Tartan Design

[Griffin NoName]

My eyes are popping out of my head.

How do you do all this? Especially the swirly bits?

[pieces o nine]

Actually, I liked ToadTartans 4&5.

I feel a Monastery Tartan should reflect tolerant colours and humble shades and should incorprate the subtle hues of Squidlings eyes best.

[Swatopluk]

How do you do all this? Especially the swirly bits?

I first do the vertical stripes in a band as broad as the weave mask I use.
Then I put the mask on top of it in transparent mode. The mask has to have a colour not existing in the sett. Also any 'white' in the sett must not be transparent white.
Here is the toadfish mask:

Then I delete the mask by using white to replace the unique mask colour. Ideally all the pixels are connected, so a simple FILL does it. The toadfish mask unfortunately is not such an ideal mask.
Now I copy/paste until the 'cloth' is long enough.

The horizontal stripes are done next. No need for the mask here.

The last step is to copy the block with the vertical stripes with the 'etched out' mask pattern and to put it on top of the horizontal stripe block in transparent mode.

I'll do a graphic demonstration in the next post.

[Griffin NoName]

wow! sounds like fun. perhaps you should patent the method !

[Swatopluk]

That methods, if done by hand takes about half an hour for a continuous mask (=>1 FILL is enough)
If I had a running programmimg language environment, it could be easily programmed to take next to no time at all (even on a very slow machine).
But I currently do not have that.

But here are the first samples of squidling tartan:

[Griffin NoName]

My eyes are now fizzing........

[pieces o nine]

Holy Carp!   

[Sibling DavidH]

Now thaqt makes my eyes boggle. 

[Opsa]

They are stunning. Where do I order my kilt?

[Swatopluk]

Do we have enough dough to buy our own programmable loom?
The toadfish mask* has 56x40 and the squids 68x70. Standard 2/2 twill has just 4x4

*I do not know the proper English weaving term for that. I mean the smallest x*y that describes the pattern completely. The German Term is Bindungspatrone.

Here btw are the still missing toadfish and squid tartans with the simple repeat (no reverse) of sett:



I think those took me about 2-2.5 hours each (for the set of four in each image). Standard for a twill tartan is about half an hour or less.
All of course because I have to use Microsoft Pain(t) and not a design program. Could someone write that, if I gave him/her the basic/BASIC algorithm?

[Swatopluk]

For those more classically inclined and maybe also would like a lighter colour here are a few alternatives:

[Sibling DavidH]

Excellent - classical-type motif, as you say, but I prefer the squidlings, personally. 

[Swatopluk]

Excellent - classical-type motif, as you say, but I prefer the squidlings, personally. 

I won't disagree there.
Primarily an attempt to try something different (and less work intensive).
Maybe I could combine the tartan with celtic knotwork patterns.

[Swatopluk]

For a change some non-tartan

[Opsa]

Cor- I've gone tartan-blind!