Basics of Prompt Engineering

The simplest way of describing the central theme, subject, or figure in your prompt, for instance;

• Panda

• A warrior with a sword

• Skeleton

In simple prompts, this is often the center around which the rest of the prompt is built.

The style you choose is essential for your prompt. If the AI model doesn't recognize the style you've requested, it typically resorts to the most common style found in similar images.

For instance, if you use the core prompt "landscape," the model would probably create images that are either realistic or resemble an oil painting style.

Selecting a good style along with an effective core prompt can often be enough to bring your concept to life. After the core prompt, the style you choose has the biggest impact on the final image, especially with simpler prompts.

The most commonly used styles include:

1. Realistic

2. Oil painting

3. Pencil drawing

4. Concept art

There are a number of ways to invoke a style in your prompts.

To take an example from above, the following are ways you might format a prompt for a realistic image:

• a photo of [core prompt]

• a photograph of [core prompt]

• [core prompt], Hyperrealistic

• [core prompt], Realistic

You can, of course, combine these modifiers to pursue greater realism, but a little often goes a long way.

for an image in the style of an oil painting, adding something like “an oil painting of [core prompt]” to your prompt works well..

This sometimes results in the image showing an oil painting in a frame, to fix this you can just re-run the prompt

“An oil painting of a sword”

For an image in the style of a pencil drawing, one easy approach is to add “a pencil drawing of” to your core prompt or make your prompt “[core prompt] pencil drawing”.

“a pencil drawing of a sword”

The same applies to landscape art.

“A landscape painting of a zoo habitat”

2. Style

As a beginner, it's easy to rely on a simple prompt and think that's enough. Although basic prompts can produce decent results with newer models using the default settings, you might find that earlier models and non-default settings lead to lower image quality.

Additionally, while conceptually consistent with the prompt, these images are fairly generic. Their prompts could benefit from a lot more specificity, which is tied directly to…

1. Core Prompt

4. Finishing touches

To refine your style and create a more cohesive image, you can include the names of artists in your prompt. For example, if you're aiming for an abstract look, you might say "in the style of Pablo Picasso" or just "Picasso."

Here are lists of non-living artists categorized by style that you can use in your prompts. However, I encourage you to do your own research into art history; it’s a great way to understand the elements that resonate with you and to uncover amazing artists and artworks you might not have encountered before.

Portrait Artists

• John Singer Sargent

• Edgar Degas

• Paul Cézanne

• Jan van Eyck

Oil Painters

• Leonardo DaVinci

• Vincent Van Gogh

• Johannes Vermeer

• Rembrandt

Pen/Pencil Illustrators

• Albrecht Dürer

• Leonardo da Vinci

• Michelangelo

• Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Landscape Artists

• Thomas Moran

• Claude Monet

• Alfred Bierstadt

• Frederic Edwin Church

Note: Mixing the artists’ names can lead to interesting-looking art unlike anything any artist invoked ever made.

“An oil painting of a panda by Leonardo da Vinci and Frederic Edwin Church”

3. Artist

Finishing touches are the extra elements you add to your prompt to help achieve your vision. This is where some people tend to go overboard.

In simpler prompts, finishing touches could include phrases like “trending on ArtStation” for a polished look or “Unreal Engine” for realistic lighting. With more advanced prompts, it can get much more complex, but that’s outside the focus of this guide!

You can add any finishing touches you like, but here are some examples that tend to work well:

Highly-detailed, surrealism, trending on artstation, triadic color scheme, smooth, sharp focus, matte, elegant, illustration, digital paint, dark, gloomy, octane render, 8k, 4k, washed-out colors, sharp, dramatic lighting, beautiful, post-processing, picture of the day, ambient lighting, epic composition

“An oil painting of a panda by Leonardo da Vinci and Frederic Edwin Church, highly-detailed, dramatic lighting"