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 Celestial Atlas: Concentric spheres at the center, four corners filled with cartouches
- Type
- Set in Celestial Atlas's manner (Title inside an ornamented frame, star names tiny and italic), and let Photomicrography's lettering (Put magnification and a scale bar in the frame with the specimen name) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Celestial Atlas's material (Gold and hand color on deep blue, stars struck as engraved points); bring in exactly one thing from Photomicrography (Separate tissues by polarized or fluorescent color and record the basis).
- Colour
- Build on #e7ddcc, #b18651, #39485c and admit one accent from #f8f8f8, #5778b7, #020205.
Where they fight
- Celestial Atlas and Photomicrography stand roughly 190 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.
Caution
- Celestial Atlas Drawing the myth figures so large that the star positions vanish leaves a plate working neither as diagram nor as ornament.
- Photomicrography Scale bar and magnification get dropped while the color is being made beautiful, and the result becomes decoration that no longer works as a scientific figure.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Celestial Atlas (style, 17th–19th century) and their accent from Photomicrography (technique, 1840s–). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Celestial Atlas exists for: double-page plates for books and exhibitions on astronomy or navigation, or showing a whole body of knowledge on one sheet with its ornament intact. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Celestial Atlas - Myth figures over stars - Concentric celestial structure - Gold and blue coloring - Ornamented cartouches Composition: Concentric spheres at the center, four corners filled with cartouches. Type and lettering: Title inside an ornamented frame, star names tiny and italic. ## Accent comes from Photomicrography, used sparingly - Structures beyond sight - Specimens on black - Polarized and fluorescent color - The wonder of symmetry Let one material quality come from it: Separate tissues by polarized or fluorescent color and record the basis. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #e7ddcc, carry the structure in #b18651 and #39485c, and let a single accent come from #5778b7. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: exhilaration, luxury, calm, technique. ## Where they fight - Celestial Atlas and Photomicrography stand roughly 190 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle. ## What goes wrong - Celestial Atlas: Drawing the myth figures so large that the star positions vanish leaves a plate working neither as diagram nor as ornament. - Photomicrography: Scale bar and magnification get dropped while the color is being made beautiful, and the result becomes decoration that no longer works as a scientific figure. ## 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
- 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.
- Photomicrography 1840s– / Technique / Photographic Genres
Scientific photography that records, through a microscope, structures the eye cannot reach. Bentley's snowflakes proved the scientific image could be beautiful, and that claim runs on through polarized color and fluorescence to the Nikon Small World of today.
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