Stable Diffusion Prompts for Characters

Creating compelling characters is key to good storytelling. With AI art generators like Stable Diffusion, you can bring your characters to life visually with detailed prompts.

Here are some tips for writing great Stable Diffusion prompts to generate stunning character art:

Describe Physical Appearance

Focus first on defining the character’s physical attributes. Mention details like:

  • Hair color, length, texture
  • Eye color and shape
  • Skin tone
  • Distinct facial features
  • Body type and build
  • Clothing style and colors

For example:

An oil painting portrait of a fierce warrior woman with long, braided red hair, green eyes, and pale skin, wearing leather armor.

Convey Personality and Emotion

Go beyond physical depictions to suggest the character’s essence. Communicate details like:

  • Personality traits
  • Emotional state
  • Background story
  • Goals and motivations

This helps Stable Diffusion generate more unique and narrative art.

For example:

A melancholy painter with a far-away look in her eyes, wearing a French beret, painting a landscape at sunrise to represent her longing for adventure.

Specify Art Style

Define the desired art genre or stylistic elements so the AI rendering matches your vision, like:

  • Painting (oil, watercolor, etc)
  • Drawing style (realistic, cartoon, anime, etc.)
  • Art period/movement
  • Other stylistic keywords

For example:

A cubist portrait of a robot butler holding a futuristic martini glass, silver metal body with glowing blue eyes.

Use Multiple Prompts

Experiment with different prompts focused on the same character to generate alternate versions and angles.

For example:

1) An oil painting bust portrait of a wizard with a long white beard. He is wearing purple robes and a golden amulet.

2) The wizard from another angle, now showing his full figure as he reads an ancient leatherbound book while levitating with magic.

Show Character in Context

Place your characters into interesting scenes and environments to spark story ideas.

For example:

A brave knight stands atop a hillside castle, sword raised victoriously after battle, mountains visible under the setting sun.

Generate Consistent Characters

Use the same key terms when depicting the same character across multiple prompts. This helps maintain visual continuity.

For example, always describe the wizard from the earlier example with phrases like:

  • “The wizard”
  • “Long white beard”
  • “Purple robes”
  • “Golden amulet”

Use Negative Prompts

Add negative prompts to exclude unwanted elements from results like:

  • Poor anatomy
  • Extra limbs
  • Unnecessary backgrounds
  • Explicit content

For example:

Portrait of a female jester laughing, very detailed, highly detailed face, extremely detailed, digital painting, artstation, concept art, sharp focus, illustration, art by artgerm and greg rutkowski and alphonse mucha, negative prompt: poor anatomy, mutilated, mutated, mutated hands fingers, extra limbs, poorly drawn hands, malformed limbs, disfigured face, ugly, blurry, bad anatomy, extra appendages, cloned face

More Stable Diffusion Prompt Ideas

Here are some more character prompt examples to spark your creativity:

Fantasy Characters

An oil painting of a mystical elf druid, long golden hair adorned with flowers, casting a glowing spell with eyes closed in a lush magical forest.
Illustration of a battle axe-wielding orc warrior shouting a war cry, green skin, fangs, heavily scarred, dark charcoal fur loincloth, very detailed

Sci-Fi Characters

A portrait of a wise cyborg engineer against a futuristic city background, half her face replaced with glowing blue robotic parts, designing space ships
Manga drawing of a punk hacker girl with neon green hair typing furiously on three floating holographic computer screens, cyberpunk aesthetic.

Historical Figures

Watercolor painting of Amelia Earhart wearing her famous leather cap and goggles, warm smile, standing proudly in front of her red Lockheed Vega airplane.  
An oil painting of a Persian scholar and polymath in a library, long curly hair and beard, wearing a turban and vest, reading an ancient text filled with diagrams and symbols.

As you can see, crafting the right Stable Diffusion prompts is an art in itself! Use these examples to create stunning visual depictions of your own original characters.

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