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 Scratchboard: Begin with black and cut only lit contours and focal detail into white
- Type
- Set in Scratchboard's manner (Use bold reversed headlines and keep fine copy in uninterrupted black fields), and let Woodcut's lettering (Contrast a heavy headline with the print's fine lines) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Scratchboard's material (Ink a white clay board and scratch varied lines and dots with needles, blades and scrapers); bring in exactly one thing from Woodcut (Ink black and paper; run the line direction along the form).
- Colour
- Build on #F4F0E5, #6F6458, #090909 and admit one accent from #e7dfca, #27231d, #8a6240.
Where they fight
- Scratchboard and Woodcut are techniques rather than looks. Decide which one runs last in the process, because that is the one that will show.
- Scratchboard and Woodcut stand roughly 1100 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.
Caution
- Scratchboard Inverting a black-and-white photograph is not scratchboard. Direction and width of cuts must describe surface and light.
- Woodcut Not a digital scuff texture. Design where the black stays and which way you carve.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Scratchboard (technique, 19th century–) and their accent from Woodcut (technique, 8th century–). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Scratchboard exists for: high-contrast illustration of animals, machines and figures, or giving dark packaging and posters a hard engraved light. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Scratchboard - Sharp white lines cut from a black ground - Contour and highlight joined by the same blade marks - Crossed lines and dots producing middle values - Broad retained black with concentrated white detail Composition: Begin with black and cut only lit contours and focal detail into white. Type and lettering: Use bold reversed headlines and keep fine copy in uninterrupted black fields. ## Accent comes from Woodcut, used sparingly - Direction of the cut - Hard black-white contrast - Density of line - The block's materiality Let one material quality come from it: Ink black and paper; run the line direction along the form. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #F4F0E5, carry the structure in #6F6458 and #090909, and let a single accent come from #8a6240. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: rebellion, luxury, technique, nostalgia, exhilaration. ## Where they fight - Scratchboard and Woodcut are techniques rather than looks. Decide which one runs last in the process, because that is the one that will show. - Scratchboard and Woodcut stand roughly 1100 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle. ## What goes wrong - Scratchboard: Inverting a black-and-white photograph is not scratchboard. Direction and width of cuts must describe surface and light. - Woodcut: Not a digital scuff texture. Design where the black stays and which way you carve. ## 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
- Scratchboard 19th century– / Technique / Hand-drawn
Scratchboard removes black ink from a white clay-coated board, drawing light and contour out of darkness; blade width, crossing and retained black create fur, metal and nocturnal contrast.
- Woodcut 8th century– / Technique / Relief Printing
Prints the surface left after carving, raising an image through line direction and the pressure of black and white.
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