Tuesday 11 May 2010

feedback and update

Firstly thank you to everyone who has voted or contributed to the comments. I have added a little more information for the last 48 hours before the poll closes.
First off a quick look at the originals in the Crimea. I think you would be hard pressed to see what colour the turban is from this very early photograph. However I think it is fair to say that it does not stand out from the fez in a particularly striking way.

Taking the widespread advice to lighten the shade of green I took up a fairly bright shade, put it on the turban and to my mind it is an instant improvement. The striking thing is that a shade which is far too bright and sickly shade works in the context of scale and surrounding colours.



I shall say no more until the poll closes, but I do want to thank everyone in the UK who has overcome a certain weariness with polls and raised the energy to vote hre.

3 comments:

DC said...

The lighter green works for me (and i routinely use lighter shades - as i suspect most of us do).

Andy Mitchell said...

There's a photo here "French Zouaves in camp"

http://www.britishbattles.com/crimean-war/sevastopol.htm

There's a distinctly white looking jobbie on the guy at the tent's entrance.

Above that there's also a coloured illustration with white.

johnpreece said...

Andy, thanks for the reference. I am only just starting to explore the sources so with some hesitation I would say:

The coloured illustration is definitely a Guard Zouave, the yellow lace confirms this and he should wear a white turban.

My main source for line Zouaves is this-

http://www.grosser-generalstab.de/lh/lh3/lh3_57.html

As to the photo the waistcoat edging should help ie. yellow Guard; red line. But which is it? Does yellow appear black on these early photographs? I am well out of my depth by now, to say nothing of the fact he may just have decided to use the 'wrong' turban.

John