Hi. With the addition of Flux, I see a reason I need another cheatsheet, which means we get another cheatsheet.

This will be covering traditional illustration styles AND digital illustration styles. Why?

In Flux (and in other base models, as this is useful overall knowledge regarding art and medium), the base model leans very heavily into "realistic" results. If you want other results, you need to add those details to your prompts. This is a list of styles, a reference cheatsheet of sorts, to make dabbling in styles easily accessible.

This isn't a guide. You'll need to craft your own prompts. This is a quick cheatsheet/directory to speed the education process. Learning is fun, but button smashing remains my style of choice.

TEACH ME HOW TO MAKE IT DO PAINTING STUFF!

Traditional Illustration Styles

Pen and Ink:

Utilizes fine lines, cross-hatching, and stippling to create detailed and often monochromatic images. Commonly used in technical drawings, comics, and book illustrations.

Watercolor:

Known for its translucent and fluid qualities, allowing for a range of light washes to intense colors. It's often used for landscapes, portraits, and botanical illustrations.

Oil Painting:

Offers rich, vibrant colors and a glossy finish, with the ability to create detailed textures and deep layers. Traditionally used in fine art portraiture and landscapes.

Acrylic Painting:

Versatile and fast-drying, acrylics can mimic both watercolor and oil paint effects. Used in a wide range of applications from fine art to commercial illustrations.

Gouache:

An opaque watercolor that provides solid, vibrant colors with a matte finish. It's often used in graphic design, poster art, and illustrative works.

Pastel:

Soft pastels create smooth, blendable colors, while oil pastels offer a more vibrant, textured finish. Used in portraiture, landscapes, and still life.

Charcoal:

Offers deep blacks and a range of grays, ideal for expressive, dramatic drawings. Commonly used for life drawing and quick sketches.

Graphite/Pencil:

Versatile and precise, allowing for fine details and shading. Used in technical illustrations, portraits, and preparatory sketches.

Colored Pencil:

Provides vibrant colors with the ability to layer and blend. Used for detailed and realistic illustrations, especially in botanical and wildlife art.

Ink Wash:

Combines ink and water to create gradients and soft transitions. Used for atmospheric effects in landscape and figure drawings.

Collage:

Involves assembling different materials (paper, fabric, etc.) to create a composite image. Often used in modern and experimental illustrations.

Woodcut/Linocut:

Relief printing techniques that involve carving an image into a wood or linoleum block, inking it, and pressing it onto paper. Known for bold lines and strong contrasts.

Etching/Engraving:

Intaglio printing techniques where images are incised into a surface and ink is applied to create prints. Used for detailed and intricate illustrations.

Sumi-e:

Traditional East Asian brush painting that uses black ink and simple, expressive brushstrokes. Often depicts nature scenes like bamboo, landscapes, and animals.

Pointillism:

Creating images with small dots of color that blend together when viewed from a distance. Requires patience and precision, often used in detailed illustrations.

Tempera:

A fast-drying painting medium using pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder, like egg yolk. Known for its bright colors and smooth finish, used historically in manuscript illumination and icon painting.

Mixed Media:

Combining various traditional techniques and materials in one illustration. Allows for creative experimentation and unique textural effects.

Ink and Watercolor:

Combines the precise lines of ink drawing with the soft, flowing colors of watercolor. Often used in comics, children's books, and architectural illustrations.

BUT I WANNA MAKE DIGITAL ART!

Digital illustration Styles

Vector Art:

Created using vector graphics software like Adobe Illustrator. This style is characterized by clean lines and scalability without loss of quality, making it ideal for logos, icons, and illustrations that need to be resized frequently.

Pixel Art:

Involves creating images at the pixel level, often with a limited color palette. This style is reminiscent of early video game graphics and is popular in indie games and retro-themed artwork.

Digital Painting:

Mimics traditional painting techniques using software like Adobe Photoshop or Corel Painter. Artists use digital brushes to create detailed and textured images, often indistinguishable from traditional media.

Matte Painting:

Used in film and video game production to create detailed, realistic backgrounds and environments. This style often combines photographic elements with digital painting techniques.

3D Illustration:

Uses 3D modeling software like Blender or Autodesk Maya to create three-dimensional objects and scenes. These illustrations can be rendered to look photorealistic or stylized.

Concept Art:

Focuses on developing ideas for characters, environments, and objects in films, video games, and other media. This style is often highly detailed and designed to convey a clear vision of a concept.

Isometric Art:

A method of drawing three-dimensional objects in two dimensions. This style is popular in video games and technical illustrations for its ability to show multiple sides of an object simultaneously.

Flat Design:

Characterized by simple shapes, bold colors, and a lack of depth or texture. This minimalist style is popular in web design, mobile apps, and infographics.

Low Poly Art:

Uses a limited number of polygons to create simplified, geometric representations of objects. This style is often used in 3D modeling and animation for a stylized, abstract look.

Line Art:

Focuses on using lines to create illustrations, often without color or with minimal shading. This style is clean and precise, commonly used in technical drawings, tattoos, and minimalist artwork.

Photobashing:

Combines photographs and digital painting to create complex, detailed images. This technique is often used in concept art to quickly generate realistic scenes and characters.

Typography Art:

Uses typefaces and lettering as the primary visual element. This style is common in poster design, advertisements, and digital art that combines text and imagery.

Mixed Media:

Combines multiple digital techniques and sometimes traditional elements scanned into the digital workspace. This style allows for creative experimentation and unique textures.

Glitch Art:

Embraces digital errors and distortions as a stylistic choice. This can involve manipulating images or video frames to create a chaotic, fragmented aesthetic.

Chibi Art:

A style originating from Japanese anime and manga, featuring exaggerated, cute characters with large heads and small bodies. This style is popular in fan art and character design.

Silhouette Art:

Focuses on creating images using only the outline or shadow of the subject, often filled with a single color. This minimalist approach can be very striking and is often used in logo design and poster art.

Retro/Vintage Art:

Emulates the styles of past decades, incorporating elements like halftone dots, vintage color palettes, and nostalgic themes. This style is popular in marketing and graphic design.

Abstract Art:

Uses shapes, colors, and forms to create non-representational artwork. This style is often experimental and can evoke emotions and ideas without depicting recognizable objects.

Comic Art:

Mimics the style of comic books and graphic novels, often featuring bold lines, vibrant colors, and dynamic compositions. This style is used in webcomics, storyboarding, and illustrations.

Anime/Manga Style:

Reflects the aesthetics of Japanese animation and comics, characterized by detailed backgrounds, expressive characters, and dynamic action scenes. This style is popular in fan art, game art, and animated series.

THIS GUIDE SUCKS!

Special thanks to ChatGPT for compiling this list. If I had been forced to finger smash all this info on my phone, forget it. Hopefully this cheatsheet helps someone with their AI creations. Good luck.

Thanks for stopping by!