Foreword…

Have you ever thought of military heraldry as a form of art? Have you ever had a feeling that these precise and striking images are not fully understood and somewhat underappreciated? Have you ever wondered, what were the origins and history behind military emblems and symbols? If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, then this blog might be for you.

I have always been interested in heraldry. There is something mysterious and at the same time precise and certain about these compact and informative images. And definitely a lot of history - layers upon layers of it. While working on one of my large projects, called “The Small World”, recreating graphically enhanced historical and modern coats of arms of world countries, I noticed something. Heraldry of certain countries was seriously underrepresented. The coats of arms available in media and retail were of poor quality, with very few products or souvenirs available on the market.

Being ex-military myself, the next logical step for me was to research the situation with military heraldry. The result was even more discouraging. You will not be able to find any of the high-resolution quality military insignia images for many of the active branches and units of US and Canadian armed forces, not even mentioning the great numbers of deactivated and historical ones . This is how project “Military Insignia” came to life.

The basis of the project is my “Military Insignia” galleries at FineArt America and RedBubble. The plan is to recreate the largest collection of high quality military insignia under one umbrella. At the same time, there will be an opportunity to choose any of my artworks, and have it featured as a wonderful piece of wall art or one of the various products available.

I will be using my unique technique I call Multi-Layer Enhancement and Texturing Technique (or M-LETT 2.5D; I discuss it in detail in this post), recreating branch insignia, regimental coats of arms, shoulder sleeve insignia, emblems, badges and patches of all branches and majority of units of US and Canadian armed forces. My main tools of the trade will be Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. The result should be a collection of stunning realistic images, enhanced with textures of metals, enamels, precious stones, rare woods and ivory, at the same time retaining all the proper colors and attributes of the insignia.

As I progress, I will be posting my latest artwork on this blog, along with brief descriptions and interesting facts about particular units and their insignia. I would also encourage any feedback. Commissions are welcome as time permits. This is going to be a project of grand scale, which would take years to complete. So, my friends, you are all welcome to join me on my journey!