Style combination · Pairs well

Batik Pattern Tradition × Javanese Wayang Kulit

Both are court arts of Yogyakarta and Surakarta; set one coded figure against batik's all-over repeat to pair a single focus with a patterned field.

From the research on Javanese Wayang Kulit (Tatah Sungging)

Mix them and make something Batik Pattern Tradition Javanese Wayang Kulit

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Javanese Wayang Kulit, their arrangement from Batik Pattern Tradition, the finish from Javanese Wayang Kulit. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Batik Pattern Tradition Javanese Wayang Kulit (Tatah Sungging)

Type from Batik Pattern Tradition
Colour from Batik Pattern Tradition: Earth & mineral
Analogous harmony
Form from Javanese Wayang Kulit: Stylised figuration
Distortion & exaggeration
Composition from Batik Pattern Tradition: All-over field
Horror vacui

Javanese Wayang Kulit avoids all-over field: this is where the two pull against each other.
Surface from Javanese Wayang Kulit: Carved line
Flat

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Batik Pattern Tradition

Ours

Rakkas, standing in for Arabic calligraphy of batik besurek (Bengkulu) and Cirebon

Text · Javanese Wayang Kulit

The visual language of Javanese shadow puppets: flat figures cut from buffalo parchment, with head and legs in profile, shoulders turned to the front and long jointed arms worked by horn rods. Their insides are punched into filigree that draws costume and jewellery in light on the screen; both faces are painted in stepped colour gradations and gilded, for viewers on the puppeteer's side. Eyes, nose, head tilt, stance, size and face colour code each character as refined, strong, coarse or comic (the much-loved panakawan clowns); the leaf-shaped gunungan opens and closes the play.

Bodoni Moda; Javanese Wayang Kulit used Aksara Jawa (hanacaraka), the Javanese script of court manuscripts, whose illustrated narrative poems draw their figures in wayang style and Noto Sans Javanese (the Noto Javanese project, SIL Open Font License) for setting character names and captions in aksara Jawa

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Batik Pattern Tradition, with a counter-accent from Javanese Wayang Kulit. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Batik Pattern Tradition Javanese Wayang Kulit (Tatah Sungging)

#2a1c14 ground · 36%
#ecdcbc ink · 14%
#a6322b accent · 18%
#2c6aa0 accent · 14%
#c9a33b accent · 10%
#6b3e1e accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #2a1c14;
  --ink: #ecdcbc;
  --accent-1: #a6322b;
  --accent-2: #2c6aa0;
  --accent-3: #c9a33b;
  --accent-4: #6b3e1e;
  --font-display: "Rakkas", cursive;
  --font-text: "Bodoni Moda", serif;
}

Use it with care

Batik Pattern Tradition: Batik is inscribed by UNESCO as Indonesian intangible cultural heritage (2009), and some court motifs such as parang rusak were historically reserved for royalty and carry philosophical meanings. Learn a motif's meaning before using it, credit the region and makers, and do not market printed batik-look fabric as hand-drawn or stamped batik.

Javanese Wayang Kulit (Tatah Sungging): Wayang kulit is a living Javanese theatre and craft, on UNESCO's intangible heritage list (proclaimed 2003, inscribed 2008): its puppets are made by carvers and painters for working dalang, and some performances are rites, such as the ruwatan exorcism held for children born under unlucky circumstances. Every figure is a particular character whose eyes, nose, head tilt, stance, size and face colour carry meaning, so do not assemble invented characters from mixed features or use a puppet as generic 'exotic' decoration. Semar, father of the other panakawan, is said to be the god Sang Hyang Ismaya in human form and is held by some to be the most sacred figure of the set, so do not reduce him to a clown or mascot. Never use kasar features such as fangs, red faces and bulging eyes to caricature real people, ethnic or religious groups. Commission or credit Javanese carvers and dalang rather than tracing museum puppets, many of which left Java under colonial rule. Do not sell printed or machine-cut copies as hand-carved tatah sungging, and never present a generated figure as a real wayang character.

The two styles

A dense repeating botanical pattern features rust-red flowers, indigo leaves, brown curling fronds, and cream leafy stems arranged in flowing diagonal bands. Fine dotted details and branching crackle lines give the flat design a batik-like appearance.

1600–present · Southeast Asia Batik Pattern Tradition The Javanese wax-resist textile tradition in which hot wax is drawn with a canting or stamped with a copper cap, then dyed in successive baths to build layered all-over patterns. Court batik of Yogyakarta and Surakarta keeps to indigo, soga brown and cream with diagonal parang and four-lobed kawung repeats; north-coast batik absorbs Chinese, Dutch and Arab motifs in brighter colour. 1500–present · Southeast Asia Javanese Wayang Kulit (Tatah Sungging) The visual language of Javanese shadow puppets: flat figures cut from buffalo parchment, with head and legs in profile, shoulders turned to the front and long jointed arms worked by horn rods. Their insides are punched into filigree that draws costume and jewellery in light on the screen; both faces are painted in stepped colour gradations and gilded, for viewers on the puppeteer's side. Eyes, nose, head tilt, stance, size and face colour code each character as refined, strong, coarse or comic (the much-loved panakawan clowns); the leaf-shaped gunungan opens and closes the play.