# Literati Painting × Wu School — composed image prompt
# IndexStyle — https://indexstyle.org/compose?ids=literati-painting+wu-school
# Literati Painting carries the structure and Wu School 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 Literati Painting (style, 11th century–) and their accent from Wu School (style, Ming dynasty, 15th–16th centuries).

## What to make

Make the kind of thing Literati Painting exists for: making an image that puts attitude ahead of skill, or placing writing and image on one sheet at the same rank. Choose one subject and hold it across all four.

## Structure comes from Literati Painting

- Calligraphic brushwork and references to earlier painting
- Relations among image, poetry, calligraphy and seals
- Ink tones and, in some works, light colour
- Personal expression through subject and brushwork

Composition: Let the void take the lead role and push the subject into a corner. Type and lettering: Treat calligraphy as part of the picture and use the seal as the keystone of the composition.

## Accent comes from Wu School, used sparingly

- Calligraphic lines, dots and textures build landscapes
- Gardens and places connect to literary subjects
- Painting, poetry and writing are read together
- A range from bold ink masses to meticulous brushwork

Let one material quality come from it: Test layered dots and short strokes, balancing detailed passages with larger ink masses.

## Colour and feeling

Build the ground on #f6ecd9, carry the structure in #8e4a33 and #262025, and let a single accent come from #788173. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette.
Feeling to carry: calm, intimacy, luxury.

## Where they fight

- Literati Painting and Wu School both belong to East Asian Painting, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
- Literati Painting and Wu School stand roughly 318 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.

## What goes wrong

- Literati Painting: Dry ink or apparent awkwardness alone does not identify literati painting. Check cultivation, earlier models and calligraphy; do not assume every artist was nonprofessional or every work unsold.
- Wu School: Not all literati painting is Wu-school painting. Do not reduce its difference from the Zhe school to social status; retain works that combine both approaches.

## 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/literati-painting/design.md · https://indexstyle.org/styles/wu-school/design.md