Shield of hotness

 

 St George and the Dragon, by Paolo Uccello, 1470. (wikipaintings here)

I've been using a smaller shield for at least 6 months now. For a long time it's been creamy white canvass covered in black and blue streaks from where I block blows. I finally decided to paint it over the Christmas break. I was sort of planning on just putting my heraldry on it again as it worked really well last time and looks great in a shield wall. Then I found a photo of St George (above) while looking for images of Wyvyrns. I love this painting because the lady is so clearly out walking her pet dragon on a leash when the oafish St George comes along and spears it through the eye. I couldn't resist, so I painted the key features on my shield. I'm rather happy with how it turned out even though I can't do faces or hands. I also used pearl white instead of pure white as they didn't have any at the store. This leaves a shimmer in the sky, on the faces and hands of the lady and georg(ina) and a very shiny horse.

This is not a very good picture of the shield but the main details are there. I've tried to retain the foreshortening that the original painter used in the dragon and the horse but I'm not so good at that. I also changed the dragon a little. I moved his leg and changed his stance so I could change his claws... if you notice he looks alot more like the figures below.Yep, I changed him to a velociraptor. Before you ask, Yes, I know they're only giant chicken sized (or small ostrich), and we've got fossil evidence to show they had feathers. I like the dragon wings better so I've compromised and given him small bat hands near the ends of his wings. I'm very happy with this shield! AND I entered it into the College of St Monicas, Twilight Tourney Heraldry competition and came first! Yay!