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 Đông Hồ Prints: Set the main animal large at center and align the rest in a row
- Type
- Set in Đông Hồ Prints's manner (A short inscription cut into the block and left in the margin), and let Nianhua's lettering (Auspicious phrases cut bold on red and banded above and below) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Đông Hồ Prints's material (Dó paper coated with shell powder, natural pigments printed color by color); bring in exactly one thing from Nianhua (One block per color, reds, yellows and greens pushed to saturation).
- Colour
- Build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
- Both belong to Popular Prints, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Đông Hồ Prints Reusing the satire as cute animal artwork drains the village philosophy out of it and leaves a souvenir motif.
- Nianhua Treating them as framed works to preserve destroys the yearly replacement that defines them, and the images stop doing their job.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Đông Hồ Prints (Style, 17th century–) and its accent from Nianhua (Style, Song dynasty–). Structural cues: Shell-powder paper that glimmers; A limited natural palette; Satire through animals; Renewed each New Year. Accent cues, used sparingly: Paired door gods; Saturated auspicious color; Regional workshop styles; Ephemeral, replaced yearly. Composition: Set the main animal large at center and align the rest in a row. Type and lettering: A short inscription cut into the block and left in the margin. Let one material quality come from the second style: One block per color, reds, yellows and greens pushed to saturation. Mood: Play, Intimacy, Nostalgia, Exhilaration. 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
- Đông Hồ Prints 17th century– / Style / Popular Prints
The woodblock prints of Vietnam's Đông Hồ village: printed with natural pigments on dó paper coated with ground seashell, New Year pictures like 'The Rat's Wedding' carrying village philosophy in satire and auspice.
- Nianhua Song dynasty– / Style / Popular Prints
At the Chinese New Year these woodblock prints go up on doors and interior walls. Door gods, wealth gods and opera scenes in vivid color, with regional styles such as Yangliuqing and Taohuawu, built a visual language centuries deep that later supplied socialist posters with their iconography.
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