki). Authoritative commentary.

• Viking Answer Lady - (a goodly number of images)

• Pennsic Traceable Art Project - As noted by the Brickbat Herald: "Compiled by Ailis Linne. This project was begun as a response to the volume of heraldic art being sought every year at the consult table at Pennsic. Some of the depictions are problematic or no longer registerable." [These are noted on the PTAP index on this wiki, as linked to here.]

• Colblaith's Armory Blanks (includes period mantling and doodle sheets)

• Catalogue Of Period Devices - Compiled by William Castille. Contains over 1300 blazons and emblazons (black and white outlines) of period devices taken from a number of period rolls of arms that could be found on Brian Timms defunct website (http://www.briantimms.com\era\early rolls of arms.htm).

Non-SCA Graphic Resources:

Please confirm the copyright status of all these image sources before using.

• Fox-Davies' A Complete Guide to Heraldry (wikisource.org) - http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Complete_Guide_to_Heraldry

• Free Heraldry Clipart - As noted by the Brickbat Herald: "Compiled by James Wolf. Many of the pieces come from Fox-Davies and Pimbley, both Victorian-era heraldic artists, and some depictions aren't quite accurate for our heraldic scope (for example, the "wavy" seen here is hardly wavy at all), but there are a lot of images, arranged alphabetically."

• Parker's A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry - https://www.heraldsnet.org/saitou/parker/index.htm

• Wikimedia Commons: Heraldry - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Heraldry (lots of graphics, includes out-of-period art but labeled so you know what is what)

Branch Armory

• An Armorial of Precedence Arms of every kingdom and barony in the knowne world.

• Effingham's Heraldic Avatars - Arms of Kingdoms and SCA (Web Archive link; original page offline)

Drawing Programs

(Programs mentioned by Heralds, in no particular order, no official endorsement implied, buyer beware, etc.)

Specific for Emblazoning:

• DrawShield - http://www.karlwilcox.com/drawshield/create/ (a little awkward to use)

Vector Drawing Programs:

• Inkscape, a free and open-source program for creating vector graphics. Many tutorials can be found around the internet as well. Inkscape can open and save PDF files, so it's excellent for dropping line art into submission forms. (Linux, Windows, Mac.)
• Inkscape for Armorial Heralds - recording of class by Vemundr Syvursson at eKNWHSS 2021 Plague Edition (it's the zoom_0.mp4 file).
• Adobe Illustrator CC, a popular commercial drawing package. (Windows and Mac. Multiple pricing plans, including $240/year.)
• Corel Draw (Windows. $350.)
• Microsoft Visio is a technical diagramming tool that can also be used for armory. Can export images to SVG and other formats. (Windows. Multiple pricing plans, including $180/year.)
• OmniGraffle is similar to Visio. (Mac. Versions for $99 and $199.)

Raster "pixel-by-pixel" Drawing Programs:

• GIMP, a free and open-source program for creating bitmap graphics, which can do pretty much everything most people would need Adobe Photoshop for, although with a very different interface. (Linux, Windows, Mac.)
  • A user's manual for GIMP - https://docs.gimp.org/2.10/en/
  • Ten-year-old GIMP manual as a PDF (most of the functionality similar) - https://docs.gimp.org/2.4/pdf/en.pdf
• Adobe Photoshop CC, a popular commercial painting package. (Windows and Mac. Multiple pricing plans, including $120/year.)
• Pixlr X, free online image editing programs. (Web-based.)
• Paint.net, another free bitmap editing program. (Windows.)
• AutoDesk Sketchbook, free. (Windows and Mac.)
• Corel PaintShop Pro. (Windows. Versions for $64 and $80.)
• MS Paint -> Paint 3D

Working with PDF Forms

PDF Escape - https://www.pdfescape.com/ (free on-line PDF editor allowing insertion of images into PDF forms)

WARNING: Do not cite this page as a reference. This page is on this wiki only to make the content "searchable" and easier to find. If you find the information you seek here, go to the original sources (generally linked) to verify the information and use them for your documentation.