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 Ex-Voto (Retablo): Divide into three, the holy image above, the incident between, the words below
- Type
- Set in Ex-Voto (Retablo)'s manner (Handwritten testimony packed along the bottom, name and date last), and let Posada's Calaveras's lettering (Headlines set as broadside type, packed above and below the image) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Ex-Voto (Retablo)'s material (Oil on small tin, drawing what matters large and ignoring perspective); bring in exactly one thing from Posada's Calaveras (Rough zinc-etched line printed black on coarse paper, trimmed close).
- Colour
- Build on #d9d6cb, #a18784, #2f1f17 and admit one accent from #f3e1d1, #e7b68e, #2e1911.
Where they fight
- Ex-Voto (Retablo) and Posada's Calaveras stand roughly 130 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.
Caution
- Ex-Voto (Retablo) Copying the naive picture and dropping the testimony leaves no one's incident on the panel, and the votive act itself goes missing.
- Posada's Calaveras Using the skeleton as a merely spooky motif blunts the satire that laughed at class, and the result becomes indistinguishable from seasonal decoration.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Ex-Voto (Retablo) (style, 18th century–) and their accent from Posada's Calaveras (style, 1880s–1913). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Ex-Voto (Retablo) exists for: personal testimony told with the words and the picture on one surface, or recording thanks one incident at a time on small panels. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Ex-Voto (Retablo) - Small tin panels - Scene, image and testimony in three layers - Naive perspective - Records of accident and miracle Composition: Divide into three, the holy image above, the incident between, the words below. Type and lettering: Handwritten testimony packed along the bottom, name and date last. ## Accent comes from Posada's Calaveras, used sparingly - Personified skeletons - Rough zinc-etched lines - Sharing the sheet with broadside type - Satire that laughs at death Let one material quality come from it: Rough zinc-etched line printed black on coarse paper, trimmed close. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #d9d6cb, carry the structure in #a18784 and #2f1f17, and let a single accent come from #e7b68e. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: intimacy, trust, nostalgia, rebellion, play. ## Where they fight - Ex-Voto (Retablo) and Posada's Calaveras stand roughly 130 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle. ## What goes wrong - Ex-Voto (Retablo): Copying the naive picture and dropping the testimony leaves no one's incident on the panel, and the votive act itself goes missing. - Posada's Calaveras: Using the skeleton as a merely spooky motif blunts the satire that laughed at class, and the result becomes indistinguishable from seasonal decoration. ## 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
- Ex-Voto (Retablo) 18th century– / Style / Popular Painting
Mexico's votive paintings give thanks for deliverance from disaster. Painted on tin, they hold the scene of the crisis, a holy image and a handwritten testimony on one small sheet, and the urgency of the untrained brush drew Kahlo and other modern painters to them.
- Posada's Calaveras 1880s–1913 / Style / Popular Prints
The skeleton satires Posada engraved for Mexican broadsides: dressed-up calaveras laughing at class and death alike. La Catrina became a national icon of the Day of the Dead and Mexican graphics.
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