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Medieval Drawing Ideas

One medieval thing to draw per press: armor or arms, a trade, a page of a book or a game.

Medieval Drawing Ideas

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  1. A square banner with one bold chargeA charge is the emblem on the field of a shield or banner. Choose one, a star, a tree or a tower, and draw it large.

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Armor and heraldry 15

  • A bascinet helmet from three sides An open-faced helmet with a pointed top to its skull. From about 1330 a visor was often added to cover the face.
  • A full coat of arms with helm, crest and mantling The helm sits above the shield, the crest on top of the helm, and the mantling is the cloth that falls from it.
  • A great helm seen from the front At its simplest a flat-topped steel cylinder that covered the whole head, with very small openings to see and breathe.
  • A herald in a tabard A tabard is a short coat. A herald's shows a coat of arms on the front and again on the back.
  • A horse in a patterned caparison A caparison is a cloth covering laid over a horse. Repeat the rider's shield pattern all over the cloth.
  • A lion rampant Rampant means shown in profile, standing erect with the forepaws raised. Give it a long curling tail.
  • A mail shirt hanging on a pole Mail is small metal rings linked in a pattern to make a mesh. Draw rows of little C shapes, every other row reversed.
  • A pennon flying from a pole A pennon is a small flag that narrows away from the pole, usually forked or swallow-tailed at the end.
  • A polished breastplate with a window reflected in it Curve the window's reflection to follow the steel. Keep the darkest darks right beside the brightest light.
  • A shield of ermine Ermine is a white field powdered with black spots. Each spot stands for the animal's black tail.
  • A shield split by one line into a metal and a color Halve it upright or level. Fill one half with gold or silver and the other with a single color.
  • A square banner with one bold charge A charge is the emblem on the field of a shield or banner. Choose one, a star, a tree or a tower, and draw it large.
  • A suit of plate armor laid out in pieces Label them: cuirass for the body, pauldrons on the shoulders, greaves from knee to ankle, sabatons on the feet.
  • An armored gauntlet A gauntlet is a glove that protects the hand and wrist. Lay small plates down the back of the hand and each finger.
  • Six shields showing six ways to divide the field Per pale is halved upright, per fess level, per bend on the slant. Add quarterly, per chevron and per saltire.

Town and trades 15

  • A barrel with its hoops A cooper makes barrels from wooden staves held by hoops. Draw the staves as upright lines that bulge in the middle.
  • A blacksmith's forge with bellows A forge is the hearth where metal is heated. Bellows send a blast of air into the fire to make it hotter.
  • A market cross on stone steps A market cross marks the market square of a town. Draw a few steps, a tall shaft and something small on top.
  • A mill wheel turning in a stream A water wheel is a large wheel with blades or buckets around its rim, turned by flowing or falling water.
  • A picture sign hanging over a shop door A boot for the shoemaker, a loaf for the baker. Let the picture name the trade without a single word.
  • A pilgrim with a staff and a badge Pilgrim badges were small souvenirs of a shrine, usually cast in a lead alloy. Draw one large beside the figure.
  • A plow drawn by a team of oxen The earliest animals put to the plow were oxen. Draw two side by side under one yoke, heads low.
  • A spinner holding a distaff A distaff is a stick that holds the unspun fibers and keeps them from tangling. Tuck it under one arm.
  • A street of timber houses leaning toward each other Each upper floor reaches a little farther than the one below, until the roofs nearly meet over the street.
  • A thatcher at work on a roof Thatching is building a roof from dry straw or reed, laid in layers. Draw the bundles and a ladder.
  • A timber house with an upper floor that juts out Called jettying: the upper floor reaches out beyond the floor below. Show the beam ends under the overhang.
  • A wall cut open to show wattle and daub Wattle is a woven lattice of wooden strips. Daub is the sticky mix of soil, clay, sand and straw pressed over it.
  • An anvil and a hammer The flat top of an anvil is its face. The horn is the cone at one end, used for bending round shapes.
  • Cloth half woven on a loom, the shuttle left in it A loom holds the warp threads tight so that the weft can be woven across them. Draw the warp as close upright lines.
  • The labors of the months in twelve small frames A cycle of twelve scenes of country work, one a month. One old scheme opens with feasting in January.

