Reply To: Which shades to use to paint historically, figurines of Welsh warriors?

[Not Connard Sage]

Dyestuffs were expensive. Impecunious Welsh knights would probably have made do with what was locally available mostly.

‘Correct’ shades are bullshit. Colour depth depended on a multitude of variables, and wouldn’t be the same from batch to batch from the same dyer.

Forget the colour fastness that modern aniline dyes give too. Most dyed cloth would fade quite quickly.

So you want a green? Pick a dull earthy green, it’s the ‘right’ shade. Incidentally, green was a two stage process, yellow dye first, then overdye with blue. In Britain the blue would likely be derived from woad, and the yellow from weld, dock or dyer’s wort.

http://www.wildcolours.co.uk/html/woad.html

http://www.wildcolours.co.uk/html/weld.html

 

I imagine that as far as Sumptuary Laws went the rebellious Welsh ignored ’em. 🙂

 

Obvious contrarian and passive aggressive old prat, who is taken far too seriously by some and not seriously enough by others.