Qinghai — Tea territories

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.


C3: LIVING TEA TERRITORIES. Make an oblique, connected illustrated tea world, held together by a locally meaningful river, street, mountain fold or caravan corridor. Large foreground hospitality or craft overlaps medium buildings and small distant geography. Five flat inks, expressive editorial drawing and carefully observed vessels. No administrative outline, amusement-park badge grid or generic ornamental tea leaves. Integrate a strong condensed regional heading in the lower rhythm, not in a separate title band.

REGION: Qinghai. Exact ink palette: #4C467C, #3F9AA1, #AC8743, #A66F83, #779676. The first colour supplies the main line; the others have deliberate separate roles, not gradients.

AUTHENTIC SUBJECT MATTER:
Three real drinking worlds are the heart of Qinghai: Hehuang/Pingan hospitality with a copper kettle and a three-piece Babao gaiwan; Huangyuan-style aocha with imported fuzhuan brick tea simmering in a simple pot, a broken tea brick nearby and two serving bowls; and Mado highland hospitality with a host, butter-tea churn and bowl beside a modest pastoral home. Keep the three actions visibly different, never three copies of the same teapot. No tea plants on the plateau. A smaller present-day traveller pours a thermos beside a Qinghai Lake shoreline, and a Repkong painter rests beside a plain tea cup, keeping the painted scroll free of invented text. These last two are authored everyday scenes, not claimed ritual sites. Low roof contours and a sparse ridge connect the encounters. Use one yak, a few water birds and a compact Xining street detail only as regional counterpoints. Do not assert that Chaka salt is an obligatory tea ingredient or that tourists are served inside monastery halls. The tea brick must read as compact leaf material rather than a chocolate bar.

SPECIFIC COMPOSITION:
Build one branching hospitality landscape: the foreground aocha hearth sits where a domestic path divides toward a Hehuang tea courtyard and a Mado household. A broad lake contour creates an airy middle space with a single traveller and thermos; the high ridge is a light far-distance return. A copper kettle and butter-tea churn form contrasting vertical anchors on opposite sides. Tuck the painter and plain tea cup into the household lane rather than making it another floating emblem. Place the title low in the lake opening. The region is united by cups shared across distances, not by an invented plateau plantation.

VISIBLE TYPE: exact main title "QINGHAI" once. Use only these optional small English labels, integrated beside the appropriate scenes and large enough to read: HEHUANG, AOCHA, MADO, BUTTER TEA, QINGHAI LAKE. Do not add other text. 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.