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 Natural History Plate: Several specimens arranged symmetrically, the largest at the center
- Type
- Set in Natural History Plate's manner (Plate number in a corner, species names in a key clear of the image), and let Photomicrography's lettering (Put magnification and a scale bar in the frame with the specimen name) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Natural History Plate's material (Chromolithography or hand-colored copperplate, plain ground, no shadow); bring in exactly one thing from Photomicrography (Separate tissues by polarized or fluorescent color and record the basis).
- Colour
- Build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
- Roughly 1822 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.
Caution
- Natural History Plate Enjoying the parade of strange forms first breaks the scale and the taxonomic order, and the plate becomes useless as a record.
- Photomicrography Scale bar and magnification get dropped while the color is being made beautiful, and the result becomes decoration that no longer works as a scientific figure.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Natural History Plate (Style, 18th–19th century) and its accent from Photomicrography (Technique, 1840s–). Structural cues: Symmetrical specimen layouts; Taxonomic completeness; Precision beside ornament; Systematic plate numbering. Accent cues, used sparingly: Structures beyond sight; Specimens on black; Polarized and fluorescent color; The wonder of symmetry. Composition: Several specimens arranged symmetrically, the largest at the center. Type and lettering: Plate number in a corner, species names in a key clear of the image. Let one material quality come from the second style: Separate tissues by polarized or fluorescent color and record the basis. Mood: Exhilaration, Calm, Technology. 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
- Natural History Plate 18th–19th century / Style / Natural History Illustration
The naturalist's plates showing unknown life as both taxonomy and wonder. The symmetrical compositions of Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur became the junction where science plates flowed into Art Nouveau's language of form.
- Photomicrography 1840s– / Technique / Photographic Genres
Scientific photography that records, through a microscope, structures the eye cannot reach. Bentley's snowflakes proved the scientific image could be beautiful, and that claim runs on through polarized color and fluorescence to the Nikon Small World of today.
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