Heraldic Artists
In order to create certificates for the Registration of Arms, The Augustan Society, Inc., necessarily requires the services of one or more Heraldic Artists. Over time, both volunteer and professional artists have been employed. This page applies equally to both.
The duty of a Heraldic Artist is to receive a blazon in English, to emblazon it in a digital file following such standards as may have been established, and to return it to the officer who submitted it.
The officers authorized to do so are:
- Justiciar General, for the purpose of registering arms;
- Rolls Editor, for the purpose of publishing the various Rolls of Arms;
- Omnibus Editor, for the purpose of illustrating The Augustan Omnibus; and
- Online Armorial & Ordinary Study Group Coordinator, for the purpose of uploading art to the Online Armorial.
While it is expected that work will generally be taken in the order received (with due consideration for cases where insignia or such might need to be researched), there may be times when a late submission should receive higher priority. In those cases, only the Justiciar General may direct a change.
In no case is the Heraldic Artist liable for changes made to the blazon after submission. Should it be discovered that there was an error in the submission, a "stop work" order should be issued at the earliest possible time, with a new blazon (even if unchanged) being submitted at a later date. The Heraldic Artists should never be asked to amend an emblazonment once work has begun, save for the correction of discrepancies between the blazon and emblazonment or violation of established standards.
The goal here is to simplify the work of the Heraldic Artist, and to isolate him from any turmoil that might exist in other committees (which there is ample precedent for). When the Heraldic Artist is a paid position, such lack of changes will also be a condition of their contract, which will (one is sure) provide for partial payment for partially completed emblazonments.
Heraldic artists do not have a vote in the Heraldry Committee on questions of recommending registrations, unless they also hold some other title on the Committee, and even then they should recuse themselves from the review of emblazonments they have drawn.
