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 Literati Painting: Let the void take the lead role and push the subject into a corner.
- Type
- Set in Literati Painting's manner (Treat calligraphy as part of the picture and use the seal as the keystone of the composition.), and let Sumi-e's lettering (A light mincho or brush letters, sparingly) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Literati Painting's material (Hold the gradations to a minimum with a dry brush and pale ink.); bring in exactly one thing from Sumi-e (Ink, unbleached paper, absorption, bleed).
- Colour
- Build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 and admit one accent from #eee9dc, #24231f, #8c887c.
Where they fight
- Both belong to East Asian Painting, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Literati Painting Feigning clumsiness is the opposite. The substance is a witheredness reached by standing on technique and stepping down from display.
- Sumi-e Not a black brush texture dropped in. Design the stroke order and the meaning of the emptiness.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Literati Painting (Style, 11th century–) and its accent from Sumi-e (Technique, Tang dynasty–present). Structural cues: Withered line from a dry brush; Poem, calligraphy and seal sharing one sheet; Pale gradations of ink; A stance that never displays skill. Accent cues, used sparingly: Ink gradation; Dry-brush scratch; Vast emptiness; The speed of one stroke. Composition: Let the void take the lead role and push the subject into a corner.. Type and lettering: Treat calligraphy as part of the picture and use the seal as the keystone of the composition.. Let one material quality come from the second style: Ink, unbleached paper, absorption, bleed. Mood: Calm, Intimacy, Luxury. Color: build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 with a single accent drawn from #eee9dc, #24231f, #8c887c. 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
- Literati Painting 11th century– / Style / East Asian Painting
Painting made by scholar officials rather than professional painters, not to sell but to show their own spirit. It valued the spirit of the brush above skill and treated poetry, calligraphy, painting and seal as equals on one sheet. At the core of the style is a refusal to fear looking unskilled.
- Sumi-e Tang dynasty–present / Technique / East Asian Painting
With only ink gradations and emptiness, keeps a subject's presence, speed and distance rather than its shape.
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