Looking for advice on my tartan trials

[OC Richard]

Well you've set yourself quite a design problem, in my opinion, because of your colour choices.

Thing is, there are attractive tartans which actually have rather weak designs but overcome it by using lovely colours.

Yellow and purple are opposite on the colour wheel and are therefore in total opposition, and black and white aren't colours per se. So it's more difficult to make something smooth and clothlike and attractive.

You can help yourself by modulating the specifc tints of yellow and purple, getting away from the pure computer-graphic tints. You also might have to make your designs more complex to lessen the impact of these somewhat garish colours, and made the tartan look less graphic and diagrammatic.

So why not, I decided to have a go at it myself. I used the only purple available, and went with a muted yellow, muted white, and charcoal grey instead of black to smooth out the result. As for pattern, I'm a huge fan of traditional tartans which are often rather complex, and I strongly dislike the Allen brothers' simplistic approach ("Macfarlane hathe thre stryppis of quhte ypon ain blak field" etc etc) which sadly continues to influence tartan design.

Anyhow here's my first stab at it, about five minutes' worth, on ScotWeb's excellent tartan generator

[Kinth]

Thank you OC Richard for your interesting advice.
I'm not very fond of muted colors, and I love black and white, even if they are not really "true colors", but I admit my designs are poor.
Maybe two explanations to consider:
- I've always been attracted by simplicity,
- I have very little experience in designing things, and with all the existing patterns, I wanted something different from the rest, so doing something "simple" was also a way to differenciate from many "complicated" designs that tend to look alike.

Does someone know if white stands alone when registrating, or if it's gouped with grey? (as we register "general" colors, blue, red, yellow... is white associated with grey, allowing the weaver to make a lighter or darker pattern when needed?)

[OC Richard]

I don't think your designs are "poor" at all! They show that you have a knack for proportion and balance, which are difficult things.

It would be easier to evaluate your designs if they were done on the ScotWeb generator which yields nice big realistic clothlike results. You should try it! I really like how their tartan generator is set up.

Keep it up! Richard

BTW I don't care for the use of large quantities of white, because it makes tartans look like the old arasaid tartans intended for women's shawls, and our modern Highland Dancing tartans.

Here's another quick stab at a purple/yellow/black/white design, this one using pure white and black and using the most vivid yellow I could find



You're probably well aware of it, but there's an authentic 18th century tartan that's predominantly purple and yellow

http://www.lochcarron.com/tartanstro...n_ancient.html

[Kinth]

It would be easier to evaluate your designs if they were done on the ScotWeb generator which yields nice big realistic clothlike results. You should try it! I really like how their tartan generator is set up.

You're right, I'm trying to make my favourite patterns on this tartan generator, I'll post them here when done to show how it looks like.

You're probably well aware of it, but there's an authentic 18th century tartan that's predominantly purple and yellow

I well know this pattern, as the Culloden battle and tartan are associated with France, it has been one of the first patterns I've been considering to wear.
This is OOT, but I chose not to use it because I think history has forgotten that the "french soldiers" that fought at Culloden weren't really french, just Scottish from some french regiments. I think the pride french people have about this battle is based on a lie, and I don't want to support this. We didn't really fought, we left Scottish men do it for us...

[figheadair]

You're probably well aware of it, but there's an authentic 18th century tartan that's predominantly purple and yellow

http://www.lochcarron.com/tartanstro...n_ancient.html

Oh no there isn't. That's a DW Stewart 1893 error. The true colours are discussed http://www.scottishtartans.co.uk/Culloden_Tartan.pdf.

[OC Richard]

Thanks! I love that sort of thing, getting back to the original source and, in addition, tracing the error to its source. These errors by sheer force of repetition gain an aura of authenticity.

Next question, does anyone weave the genuine Culloden tartan?

It's a bit hard to ascertain the exact colours from that one photo, and they seem to be quite different than the colours shown in the colour strip. The green, for example, seems to be rather yellow on the jacket but a pure green in the colour strip.

Here is a rough attempt at that jacket tartan, trying to strike a compromise between the strong olive green of the colour strip and the yellow with a slight greenish tinge in the photo

[Blake Roth]

I like no. 6 the best because it is so unorthodox, and makes it most attractive. (Somehow no. 4 looks like it ought to be the corporate tartan for 'Mike & Ike' candies to me).
Blake

[Sir Didymous]

Number six because it is different.

[Dixiecat]

Mmmh, ok, the aim was more to make some "general" tartan, to have some plaid/kilt/feileadh mor done out of it...
Bad think I love this "double white stripe"...

I wouldn't worry about that opinion stated previously about your tartans looking like 'dance' tartans. Dance tartans use white as their background and don't rely on large white stripes. As a dancer, I can say that your designed tartans would probably not be chosen as a dancer's tartan. That does not mean that your tartans are not all excellent designs, just that dancers will prefer white background tartans.

[davidlpope]

Thanks! I love that sort of thing, getting back to the original source and, in addition, tracing the error to its source. These errors by sheer force of repetition gain an aura of authenticity.

Next question, does anyone weave the genuine Culloden tartan?

It's a bit hard to ascertain the exact colours from that one photo, and they seem to be quite different than the colours shown in the colour strip. The green, for example, seems to be rather yellow on the jacket but a pure green in the colour strip.

Here is a rough attempt at that jacket tartan, trying to strike a compromise between the strong olive green of the colour strip and the yellow with a slight greenish tinge in the photo

Richard,

See this thread:

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...-tartan-68359/