Harold Schaller was considered by many in the commemorative arts industry to be one of America's foremost Designer-Memorialists. In this slideshow put together by David Quiring, we see some of Harold's hand drawn renderings of his greatest works.

Each one of these monument renderings was meticulously designed and sketched to represent the real thing. 

To this day, many memorialization companies, including Quiring, utilize hand drawings to help families get a better picture of what their monument might look like. Of course digital renderings are also used later in the process.

https://youtu.be/cAlCYow_d_E

Harold Schaller even had an award created in his name, the "Harold J. Schaller, FAICA Award”.

"The Harold J. Schaller, FAICA Award recognizes ‘outstanding achievement in conceptual design’ and honors one of the Institute most treasured charter members and a man who served as its Executive Director for many years. Harold Schaller is most often referred to as "Mr. AICA” by members of the Institute. Harold Schaller was a great designer, an accomplished artist and a great teacher of memorial art. He died at the age of 90 on September 25, 2004.

This design was created to magnify the guardian angel. The angel is protecting a ‘soul’ even with his life in danger. One small, usually unnoticed feature of the angel is the deformed wing. The sculpture, meant to illustrate the power that we each can exert on behalf of others despite the many weaknesses (both visible and invisible) that we all possess.

His biography written by his daughter Karen J. Hampton, tells the story of this talented man's long life and career from both and intimate and professional perspective.”

Source: http://www.monuments-aica.com