#escutcheon

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Once again for catharsis: We are officially halfway through the month, Sparklers! 🥳

...And you'd think that to celebrate, I'd actually be able to get today's piece posted earlier, but nope! And it really is no one else's fault but my own this time—I had this one already 90% finished, but I let myself get distracted by some other things I know really could've waited until after this was taken care of. 😅 I accept my fate!

But it is what it is; At least I don't think the art itself suffered as a result.

This one felt relatively easy since, as might be overly obvious, it put very specific images in my head—Much of which I thought translated well enough into a mandala design. Namely, I kept picturing a keyhole plate that was etched gold, and I went with a very basic, "classic" shield shape because the definition literally says "shield" and I associate coats-of-arms images with a pretty shield-like shape as it is. And I also associate coats-of-arms strongly with royalty, so that's where the crown shapes came from.

Once I had those shapes in place as a foundation, it felt fair to just kind of fill in with more general mandala motifs that, at least to me, feel reasonably adjacent to some detail work you might see in these kids of decorative plates...However, I will admit I didn't actually bother looking up references for this one, so if you're personally more familiar with "Escutcheons" and some of the motifs I picked look terribly out of place...Well, here's my excuses and an apology, I guess. 😆

The colors were also very straightforward. I went with silver and goal for the metal base, then offset them with some abstract shadows. I added the spots of red, blue, purple, and green as a last-minute pop; The whole package was missing something, and I each of these colors in jewel tones I again associate pretty strong with royalty, plus I think they're fairly common inclusions in colored coats-of-arms designs.

My one regret in the design is that the white lines + browns in the background make me think an awful lot of a Gingerbread house, but when I tried switching the lines to black, everything just felt horribly flat.

At that point I really did not feel like going back over the background colors to try and "fix" the black lines when the white ones were fine outside of the Gingerbread thing (and this was after I got distracted, so I was running short on time, too)...So white lines it is! Who says you can't make a Gingerbread house that looks more like a castle for Gingerbread Royalty, anyway? I'm sure someone out there has done it! 😉

...You'd think I'd have more to say than that, but...Well, this one was pretty simple, especially compared to all everything I tried to squeeze into yesterday's. I know I said once before these can't all be super complex, and that holds true for today.

Oh! I should mention: This is yet again one word where I left off part of the definition that I included on the "official" list because it both took up a lot of space and also didn't really fit with the direction I took the art in. Escutcheon, in nautical use, can also mean, "A panel on the stern of a vessel bearing its name and port of registry."

And one final note you Sparklers might find amusing: This is probably the word I'm the most glad I don't have to pronounce out loud for this challenge. 🤭 I've had trouble enough remembering how spell it!

...That should be everything for today, I think. Now let me get to cross-posting before it gets any later...or before I get distracted by something else that could really stand to wait. 😆

See you tomorrow, Sparklers. 🤗

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Artwork © me, MysticSparklewings

Obscutober Concept Inspired by nikolas_tower

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