Shanxi — Lines of Travel

RENDERING REQUIREMENTS: Produce a new, completely crisp region-specific illustration. Borrow ONLY drawing style from the references; do not copy their region, title or place names. Use the exact region and English lettering in the brief. No blurred patches, mist, smoky shading, translucent brush smears or soft-focus architectural details. No clipping of objects or letters: keep an 80-pixel clear safety margin around the complete composition. True PNG RGBA transparency between the drawn shapes; no opaque white or coloured backing. Sharp ink edges, legible deliberate lettering.

Create one exceptional, completely flat regional ceramic-print artwork. This is the actual printable illustration, never a cup, product photograph, mockup, presentation board or simulated ceramic surface. The collection reference controls drawing language only: invent a new composition for the specified region and replace all Guangdong-specific objects. The source map supplies a regional inventory, not a paper texture or a layout to trace literally.

TECHNICAL CONTRACT: native canvas exactly 3840 x 1280 pixels, true RGBA PNG. Keep every visible mark, letter, ornament and antialiased edge inside x=60..3780 and y=110..1170. The final delivery will use a centered 3840 x 1152 export for a 250 x 75 mm wrap; leave the native safety area completely transparent. Compose for a long horizontal physical print, not a conventional poster. Nothing is cut off at either end. All exterior space and meaningful holes between objects must have alpha zero. No painted background, white underpainting, sky rectangle, tinted paper, land silhouette, colour fog, opaque backdrop or checkerboard. The wearer-visible ceramic supplies the unprinted space. Use the specified colours as ink, with normal edge antialiasing; do not invent extra white, black or metallic ink. Never print dimensions, crop marks, palette swatches, filenames, reference names or instructions.

ART DIRECTION: create a memorable hierarchy, a major focal scene and a quieter counterweight; alternate large close forms with medium stories and a few small discoveries. Let tea life interact with the region. Connect selected objects through a real roofline, tabletop, lane, ridge or river contour; retain clear breathing channels so each gesture and vessel is legible. Do not impose any percentage of empty space. Avoid both a cramped rectangular carpet and timid isolated stickers. Use confident, intentional linework that will survive the 75 mm print height. Limit texture to useful material clues. Any water, snow, steam or clouds are sparse outlines with transparent interiors, never washed fills. No photographic gradients, glow, heavy grunge, blurred edges or tiny illegible hatch fields.

FACTUAL DISCIPLINE: the scenes below distinguish cultivation, processing, trade, hospitality and non-tea infusions. Do not turn imported tea, berries, ginseng, barley, trees or grasslands into tea plantations. Do not invent a local tea cultivar, a named historic tea shop, medical effects, a precise trade route or archaeological evidence. Landmarks are cultural/geographic motifs, not assertions that tea was grown or traded at their gates. A contemporary tea pause next to a landmark is an authored scene, not a documentary historical claim. Keep people natural and respectful, with plausible hands and gestures; use no decorative pseudo-script.


C6: JOURNEY IN MOTION. The Guangdong journey-lines language becomes a region-specific sweeping diagonal or shallow S: energetic angular ink, a bold lightly slanted regional title, directional line accents and three flat inks. A close tea-making gesture or vessel anchors the foreground while local transport, architecture and landforms recede and return. The entire print should have a clear direction of movement, varied silhouette and a second discovery on the reverse side of the cup. No speed-line background, watercolor mist or row of stickers.

REGION: Shanxi. Exact ink palette: #3A3C49, #B28A39, #797356. The first colour supplies the main line; the others have deliberate separate roles, not gradients.

AUTHENTIC SUBJECT MATTER:
Draw the contrasting human-made silhouettes of a Pingyao city gate, a Qiao-style courtyard roof plan, the tall stepped Yingxian wooden pagoda, and a Hanging Temple attached to one sheer Hengshan cliff. A much smaller Wutai white-stupa silhouette and respectful Yungang cave openings belong in the distance. The Hukou waterfall is a set of powerful open descending strokes, while loess cave-house arches and Taihang ridges carry the travel rhythm. Include one iron-ox sculpture outline as a compact material-culture detail and two Bactrian camels with tea bundles. Replace the unverified Shangdang tea terraces with a small forsythia branch and separate herbal glass, keeping the main tea story in merchant work and hospitality. No opaque province map, impossible cliff-support structures or equal-scale monument wall.

Tea anchors that remain visible: tea-bale inspection, weighing and merchant accounting in a Qixian-type courtyard, a guest tea table, northward caravan transport, and a separate forsythia herbal infusion.

SPECIFIC COMPOSITION:
Drive the eye along an ascending caravan path from a close bale-opening hand at lower left, through the accounting and tea table in the center, toward a northward gate at upper right. A narrow pagoda interrupts the diagonal while a cliff-hung temple and the downward Hukou flow create a counter-motion on the opposite side. Loess dwelling arches are short, angular rhythmic marks, not a filled hillside. Place slanted SHANXI above the lower pass opening. The traveller must visibly carry bundles; do not multiply camels into a decorative pattern. A separate forsythia leaf tray closes the composition near the guest cup.

VISIBLE TYPE: exact main title "SHANXI" once. The regional title is the only printed text. Do not add small location labels. No Chinese characters, bilingual captions, pseudo-calligraphy, gibberish, slogans, logos or signatures. Prioritize visual storytelling over words. Do not allow letters to merge with foliage or buildings. The design must feel like a collectible regional artwork that a tea professional would want to handle and study.