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 Color Field Painting: Reduce to two or three forms sized beyond the field of view
- Type
- Set in Color Field Painting's manner (Set type small at the margin so the field stays unbroken), and let Lyrical Abstraction's lettering (A light-weight seriffed face set small at one corner, never crossing the centre of the wash.) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Color Field Painting's material (Thinned paint soaked into cloth so no edge ever hardens); bring in exactly one thing from Lyrical Abstraction (Thinned colour on an absorbent ground, so the pigment spreads and the edge is decided by the substrate rather than by the hand.).
- Colour
- Build on #d87963, #7e596d, #2b2938 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
- Both belong to Postwar Abstract Painting, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Color Field Painting Do not settle for a gradient background. Design how area, adjacent color, edge and viewing distance change the feeling, because big color at small scale never envelops and ends as a swatch.
- Lyrical Abstraction Adding colours muddies the layers and loses the transparency, and one confident stroke in the middle turns the field into a logo, destroying the drift the style is made of.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Color Field Painting (Style, late 1940s–1960s) and its accent from Lyrical Abstraction (Style, 1947–1970s). Structural cues: Vast color fields; Soaked contours; Few forms; Immersive scale. Accent cues, used sparingly: Flowing brushwork; Layers of bleed and overlap; Light, transparent colour; Composition without a centre. Composition: Reduce to two or three forms sized beyond the field of view. Type and lettering: Set type small at the margin so the field stays unbroken. Let one material quality come from the second style: Thinned colour on an absorbent ground, so the pigment spreads and the edge is decided by the substrate rather than by the hand.. Mood: Calm, Luxury, Exhilaration, Intimacy. Color: build on #d87963, #7e596d, #2b2938 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
- Color Field Painting late 1940s–1960s / Style / Postwar Abstract Painting
Large continuous fields, soaked edges and few forms build a space of color that fills the entire surface and asks to be looked at for a long time.
- Lyrical Abstraction 1947–1970s / Style / Postwar Abstract Painting
Abstraction that leans neither on geometric discipline nor on violent gesture, assembling a lyric out of flowing strokes and bleeding colour. The name was born in Paris and was later applied in America to thinly painted, stained canvases. A reference point whenever softness and lightness have to be designed.
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