Specifying art styles in a Stable Diffusion prompt

When creating AI-generated art with Stable Diffusion, the prompt you provide is crucial for guiding the output. A key part of crafting an effective prompt is specifying the desired art style, which allows you to tailor the aesthetic of the final image.

In this article, we will provide examples of prompts for various art styles that can be used with Stable Diffusion. We will cover both classic art movements as well as modern digital art styles.

What is Stable Diffusion?

Stable Diffusion is an open-source AI model developed by Stability AI that generates images from text descriptions. It has been pre-trained on millions of image-text pairs using a technique called “diffusion models”, allowing it to produce coherent, high-quality images for a wide range of prompts.

By fine-tuning Stable Diffusion prompts and providing detailed descriptions, users can steer the AI to create images in specific styles. Let’s look at some examples.

Classic Art Movements

Many classical art styles can be simulated by Stable Diffusion, allowing you to give your AI art a more traditional look and feel. Here are prompts for some well-known art movements:

Impressionism

Impressionist painting featuring a landscape of water lilies on a pond, in the style of Claude Monet, with visible thick brush strokes in bright colors

Cubism

A cubist portrait of a woman playing a guitar, geometrically fragmented in the style of Pablo Picasso, oil on canvas

Art Nouveau

An art nouveau illustration with floral ornamentation and curves, featuring a woman with long hair looking into a hand mirror, in the style of Alphonse Mucha

Pop Art

A pop art graphic poster of Marilyn Monroe in the bright and bold style of Andy Warhol, screen print on canvas

Modern Digital Art

Stable Diffusion also works very well for emulating modern digital art styles like those seen on concept art sites and NFT marketplaces. Here are some examples:

Concept Art

A highly detailed digital concept art landscape featuring medieval towers and bridges over a canyon, misty mountains in the background, dynamic lighting, trending on ArtStation

Low Poly

A low poly 3D render of a fox in a forest scene, soft lighting coming through the trees, detailed textures, cinematic depth of field

Voxel Art

A voxel art version of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, converted to cubes and rectangles, straight lines and hard edges, 8-bit texture

Generative Art

A generative abstract digital artwork with colorful overlapping shapes and fluid lines, creating an organic composition, 4K resolution

Tips for Art Style Prompts

When specifying an art style in your Stable Diffusion prompts, keep these tips in mind:

  • Reference 1-2 example artists when indicating a style
  • Use adjectives like “thick brush strokes” and “geometrically fragmented”
  • Mention the art medium where relevant, like “oil on canvas”
  • For modern digital styles, include relevant terms like “cinematic lighting”
  • Specify the desired composition and level of detail

The more descriptive you can be for the AI, the better your results will align with the envisioned style.

Conclusion

With the prompt examples and tips covered in this article, you should feel more confident in guiding Stable Diffusion to generate images in your desired artistic style.

Remember that effectively prompting AI art requires an iterative process of refining and experimenting. Don’t be afraid to try many variations of a style prompt to land on something you like.

Over time and with more practice, you will get better at “speaking the language” of this creative AI to produce stunning images infused with your own artistic vision.

Useful Websites for Stable Diffusion