Compose styles
Rather than blending styles toward a middle, this gives them roles. The first one carries the structure, the next comes in as the accent, and anything after that shows up in a single detail. Where they fight each other, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Alchemical Symbols: Signs ranged evenly as a table, glosses gathered underneath
- Type
- Set in Alchemical Symbols's manner (Chosen from existing tables, unified as circle, triangle and cross), and let Celestial Atlas's lettering (Title inside an ornamented frame, star names tiny and italic) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Alchemical Symbols's material (Engraved hairlines on yellowed paper, no metallic sheen); bring in exactly one thing from Celestial Atlas (Gold and hand color on deep blue, stars struck as engraved points).
- Colour
- Build on #f2eed1, #8d856d, #261c10 and admit one accent from #e7ddcc, #b18651, #39485c.
Where they fight
- Alchemical Symbols and Celestial Atlas stand roughly 650 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.
Caution
- Alchemical Symbols Signs invented for atmosphere read as false to anyone who knows which substance each one names, and the work sinks to decoration.
- Celestial Atlas Drawing the myth figures so large that the star positions vanish leaves a plate working neither as diagram nor as ornament.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Alchemical Symbols (style, medieval–18th century) and their accent from Celestial Atlas (style, 17th–19th century). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Alchemical Symbols exists for: building signs for a binding or package on themes of secrecy, or designing props for a fantasy story from images with real lineage. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Alchemical Symbols - Planet-metal correspondences - Geometry composed with crosses - Cipher-like secrecy - Tables handed down Composition: Signs ranged evenly as a table, glosses gathered underneath. Type and lettering: Chosen from existing tables, unified as circle, triangle and cross. ## Accent comes from Celestial Atlas, used sparingly - Myth figures over stars - Concentric celestial structure - Gold and blue coloring - Ornamented cartouches Let one material quality come from it: Gold and hand color on deep blue, stars struck as engraved points. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #f2eed1, carry the structure in #8d856d and #261c10, and let a single accent come from #b18651. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: luxury, rebellion, nostalgia, exhilaration, calm. ## Where they fight - Alchemical Symbols and Celestial Atlas stand roughly 650 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle. ## What goes wrong - Alchemical Symbols: Signs invented for atmosphere read as false to anyone who knows which substance each one names, and the work sinks to decoration. - Celestial Atlas: Drawing the myth figures so large that the star positions vanish leaves a plate working neither as diagram nor as ornament. ## 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.
Related entries
- Alchemical Symbols medieval–18th century / Style / Symbol Systems
The signs that recorded substances and operations between secrecy and sharing. The system binding planets to metals vanished into chemical notation, but survives as the graphics of mystery, quoted to this day.
- Celestial Atlas 17th–19th century / Style / Diagrammatic Expression
The Baroque celestial atlas layering constellation mythology over observation. Cellarius's Harmonia Macrocosmica marks the summit of an age when scientific diagram could also be decorative art.
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