Books and letters 15

  • A big letter O with a story scene inside it This is a historiated initial: the shape of the letter makes room for a scene from the story that follows.
  • A capital letter wrapped in leaves and gold An illuminated initial is a large first letter with decoration around it. Fill the letter, then the box it sits in.
  • A chained book on a library desk In a chained library each book is fixed to its bookcase by a chain long enough to let it be read.
  • A drollery: a creature that is half one thing, half another A drollery is a small decorative figure in the margin, often a hybrid. The word comes from the French for a joke.
  • A girdle book hanging from a belt Its leather cover runs on past the book in a long tapered tail, with a large knot at the end to tuck under a belt.
  • A page from a bestiary A bestiary is a book of beasts. Each animal had its picture, a description and usually a moral lesson.
  • A page with its headings in red Adding red ink for emphasis is called rubrication. Write the text in black and one heading in red.
  • A quill pen and an inkhorn A quill is cut from the flight feather of a large bird. Trim the barbs short and cut the tip to a slant.
  • A scribe's desk with a half-written page A scribe copied books by hand. In a monastery the writing room was the scriptorium. Slope the desk.
  • A sheet of parchment, half unrolled Parchment is a writing surface made from the prepared skins of sheep, calves and goats. Curl both ends.
  • A small pointing hand beside a line of writing Called a manicule: a hand with its index finger stretched out, drawn to mark a passage worth noticing.
  • A snail in the margin of a page Snails turn up in the margins of medieval books as a joke, perhaps because a shell looks like a knight's armor.
  • A whole decorated page with a border An illuminated page has borders and small pictures around the text. Plan the text block first, then the frame.
  • An initial that looks gilded Gilding lays a very thin coat of gold on a surface. Leave one streak of bare paper for the gleam.
  • One line of blackletter writing Blackletter began as a medieval book hand. Build every letter from short upright strokes with diamond ends.

Feasts, music and games 15

  • A chess king carved as a seated figure In one twelfth-century set carved from walrus ivory the kings and queens sit on thrones and wear crowns.
  • A falcon standing on a gloved fist Draw the glove thick and the bird upright, its feet gripping the fist and its eye on something far off.
  • A feast seen from the far end of the hall Two long tables run away from you to the high table. Rule them to one point and seat the people after.
  • A hurdy-gurdy A crank turns a wheel that rubs the strings, much as a bow would. Show the crank, the wheel and the keys.
  • A jester's cap with bells The cap and bells were the jester's crown, a joke on the king's. Hang a bell on every point.
  • A lute A plucked instrument with a neck and a deep round back. Draw the body as half a pear with a round sound hole.
  • A maypole dance A maypole is a tall wooden pole put up for a spring or summer festival, with a dance around it.
  • A meal served on a bread trencher A trencher was a flat round of bread, usually stale, used as a plate. Pile the food in the middle.
  • A musician playing a small organ carried on a strap A portative organ is small enough to carry. One hand works the bellows while the other plays the keys.
  • A nine men's morris board Draw three squares, one inside another, and join the middles of their sides. That gives twenty-four points.
  • A pageant wagon with a play going on A pageant wagon is a stage on wheels, used for the cycles of mystery plays that the guilds put on.
  • A piper playing pipe and tabor One player, two instruments: a three-hole pipe held in one hand and a small drum beaten with the other.
  • A psaltery with every string drawn A psaltery is a flat box with strings across it and no fingerboard. Draw the strings in close parallel lines.
  • A salt ship on a feast table A nef is a table ornament in the shape of a ship, made of precious metal. It could hold salt or spices.
  • The high table at one end of a great hall The great hall was the main room of a large medieval house. The high table stood on a raised dais at one end.

How it works

The Middle Ages left pictures of themselves on shields and in the margins of books, so that is where these medieval drawing ideas begin. The trades of a town and the music and games of a hall come after.

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Design a shield by the old rule

Heraldry has two metals, gold and silver, and five colors: red, blue, green, black and purple. The rule is never to set a metal on a metal or a color on a color. So a gold lion goes on red or blue, never on silver. Pick one of each, divide the shield or leave it plain, and add one charge.

Questions and answers

What are easy medieval things to draw?

A square banner with one bold charge, a great helm seen from the front, a quill pen and an inkhorn, a lute or a jester's cap with bells. Each is one clear outline. Easy, under More filters, holds 20.

How do you draw a coat of arms?

Start with the shield and its charge. Set a helmet above it, a crest on top of the helmet, and cloth mantling falling to both sides. A full one may add supporters holding the shield and a motto on a scroll.

What did people draw in the margins of medieval books?

Small figures called drolleries: creatures that are half one thing and half another, such as a rooster with a human head. The word comes from the French for a joke. Snails turn up too, and so does a small pointing hand, the manicule.

What is an illuminated letter?

A large, decorated first letter in a handmade book, often several lines tall. Some hold a small scene inside the letter. Draw the letter first, then a box around it, then fill both.

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