CoBrA vs Naïve
コブラ / ナイーブ
CoBrA comes from Avant-garde and Naïve from Illustration Styles. Both are read here as style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
CoBrA
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A postwar avant-garde that linked Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam. Holding up the directness of children's drawings and folk art, it painted rough-brushed creatures in primary colors and turned distrust of refinement into an international style.
Naïve
Steps away from the norms of skill, making plain observation and imbalance the charm.
| CoBrA | Naïve | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1948–1951 | timeless |
| Family | Avant-garde | Illustration Styles |
| Kind | Style | Style |
| Cues | The directness of children's drawing / Rough-brushed creatures / Colliding primaries / The refusal of planning | Uneven lines / Flattened perspective / Simple color / Hand-drawn letters |
| Best used for | Children's books and building walls meant to startle before they instruct · Announcements for improvised or experimental music that should escape tidy layout | Honoring a personal gaze and touch · Closeness for food, region and education |
| Type | Letters drawn by hand, uneven in size, living beside the figures | Handwriting, homely serifs |
| Composition | No underdrawing, creatures pushed to the edges, gaps filled after | Avoid strict perspective; lay things out flat |
| Material | Thick red, blue, yellow and black with brushmarks left showing | Crayon, paint, paper, slightly muddied color |
| Caution | Aiming to look unskilled produces neither the speed of the hand nor a creature that exists, only a picture performing childishness. | Not an act of deliberate badness. Draw your own line from close observation. |