Since (as Ive Learned Yesterday) Tartans Used To Be A Bit Simpler In Design - Blog Posts

darkwood the gravedigger darkwood oc the lines are just cleaned up sketchlines but otherwise i can't believe i actually managed to finish a whole drawing even with somewhat of a background researching tartans for their skirt pattern took me alot longer than drawing that background i wanted to avoid specific registered or even protected tartan patterns/setts and i wanted to keep the pattern relatively simple since (as ive learned yesterday) tartans used to be a bit simpler in design and the setts themselves were presumably just bound to region and what natural dyes the weavers could make until like the 17th century i think which was around the time tartans started to become acceptable fashion fabrics instead of just the clothing of ''barbaric highlanders'' and clan chiefs started creating specific setts for their own clan tartans that was in the 18th century i think the sett of the tartan fabric the gravedigger is wearing is from before all of that though their mother brought the big piece of fabric with her to darkwood when she married the gravedigger's father and moved out of krakow her mother was from scotland and broght the fabric with her to poland when she moved with her husband to his homeland in about 1910-1920? the sett of that tartan is from the region in the highlands where the gravedigger's grandmother is from they didn't have easy access to chemical dyes yet so the regional setts in that specific small region were still being weaved into tartans when their grandmother moved away the gravedigger is usually wearing mostly clothes from their parents since they're an only child and their mother died shortly after giving birth to them so their father just clothed them with whatever clothes he had at home that he isn't wearing himself and one or two pieces of clothing they got from well-meaning neighbours when they were younger so they often end up in a mix of hand down clothing from both their parents their father didn't manage to sell all of their mother's clothing after her death