When working with AI images, you often run into a dilemma: “How can I maintain this great style while drawing different scenes or objects?” You might have had the experience where you love a character, but when you try to make it do something else, the art style changes completely.
At ai.imagenerate, we use a workflow that divides prompts into two types to effectively solve this problem: the ‘Reference Prompt’ and the ‘Design Prompt.’
1. What is a Reference Prompt? (The DNA of an Image)
The Reference Prompt is a set of commands that determines the overall ‘art style’ and ‘mood’ of the image to be generated. Think of it as the DNA of the drawing, the artistic school of thought, or the film type and lens for a photograph. It includes information such as:
- Art Style: e.g.,
in the style of rubber hose cartoon,linocut print,ukiyo-e - Mood & Texture: e.g.,
vintage,minimalist,retro,detailed illustration - Color Palette: e.g.,
black and white,vibrant pastel colors
By keeping this reference prompt fixed, all future images you generate will have the same identity.
2. What is a Design Prompt? (The Script for an Image)
The Design Prompt is like a script that describes what to specifically draw in the image—the ‘subject’ and the ‘situation.’ If the reference prompt sets the stage, the design prompt directs the actor and their actions on that stage.
- Subject: e.g.,
a happy hot dog,a brave knight,a cup of coffee - Action & Scene: e.g.,
jumping with joy,fighting a dragon,on a wooden table
3. The Power of Combination: Consistency + Variety
The true power of these two prompts lies in their ‘combination.’ We typically structure our prompts in the following format:
[Reference Prompt] + [Design Prompt]
For example, what happens if we keep the reference prompt ‘in the style of a rubber hose cartoon’ fixed and only change the design prompt?
- (Reference)
in the style of 1930s rubber hose cartoon, vintage, black and white+ (Design)a happy hot dog jumping with joy→ Result: A black and white cartoon of a happy, jumping hot dog. - (Reference)
in the style of 1930s rubber hose cartoon, vintage, black and white+ (Design)a sad robot rusting in the rain→ Result: A black and white cartoon of a sad, rusting robot in the rain. - (Reference)
in the style of 1930s rubber hose cartoon, vintage, black and white+ (Design)a brave knight fighting a dragon→ Result: A black and white cartoon of a brave knight fighting a dragon.
As a result, the art style and mood are perfectly unified, while the story’s content can be infinitely expanded. Sometimes, we achieve even more precise style control by splitting the reference prompt into a prefix and a suffix that wrap around the design prompt.
This is the secret to how we at ai.imagenerate can provide a large volume of high-quality image series with a consistent style. As you look at the other images on our site, try to imagine what the ‘Reference Prompt’ for each series might be, and what the ‘Design Prompt’ for each individual image is. You might discover another layer of fun in AI image generation.