How to Design Your Own Coat of Arms Template

By: Suzie Faloon

Coat of Arms image by Arne Bramsen from Fotolia.com

A coat of arms is a banner or shield with symbols that can explain what your family name means or what career you have. In ancient times, the coat of arms was emblazoned on shields and pieces of war paraphernalia to distinguish soldiers during a battle. Today a coat of arms can symbolize your family, history, career, hobbies and sports. You can have a lot of fun when you design your own coat of arms that reflects the identity of you and your family.

Step 1

Draw a shield shape from scratch. Or print out a copy of a shield found online and trace the outline.

Step 2

Divide the shield into sections or leave it as is. Sections are usually done in thirds, quarters or sixths. Some also feature a fifth small block in the center of the sections.

Step 3

Study different symbols and their meanings online. Decide which ones have the proper meanings you wish to convey in your design. You can inject humor or have a serious piece of art.

Step 4

Draw, trace or use stencils to place symbols into your shield drawing. Try to keep the sizes of symbols in proportion to one another.

Step 5

Color in the background around the symbols lightly with colored pencils in the colors of your choice.

Step 6

Outline symbols in ink. Black ink works well to highlight symbols. Color symbols in with ink or colored pencils.

Step 7

Decorate sections or symbols with as much detail as desired. For instance, if you have an animal as a symbol you can add ink shading over the colored pencil work.