Colored Coats of Arms
We create colored paintings of coats of arms using both watercolor and acrylic techniques. Both options have their advantages and disadvantages. However, the following applies in principle: the larger the coat of arms painting, the more acrylic painting is to be preferred, since watercolor paints look disadvantageous on large areas.
The most popular works in our studio include hand-made, colored paintings of coats of arms. Colors are an important part of the symbolism of a coat of arms. Only the colors of a coat of arms painting contribute to the originality of a family coat of arms. The colors, shapes and symbols are the characteristics of a coat of arms and ideally make it unique and unmistakable.
Colors can also be used, for example, to visualize regional references in family history. The coloring can reinforce certain properties. As a small example: Green elements can emphasize a closeness to nature.
Coat of arms painted or drawn?
Basically, before placing an order, you should only ask yourself whether a colored coat of arms is desired or whether a black and white drawing would be more attractive. Both variants certainly have their advantages. For both variants, we offer appropriate technical solutions for optimal works of art. With our coat of arms paintings, it is absolutely not necessary to familiarize yourself with the drawing and painting techniques in advance.
We would be happy to advise you informally and without obligation at any time!
Coat of arms as watercolor or acrylic painting
We use both watercolor and acrylic paints for the coat of arms paintings. Both techniques have their advantages and disadvantages.
Watercolors do not necessarily have to appear translucent or pale. Completely covering surfaces can also be realized with watercolors. As our example images may show, an opaque application of the colors can lead to very similar (practically indistinguishable) results.
You can work much more finely with watercolor paints than with acrylic paints. We therefore mainly use watercolor paints for coats of arms paintings on our paintings of family trees and pedigree charts.
Acrylic paint has high opacity and lightfastness. Even dark areas can be painted over without any problems, which is extremely problematic with watercolor paintings. This makes it easier to repair or change certain areas of the coat of arms later. Areas that have already been painted can no longer be completely removed once the acrylic paint has dried. Small splashes of paint can therefore have extremely serious consequences and mean that a coat of arms painting has to be started all over again. Watercolors are somewhat easier to correct (even after the paint has dried).
Metallic colors in painting coat of arms
In heraldry, strictly speaking, there is no such thing as yellow or white. These shades are replaced with gold and silver respectively. Strictly speaking, however, gold/silver are not colors. They cannot be mixed with base colors. They are special colors with the characteristic metallic sheen. We use gold and silver to replace yellow or white areas in both family trees and coat of arms painting.
Image carrier for paintings of coat of arms
We usually use document paper with a grammage of 190g/m² (the so-called “elephant skin”) for our colored paintings of coats of arms. The paper is very robust and hardly curls even when using large amounts of water.
In principle, of course, other image carriers are also conceivable. For example, white drawing paper has the advantage of higher contrast. White paper may be more suitable, especially for paintings of coats of arms that are produced for print or digital purposes (e.g. as a private logo on websites).
Coat of arms painting on parchment
If desired, we can also use parchment (calf or goat skin). We can calculate the surcharge for you in advance of processing if you wish. However, since the hide must be pre-ordered, this should be taken into account when considering the processing time. Formats up to and including approx. DIN A3 are usually less problematic when selecting the image carrier. The larger the format, the more elaborate and correspondingly more expensive is a coat of arms painting on parchment.
