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 CoBrA: No underdrawing, creatures pushed to the edges, gaps filled after
- Type
- Set in CoBrA's manner (Letters drawn by hand, uneven in size, living beside the figures), and let Lowbrow (Pop Surrealism)'s lettering (Sign-painter and comic lettering rendered as carefully as the art) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in CoBrA's material (Thick red, blue, yellow and black with brushmarks left showing); bring in exactly one thing from Lowbrow (Pop Surrealism) (Oil gloss and smooth gradation, brushwork sanded away).
- Colour
- Build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
These two are already listed as related, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- CoBrA Aiming to look unskilled produces neither the speed of the hand nor a creature that exists, only a picture performing childishness.
- Lowbrow (Pop Surrealism) Picking creepy subject matter while skipping the rendering craft turns the work into doodling that only wants to shock.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from CoBrA (Style, 1948–1951) and its accent from Lowbrow (Pop Surrealism) (Style, 1979–). Structural cues: The directness of children's drawing; Rough-brushed creatures; Colliding primaries; The refusal of planning. Accent cues, used sparingly: Pop-culture iconography; Precise classical technique; Uneasy humor; Street-born heraldry. Composition: No underdrawing, creatures pushed to the edges, gaps filled after. Type and lettering: Letters drawn by hand, uneven in size, living beside the figures. Let one material quality come from the second style: Oil gloss and smooth gradation, brushwork sanded away. Mood: Rebellion, Play, Exhilaration, Nostalgia. 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
- CoBrA 1948–1951 / Style / Avant-garde
A postwar avant-garde that linked Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam. Holding up the directness of children's drawings and folk art, it painted rough-brushed creatures in primary colors and turned distrust of refinement into an international style.
- Lowbrow (Pop Surrealism) 1979– / Style / Illustration Styles
Painting from outside the museum, schooled on hot rods, comics, tattoos and B movies. It renders pop memory in exacting oil technique, and Juxtapoz magazine gave it a home under the name Pop Surrealism.
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