Compose two styles
Rather than blending two styles into a middle, this assigns them roles: one carries the structure, the other appears as an accent. Where the two fight, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Arabic Calligraphy: Work right to left, shape the mass through overlap and empty ground
- Type
- Set in Arabic Calligraphy's manner (Choose one script and follow its proportions for joining and stacking), and let Seal Engraving's lettering (Seal-script strokes stretched per character to fill the field) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Arabic Calligraphy's material (Thick and thin from the reed angle, gold and blue kept to ornament); bring in exactly one thing from Seal Engraving (Cinnabar red on white paper, chipped stone and blade tremor kept).
- Colour
- Build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
- Both belong to Calligraphic Traditions, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Arabic Calligraphy Setting Arabic letter by letter as if it were Latin breaks the joins, and the word stops being readable long before it stops being beautiful.
- Seal Engraving Squeezing an existing typeface into a square without designing how the strokes breathe produces a cramped block instead of a seal.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Arabic Calligraphy (Style, 7th century–) and its accent from Seal Engraving (Technique, Qin dynasty–). Structural cues: Architectural letterforms; Canonical scripts; Breathing thick-and-thin; Composition united with ornament. Accent cues, used sparingly: Red-white reversal; Seal-script line design; Composition in centimeters; The texture of carved stone. Composition: Work right to left, shape the mass through overlap and empty ground. Type and lettering: Choose one script and follow its proportions for joining and stacking. Let one material quality come from the second style: Cinnabar red on white paper, chipped stone and blade tremor kept. Mood: Luxury, Calm, Trust. Color: build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 with a single accent drawn from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615. Constraints: do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. Produce an original composition in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Arabic Calligraphy 7th century– / Style / Calligraphic Traditions
A tradition that holds writing to be the highest of the arts. From Kufic to Thuluth it has gone on refining an architecture of line, in the tension between canon and individual hand.
- Seal Engraving Qin dynasty– / Technique / Calligraphic Traditions
East Asia's seal art: seal script carved in stone, composed in a few square centimeters through the reversal of red and white (zhuwen and baiwen). Participating in paintings as signature, it perfected design inside the small square.
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