Coat of Arms (EDITED)

[Bralt Hannicart]

After a long weekend not looking at it, I heartily agree with all the comments made so I decided to get back and rework and add some more pixels to this piece. The result is this:

http://www.bralt.be/heraldry-web2.jpg

Changes:
- skeletons lowered
- banner flipped 180° and added more detail
- curtains longer to make the whole a bit more cohesive and more true to the sketch
- added some more woodwork
- changed the backgroundcolor back to white

This coat of arms is going to be one of the images I'm making to illustrate a short story I am writing. The obvious symmetry was done on purpose (though the image is not entirely symmetric, even in the details). Not as a means to save time or because of laziness but to stay a bit true to classic coats of arms. The non-consistent lightsource because of the forced symmetry is a result of this but was, as said before, intentional.

This was the previous version:

http://www.bralt.be/heraldry-web.jpg

This is the sketch:

http://www.bralt.be/heraldry-sketch.jpg

Detail of the shield:

http://www.bralt.be/heraldryshield.jpg

[MoonVisionStudio]

I prefer the way the skeletons rest on the banner in the sketch version, nice job.

[El Jeremie]

The sketch seems to have more dynamism, but the finished version looks good, except for the background color. White is better

[smokenmirrors]

love coat of arms! and this one is GREAT! although I do like the comp of the sketch.... the banner across the bottom on the sketch just makes it more iconic vs. the finish as if its a seperate title, much akin to typography on a book cover.... if you know whatta mean mang!? in any case, Very niiice I like. :)

[NathanLong]

I think what everyone's reacting to in the sketch is the silhouette, which is very pleasing and strong and triangular. In the finished one, thinning the hammer on the top, taking out the curving wings above the shield and - the biggest one - reversing the arc of the banner, has weakened that powerful triangular shape, so you get nice details, but less compositional impact.

[Jasonwclark]

That's pretty cool man. :)

Are you from Flanders?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Flanders

[Nokill]

great stuf i love old fasion shields, only the skeletons bugger me a little :(

[dem0n]

Nice. 'k Had er tijdje terug ook eentje gemaakt, maar dan met Engelse leeuw :p
Wa doet gij atm van werk? Nog altijd reclamebureau?

[Bralt Hannicart]

I thank everyone for the comments and critique. I have reworked the piece to fix some issues you guys pointed out.

smokenmirrors: I always have trouble with typography...well most of the times, other people have problems with the fonts i choose but I can be very stubborn about that so I did not change the font...Unless you meant something else? Thx for the comment though!

NathanLong: I agree and reworked it so that it fits more to the first sketch.

Jasonwclark: Yes I am. The image is actualy a mix between two coats of arms: The one of my home town 'Lauwe' which basicly has the flemmish Lion on a white background with red stars and a blue moon and the second is from the city my home town is a part of: 'Menen' which looks like this:
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afbeelding:SchildNewDrk.jpg
So I started from those two.

Dem0n: Momenteel in bijberoep zelfstandig met twee vrienden in ons eigen webdevelopmentbureau maar ik zoek nog vast werk. Wegens bepaalde gebeurtenissen is mijn leven er plots helemaal anders gaan uitzien en moet ik een zekerheid hebben...En waar kan ik jouw wapenschild zien?

[NathanLong]

Good job. Much better.

About the font, the W is a little hard to read, but I think the biggest 'font fault' is that it looks pasted on. If you hand-drew the same font it would look fine.