# Linocut × Scratchboard — composed image prompt
# IndexStyle — https://indexstyle.org/compose?ids=linocut+scratchboard
# Linocut carries the structure and Scratchboard appears as the accent.
# Style descriptors only. This prompt names no artist, studio, brand or work.

Produce four original images that take their structure from Linocut (technique, 1890s–) and their accent from Scratchboard (technique, 19th century–).

## What to make

Make the kind of thing Linocut exists for: showing crowds and daily motion as rhythm, or A friendly hand-printed feel in few colors. Choose one subject and hold it across all four.

## Structure comes from Linocut

- Large cut planes
- Overlapping color blocks
- Simplified figures
- Repeating movement

Composition: Repeat forms with aligned motion; change the current in one place. Type and lettering: Letters sturdy enough to hold against the shapes; one color per block.

## Accent comes from Scratchboard, used sparingly

- Sharp white lines cut from a black ground
- Contour and highlight joined by the same blade marks
- Crossed lines and dots producing middle values
- Broad retained black with concentrated white detail

Let one material quality come from it: Ink a white clay board and scratch varied lines and dots with needles, blades and scrapers.

## Colour and feeling

Build the ground on #d9d0ae, carry the structure in #4b6f70 and #a64d3a, and let a single accent come from #6F6458. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette.
Feeling to carry: intimacy, exhilaration, nostalgia, rebellion, luxury, technique.

## Where they fight

- Linocut and Scratchboard share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over.
- Linocut and Scratchboard are techniques rather than looks. Decide which one runs last in the process, because that is the one that will show.

## What goes wrong

- Linocut: The difference from woodcut is not mere roughness. Use linoleum's smooth curves and planes.
- Scratchboard: Inverting a black-and-white photograph is not scratchboard. Direction and width of cuts must describe surface and light.

## Across the four

Keep the roles fixed in all four. Vary the framing, the scale and the arrangement so the set shows what this pairing can do rather than four versions of one picture.

## Constraints

- Do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work.
- Do not reproduce the composition of an existing work.
- Produce original compositions in the general period languages described above.

Design specs for each entry: https://indexstyle.org/styles/linocut/design.md · https://indexstyle.org/styles/scratchboard/design.md