Rafferty Coat of Arms

This is the first custom Coat of Arms drawing I completed. Done as a gift to a close friend that took me to Ireland and in turn showed me the best and most inspiring trip of my life, the idea for the coat of arms drawings in general sprang from this trip abroad to the home of my ancestors. I decided to complete a drawing for each household that took all 11 of us in and treated us as family. I needed to thank them all somehow and this concept is what materialized. In this piece you can see the beginnings of the abstraction I would apply more intensely to each subsequent piece. This drawing is where it all started. Instead of the standard pattern of the club like pieces, I made them dance around the composition. Across the center of the coat of arms, I have abstracted the yellow band containing the two red fish in a diagonal and geometric representation. For the blackbird that makes up the majority of the composition, I simply stylized it making it scream out with a louder and more intense feeling.