realistic colours for surcoats

[godfather]

Are there any particular colours that would not be historically appropriate for 15 century and earlier surcoats? And please no magenta, fluorescent lime comments As an example if I wanted to paint a surcoats light blue would that be in the realm of possibilities? Am I stuck with the primaries and black and white?

 

[PJ Deluhery]

I think you'd be safe if you stuck with the basic heraldric colors: black, white /silver, red, green, yellow/gold, purple, azure blue and maroon.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by godfather+Oct 21 2005, 11:27 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (godfather @ Oct 21 2005, 11:27 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Are there any particular colours that would not be historically appropriate for 15 century and earlier surcoats? [/b]

Sorry, there's no one answer to this. It depends on the subject being depicted - someone of high status would tend to be able to afford fabrics that were beyond the reach of the common knight - plus the setting (on crusade, tourney wear, battles close to home etc.)

Then you have to take into account the colours available at the time from available dyestuff, not the basic 'colour' - red, yellow, blue etc. - those are hues, the actual colours possible is quite limited by today's standards if you want to be accurate in your depiction.

Originally posted by godfather@Oct 21 2005, 11:27 PM
As an example if I wanted to paint a surcoats light blue would that be in the realm of possibilities?

Yes, particularly for someone of low status or who is on a long campaign; just don't make the colour too 'bright' as most of us would think of it. As a rough guide, nothing more saturated than you see in washed out/faded denim jeans.

<!--QuoteBegin-godfather@Oct 21 2005, 11:27 PM
Am I stuck with the primaries and black and white?[/quote]
No, not at all. While surcoats might have tended to be in colours of the tinctures of the arms there is clear evidence that sometimes they bore no relation, so unrelated colours and even decorated fabrics would have been seen (again, depends on the date and the circumstances).

Be sure to check back on past threads on MedRom, there's a lot of information about dyestuffs, possible colours and so on.

Einion