The Scottish Wildcat Tartan thread: conceived here on X-Marks!

[McMurdo]

Attachment 21532

Glen, I'm still partial to this one but the only thing that throws me off is how severe the yellow is. Maybe it's just me. Is there a more mellow yellow or a shade in between green and yellow?

I respect what Jock said about the eye colour, having seen some in person, but none of the cats on this webpage seem to have such drastically yellow eyes.

http://www.scottishwildcats.co.uk/wildcat.html

The whole business has me confused, but I think your gorgeous tartan would be even better looking if you could find a more complimentary shade to balance the other colours which seem to hang together so nicely.

I know you're limited by standard weavers' colours and I think you're doing a great job of incorporating feedback from a plethora of us backseat drivers, but would you consider trying a variant of this tartan with either a sage green or a different yellow? Are you using old yellow or copper's yellow?

This is merely a suggestion and isn't meant to derail anything. You may have already tried that and I know your very first design had green and you changed it to yellow based on feedback, so if you decide to ignore this on that basis - I won't be mad.

Nathan
I like the idea here it is with Coopers Yellow, I think it blends much better with the other colours in the tartan, thanks for the suggestion.

[Alan H]

Hey Glen...in light of Nathan's suggestion, I have in mind something that Steve said when he presented Gordon Kirkbright with the X Marks the Scot tartan. Gordon didn't have a "gold" thread available, so what he did was combine a brown with a yellow to get an "apparent" hybrid, like "gold".

I wonder....two threads of yellow combined with one thread of white, to soften the yellow? Might be worth a look.

EDIT: never mind, the coopers yellow does the trick!!!

[Nathan]

Nathan
I like the idea here it is with Coopers Yellow, I think it blends much better with the other colours in the tartan, thanks for the suggestion.

I Love it!

[McMurdo]

Thanks I really like this one as well.

[creagdhubh]

I love it too!!!

[creagdhubh]

A pair of mustard coloured kilt hose (several other colours come to mind as well) would look superb with this tartan!

[Creag]

The yellow was bothering me a bit, too. I think the Coopers Yellow cinches it.

I was curious about how it would look with more repeats so I did a little photoshoppery

[New World Czech]

I have been a very interested lurker of this thread but this latest revision has really hit the mark with me. I may have to sell a few kilts to get in on this. Well done!!!

[Nathan]

The yellow was bothering me a bit, too. I think the Coopers Yellow cinches it.

I was curious about how it would look with more repeats so I did a little photoshoppery

That's creating an animated optical illusion when I look at it! Little brown spots moving around! Anyone else?

[Dixiecat]

Very nice. I'm glad to see that you've taken my suggestions into consideration. I did sit down for a couple of hours with the tartan designer and I can appreciate how much work goes into planning the tartan. I was not satisfied with my design at all, and I couldn't figure out why until I saw your last rendition Glen. It's the background. The use of grey is bang on. And, I like the move from the green to the gold. My only suggestion now, is to try a rendition where the thick black stripes are not marled, but solid. I took your image and made it smaller and tried to imagine what it would look like from a few feet away and the thin black stripes stand out more than the thick ones. Would reversing the emphasis onto the thicker black stripes be more wildcat like? It might tone down the optical illusion that Nathan makes note of as well, I don't know.


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As to the other points that other members have raised. Well, I still think that this whole thing should be overseen by Wildcat Haven and be open to their membership by holding a tartan design contest on their website. I'm positive that their supporters might feel left out of a project that probably touches them deeply. I find it a bit presumptuous that a bunch of xmarkers some of whom have recently 'discovered' the wildcat cause, to take this project on, onto a website that has not and will not ever have an affiliation to Wildcat Haven - lovers of tartan/kilt that we are, well, it doesn't make sense. After, all, I imagine that there's a world outside of xmarks and some of Wildcat Haven's supporters might just have some tartan design contributions to make. I'm glad that AlanH has taken this to the mods as it's very, very hard to separate the tartan from the cause. I'm sure that the issue will get a fair reading with them.

I am also disappointed with some of the comments regarding my initial suggestions for the design. Critical commentary is essential to every project and disagreement is not bullying. Having a bunch of yes-men does not lead to satisfactory endings. I find it telling that the same people who thought the tartan design nigh perfect before my first commentary, are now absolutely delighted with Glen's latest rendition and convinced that this design is nigh perfect. Even Glen himself says that it looks less muddy now, so my suggestions had merit. And, you know what's funny? JockScot suggested this very rendition back at post #87, but you waved him off and his venerable and respected opinion was lost to us. Sometimes it's apparent that the Gentlemen of Xmarks are only gentlemen where it concerns some and not others. And AlanH, if you don't like what I have to say, please don't use a public forum to make a thread asking people to contribute to a tartan design.