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 Cloisonné: Divide the entire field into closed cells, leaving no area outside a cell. The smallest cell is set by the width the line can hold
- Type
- Set in Cloisonné's manner (Enclose letters the way the design encloses colour. Avoid typefaces too fine to survive the width of the wire), and let Cloisonnism's lettering (Set lettering outside the cells in black at the keyline weight, hand drawn or slab) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Cloisonné's material (Fence with metal lines and fill each cell with a glassy colour. Keep the lines the colour of metal and never let one area of colour cross a line); bring in exactly one thing from Cloisonnism (Flat unmodulated colour from memory inside dark contours, with no shadow or gradient).
- Colour
- Build on #1F5FA0, #C9A227, #B03A2E and admit one accent from #d7d4bf, #bd3c10, #151215.
Where they fight
These are already listed as related entries, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- Cloisonné Drawing the lines as decoration without actually closing the cells lets colour escape and reduces the technique to a mere outline.
- Cloisonnism Adding heavy outlines afterwards produces no division of colour, only an ordinary picture inside lines. Letting shading or depth back into the cells breaks the enamel like flatness.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Cloisonné (technique, ancient–) and their accent from Cloisonnism (style, 1888–1895). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Cloisonné exists for: designing a multicolour version of a crest or a logo where colours are separated rather than blended, or building a diagram or a map in which the outline itself carries the ornament. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Cloisonné - Every area of colour is fenced by a thin metal line, and the lines divide the whole design without a break - No two colours bleed into each other - Only the lines give back the light of metal rather than of glass - The ground is metal or porcelain, so the design wraps a curved vessel instead of sitting on a flat panel Composition: Divide the entire field into closed cells, leaving no area outside a cell. The smallest cell is set by the width the line can hold. Type and lettering: Enclose letters the way the design encloses colour. Avoid typefaces too fine to survive the width of the wire. ## Accent comes from Cloisonnism, used sparingly - Thick, dark contour lines - Flat colour fields without shading - Decoratively simplified shapes - Colouring drawn from memory Let one material quality come from it: Flat unmodulated colour from memory inside dark contours, with no shadow or gradient. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #C9A227, carry the structure in #B03A2E and #1F5FA0, and let a single accent come from #bd3c10. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: technique, luxury, exhilaration, intimacy, calm. ## What goes wrong - Cloisonné: Drawing the lines as decoration without actually closing the cells lets colour escape and reduces the technique to a mere outline. - Cloisonnism: Adding heavy outlines afterwards produces no division of colour, only an ordinary picture inside lines. Letting shading or depth back into the cells breaks the enamel like flatness. ## 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
- Cloisonné ancient– / Technique / Vessel and Craft Techniques
A technique of enamelling in which thin metal strips are laid on a metal or porcelain ground to form chambers, and vitreous enamel paste is packed into each chamber. The strips survive the firing as visible metal lines, so every area of colour stays closed inside a line. Getty files it under processes rather than styles.
- Cloisonnism 1888–1895 / Style / Fin de Siècle Art
A manner of painting named after the partitions of cloisonné enamel: flat fields of colour enclosed by heavy contour lines. It brought the way of seeing of ukiyo-e prints and stained glass into oil painting, abandoning shaded volume in favour of colour laid down from memory. The technique that prepared the flatness of the poster.
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