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 Lowbrow (Pop Surrealism): A central face with the surround filled by emblem-like motifs
- Type
- Set in Lowbrow (Pop Surrealism)'s manner (Sign-painter and comic lettering rendered as carefully as the art), and let Powell Peralta Deck Graphics's lettering (The name drawn by hand at the stroke weight of the art and built into the emblem) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Lowbrow (Pop Surrealism)'s material (Oil gloss and smooth gradation, brushwork sanded away); bring in exactly one thing from Powell Peralta Deck Graphics (Flat color inside heavy black outline, printed in few screens, with knockouts of bare wood as part of the figure).
- Colour
- Build on #e2cfd6, #1152b3, #121112 and admit one accent from #f8d916, #bc3c09, #231008.
Where they fight
- Lowbrow (Pop Surrealism) and Powell Peralta Deck Graphics both belong to Illustration Styles, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Lowbrow (Pop Surrealism) Picking creepy subject matter while skipping the rendering craft turns the work into doodling that only wants to shock.
- Powell Peralta Deck Graphics Leaning into fine detail costs the emblem its reading the first time it grinds, so the more a board is ridden the less it names.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Lowbrow (Pop Surrealism) (style, 1979–) and their accent from Powell Peralta Deck Graphics (style, 1980s). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Lowbrow (Pop Surrealism) exists for: artwork for record labels, skate brands and tattoo shops, or covers for shows or books that reject museum politeness outright. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Lowbrow (Pop Surrealism) - Pop-culture iconography - Precise classical technique - Uneasy humor - Street-born heraldry Composition: A central face with the surround filled by emblem-like motifs. Type and lettering: Sign-painter and comic lettering rendered as carefully as the art. ## Accent comes from Powell Peralta Deck Graphics, used sparingly - One emblem filling the underside of the deck - The figure held symmetrically at the center - Heavy black outline over flat color - A heraldry built from bones and skulls Let one material quality come from it: Flat color inside heavy black outline, printed in few screens, with knockouts of bare wood as part of the figure. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #e2cfd6, carry the structure in #1152b3 and #121112, and let a single accent come from #bc3c09. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: rebellion, play, nostalgia, exhilaration. ## Where they fight - Lowbrow (Pop Surrealism) and Powell Peralta Deck Graphics both belong to Illustration Styles, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable. ## What goes wrong - Lowbrow (Pop Surrealism): Picking creepy subject matter while skipping the rendering craft turns the work into doodling that only wants to shock. - Powell Peralta Deck Graphics: Leaning into fine detail costs the emblem its reading the first time it grinds, so the more a board is ridden the less it names. ## 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
- Lowbrow (Pop Surrealism) 1979– / Style / Illustration Styles
Painting from outside the museum, schooled on hot rods, comics, tattoos and B movies. It renders pop memory in exacting oil technique, and Juxtapoz magazine gave it a home under the name Pop Surrealism.
- Powell Peralta Deck Graphics 1980s / Style / Illustration Styles
Imagery that fills the whole underside of a deck with a single emblem. Bones, skulls and dragons in heavy outline, set on the board as a team's flag in full knowledge that grinding will wear them away.
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