Heraldry help needed!

[Imzy]

Just out of curiosity, are there any artsy, herald-y, tech-savvy folks about who might be interested in assisting me in blazoning and drawing my device for submission? I'm a terrible artist, and I don't have a local herald to enlist, and I would like to get my name and device registered... but I want it to LOOK good, too, and that means I can't draw it on the Northshield College of Heralds device submission form, myself. I need someone who can, y'know, draw, and knows heraldry.

This is the form it needs to be drawn on:
http://www.northshield.org/keythong/NS-Device.pdf

I need one that's just a black and white line drawing, and one in color.

This is what I came up with, for what I want my device to look like.



I have shown it to a couple of heralds before, and they agreed that it should work, and doesn't look close to any other devices they've seen, so it should be acceptable. The green border around the white at the top can go away, but otherwise, this is pretty much what I had in mind, only, you know, it'd be nice if it were actually drawn, rather than cobbled together out of gifs I found on the web and slapped together in Microsoft Paint.

Any help in figuring out the proper blazoning for this would be appreciated, too. The one thing I must insist on is that I want the squirrel just sitting there being cute (sejant, I believe is the term). I don't want him rampant.

The device (and my name, as well - Alyna of Four Pines Hyll) is a representation of my back yard. I have four great big pine trees in the yard behind my house, and lots of fluffy squirrels running around. I don't want them getting any ideas and thinking it's okay for them to start running rampant. biggrin

...if it helps, I could offer some Gaia gold to sweeten the deal.... any takers?

Oh, and one other thing.... if anyone steals my name or device before I get it submitted, they will be beaten about the head and shoulders with unpadded rattan! And no helm! So sayeth the Guild Captain! wink  

[Imzy]

*checks the guild home page, then peers*

Two hundred and eight members of the guild, and not a single herald or artistic type who wants to lend a hand? Sheesh. I gotta start a recruiting drive for the Arts and Sciences folks, or something... smile  

[JewelsSparkle]

Deputy Herald of the Shire of Arrowsreach in Lochac, at your service! Not that I know much yet, because I've only had a couple of lessons & have been really busy lately, BUT if you like, I can show it to Drogo (Arrowsreach Herald) & get him to go through it & advise on what needs doing (& I could call it homework!).

I'm not the best drawer, but I like to think I can draw a little (& people tell me I can)...

It might have to wait a week or so, though as I'm really busy this week. But if that's ok by you, then I'm more than happy to help!  

[Imzy]

JewelsSparkle

Deputy Herald of the Shire of Arrowsreach in Lochac, at your service! Not that I know much yet, because I've only had a couple of lessons & have been really busy lately, BUT if you like, I can show it to Drogo (Arrowsreach Herald) & get him to go through it & advise on what needs doing (& I could call it homework!).

I'm not the best drawer, but I like to think I can draw a little (& people tell me I can)...

It might have to wait a week or so, though as I'm really busy this week. But if that's ok by you, then I'm more than happy to help!

ooooh! sweet. Thank you! smile No big rush, it's not like I have a deadline or anything... it's just, I've been wanting to get this registered for about two years now. I had given it to one herald, and he lost my stuff. Then we got a new herald, and I tried again... and he moved away. Now my local group is gone, and.... argh! I can't draw worth a hill of beans, and my computer-generated version is really not very, ah, period looking, y'know? Once I have that, I can submit my name and my arms, and maybe someday even have an official, recognized name in the Society.  

[[Atropa Belladonna]]

Super-herald to the rescue!

Use the computer-generaged image on the form and print it out. Alternately, print each out seperately, cut and paste manually, and color-copy them at kinkos.

Blazon:

Mantled, Argent and Vert (This is the upward arrow and the background colors)
Vert Bordure (this might cause a problem)
Four trees, vert, above; (I'm not finding a term for squirrel, but I've found references to squirrels) A squirrel, argent, below

I'm not sure what to call that position. This blazon is NOT expertly crafted. It's researched but garunteed imperfect. I am NOT your consulting herald. Find your barony/canton/whatever herald and have it checked, or else do the same at a war or other event. Collegiums, wars, and some tournaments have heralds for checking with and they volunteer their time for that very reason. Use them.  

[Imzy]

[Atropa Belladonna]

Super-herald to the rescue!

Use the computer-generaged image on the form and print it out. Alternately, print each out seperately, cut and paste manually, and color-copy them at kinkos.

Blazon:

Mantled, Argent and Vert (This is the upward arrow and the background colors)
Vert Bordure (this might cause a problem)
Four trees, vert, above; (I'm not finding a term for squirrel, but I've found references to squirrels) A squirrel, argent, below

I'm not sure what to call that position. This blazon is NOT expertly crafted. It's researched but garunteed imperfect. I am NOT your consulting herald. Find your barony/canton/whatever herald and have it checked, or else do the same at a war or other event. Collegiums, wars, and some tournaments have heralds for checking with and they volunteer their time for that very reason. Use them.

Erm.... thanks, but.... the first bit of advice doesn't really help. smile I don't really want to use the crappy, computer-generated mock-up. And I don't want the green bordure around the top... I think I mentioned that in my original post. So, not a problem, really.

Mantled, huh? I always thought that was 'per chevron'. But I am far from an expert. And I would want to specify pine trees, I would think, otherwise someone might draw them as leafy trees, and that would be incorrect. I am Alyna of Four Pines Hyll, not Alyna of Four Oaks Hill... y'know?

Isn't there also some term to specify that the trees should be in a line, as opposed to some other arrangement?  

[Sir_Catherine]

I could do the blazoning, but I don't have any of my Heraldry stuff with me and am not an official Herald. I'd wind up checking with my local shire to be sure it was correct first and you might as well ask your own shire's Herold in that case. Sorry. I'm currently needing help drawing my own device, so no help there either. razz  

[Imzy]

Sir_Catherine

I could do the blazoning, but I don't have any of my Heraldry stuff with me and am not an official Herald. I'd wind up checking with my local shire to be sure it was correct first and you might as well ask your own shire's Herold in that case. Sorry. I'm currently needing help drawing my own device, so no help there either. razz

...that's the problem. I don't HAVE a shire, or a local herald. The closest one is about an hour and a half away. razz If I had a local herald, I wouldn't need to hit up our little online community for help. smile  

[JewelsSparkle]

I'm taking your rough drawing of your device to Fighters Training tonight for our Herald to go over with me, but I can't remember if he said it would be this week or next week that he's away... so hopefully I shall have a drawn & approved version for you soon, M'Lady!  

[JewelsSparkle]

Ok, we checked it against the year old "official" system... nothing with less than 2 points of difference (in fact, I think there may have been nothing with less than 3 or 4 points of difference... go you!), but Lord Drogo is updating his version soon & has shown me where to get the updated version, so we can check soon.
He did say, however, that he'd "be very surprised" if there were any clashes with yours.

So my next mission is to get the official pictures of squirrels & pine trees & cheat by tracing them on, lol! Also, blazoning won't be hard... I have the official list of terms etc... but it's in a messy pile of papers which I haven't quite sorted yet... but soon!
So yeah, shouldn't be too much longer.  

[Kiria Delusional Kitty]

I believe the correct blazon would be:

Per chevron argent and vert, a squirrel sejant argent, in chief four pine trees vert.

If time permits, I may take a stab at drawing this out for you. Good luck getting it registered. I really like it.