WIP Tartan Design - Suggestions Please!

[artificer]

My eyes are too tired at this point to offer any useful critique... but perhaps the fact that I'm having trouble focusing on your tartan says something. I'll look at it again tomorrow

For now, I'll ask what program/website you used to design it? And what was the thread count that you liked and modified to come up with it?

I used the online tartan designer from Gaelic Themes. It's the one that seems to work best for me.

I started with the Isle of Skye for the basic thread count. I then changed the colours to something that I wanted and reversed the direction. IE, IoS has the lightest colours bracketing the main stripe, I wanted to have the main stripe pop out of darkest area of the tartan. I thought this would lend itself wonderfully to a box pleat with the creme stripe on-center in each pleat. This would give a 'reveal' of the lighter blue inside the pleats.

After I changed the light/dark order, and adjusted the widths of each stripe to my liking, the blue spaces were too pronounced. Adding another large creme stripe was... unpleasant. I ended up adding a few smaller creme stripes each bracketed by the blue.

It was still lacking a little something, so I added the darker blue near the creme (which adds a surprising amount. Without it the darker section just isn't working).

It looks nice, I think the dark blue next to the yellow needs to be a few threads bigger. Even on zoom, which appears to be actually size, it is not really noticeable if you step back 2 feet.

Good call, I went back in and enlarged the darker blue stripe by about 50% and it really made a big difference, thank you.

I prefer more colour definition between different colours in a tartan. As nice as it is, I am seeing, fade in, fade out, fade in, fade out.

Maybe it is just my eyes, but the areas of darker colour look like dots from a distance, rather than stripes.

Sorry.

Regards

Chas

No need to be sorry, I asked for critique. After you brought this up, I DO see the darker olive green giving a slightly 'dot' look to the tartan. I'm thinking much of that can be resolved in final wool choices. Again, the colours on the designer don't allow for too much variation. I'd like everything to have a slightly soft tone, not exactly 'ancient' but not too saturated either.

Thanks all for the feedback thus far, I'll be posting a revised version in the next day or two as I tweak it.

[CMcG]

I started with the Isle of Skye for the basic thread count. I then changed the colours to something that I wanted and reversed the direction. IE, IoS has the lightest colours bracketing the main stripe, I wanted to have the main stripe pop out of darkest area of the tartan. I thought this would lend itself wonderfully to a box pleat with the creme stripe on-center in each pleat. This would give a 'reveal' of the lighter blue inside the pleats.

After I changed the light/dark order, and adjusted the widths of each stripe to my liking, the blue spaces were too pronounced. Adding another large creme stripe was... unpleasant. I ended up adding a few smaller creme stripes each bracketed by the blue.

It was still lacking a little something, so I added the darker blue near the creme (which adds a surprising amount. Without it the darker section just isn't working).
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OK, I think I see what you were going for and that does sound like a striking idea for pleating to the stripe. Unfortunately, something about the sett itself isn't quite working for me. I understand that the colours aren't quite what you have in mind but I'm assuming the general light-to-dark ratio is correct. And therein lies my problem...

Lighter colours tend to have the effect of moving forwards while darker colours lie back. When you reversed the light to dark of the Isle of Skye, you kept the lightest part the same; the cream line on your red background. The result is that that the cream line on the red is fighting against the light blue (or slate grey that you intended) with small cream lines..

Personally, I like a tartan to have a distinct field and foreground because it gives both depth and definition. In keeping with your idea of reversing the lights and darks of the Isle of Skye, try changing the cream line on the red to a deeper colour so that it pushes back and lets the blue stand out.

Just an opinion FWIW...

Without further ado, here are a few shots of Mk6

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