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 Pictorialism: Move the subject off center, gather the light in one area, sink the rest
- Type
- Set in Pictorialism's manner (Title and sign by hand in the print margin, never on the image), and let Tonalism's lettering (A serif with soft terminals printed a step lighter than black, sinking toward the ground) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Pictorialism's material (Soft focus, backlit mist, hand coated printing that keeps the paper texture); bring in exactly one thing from Tonalism (Narrow greys and browns darkened a step, with ink mixed toward the paper tone).
- Colour
- Build on #d6c7aa, #897562, #3d342c and admit one accent from #8d9698, #766025, #1c1e14.
Where they fight
- Pictorialism and Tonalism stand roughly 80 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.
Caution
- Pictorialism Applying blur uniformly afterwards leaves no trace of anyone following the light, and the result is simply a photograph out of focus.
- Tonalism Laying a grey wash over a high-contrast image: the tone has to be built into every value, or the result is a muddy filter rather than a unified key.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Pictorialism (style, late-1800s–c.1914) and their accent from Tonalism (style, 1880–1915). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Pictorialism exists for: portraits meant to be atmospheric pictures rather than records, or landscapes sold as works, with the handmade print part of the value. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Pictorialism - Soft focus - Mist and backlight - Painterly composition - Handcrafted prints Composition: Move the subject off center, gather the light in one area, sink the rest. Type and lettering: Title and sign by hand in the print margin, never on the image. ## Accent comes from Tonalism, used sparingly - A picture covered by a single tone - The light of mist and dusk - Contours that dissolve - A narrow range of greys and browns Let one material quality come from it: Narrow greys and browns darkened a step, with ink mixed toward the paper tone. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #d6c7aa, carry the structure in #897562 and #3d342c, and let a single accent come from #766025. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: intimacy, luxury, calm, nostalgia. ## Where they fight - Pictorialism and Tonalism stand roughly 80 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle. ## What goes wrong - Pictorialism: Applying blur uniformly afterwards leaves no trace of anyone following the light, and the result is simply a photograph out of focus. - Tonalism: Laying a grey wash over a high-contrast image: the tone has to be built into every value, or the result is a muddy filter rather than a unified key. ## 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
- Pictorialism late-1800s–c.1914 / Style / Photography Movements
Presented photography as art equal to painting, through soft focus, staged scenes and handworked prints.
- Tonalism 1880–1915 / Style / American Modern Art
An American landscape manner that covers the whole picture in a single tone and dissolves contour into mist and dusk. A narrow range of greys, blue-greys and browns with softened edges produces the vagueness of a landscape held in memory. Feeling designed through a restricted palette.
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