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 Épinal Print: Panels ruled into an even grid, the story moving top row to bottom
- Type
- Set in Épinal Print's manner (One caption line under each panel, one face and one measure throughout), and let Lubok's lettering (Hand-written text poured around the picture and framed as one unit) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Épinal Print's material (A black outline plate with four bright stencil colors, slight misfit kept); bring in exactly one thing from Lubok (Thick woodcut outlines with red, yellow and green washed past the line).
- 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.
- Roughly 1779 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.
Caution
- Épinal Print Copying only the bright color and the neat frames removes the moral spine of the story and leaves a cliche that sells nothing but nostalgia.
- Lubok Tidying the outline and keeping the color inside it removes the misregistration and rough hand that carried the warmth of a popular print.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Épinal Print (Style, 1796–) and its accent from Lubok (Style, 17th–19th century). Structural cues: Clear outlines; Bright stencil coloring; Stories in panels; Morals and hero tales. Accent cues, used sparingly: Thick outlines; Flat hand-coloring; Image and text together; Satire and story. Composition: Panels ruled into an even grid, the story moving top row to bottom. Type and lettering: One caption line under each panel, one face and one measure throughout. Let one material quality come from the second style: Thick woodcut outlines with red, yellow and green washed past the line. Mood: Intimacy, Nostalgia, Play. 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
- Épinal Print 1796– / Style / Popular Prints
Pellerin of Épinal mass-produced popular prints whose clear outlines and stencil color told stories, armies and morals. They shaped popular vision so completely that 'image d'Épinal' came to mean a rosy cliché.
- Lubok 17th–19th century / Style / Popular Prints
Russia's popular print: thick outlines, flat hand-coloring, image and text sharing the sheet, circulating sacred stories and satire cheaply. The avant-garde rediscovered it in the 20th century as Russia's native form.
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