Peek into any AI art community, and you'll be wowed by the surprisingly unique image generations. While there's a lot that goes into a successful AI art prompt, I've found that most of the time, those wow images are so good because they use style words in the prompt. It's a simple trick, but it's one you can start using right now to improve your AI-generated images. Note: Each AI image generator will interpret the styles in a different way. In all the examples below, I've used Midjourney, but I spot-checked in other art generators, and most of these should work in whatever app you're using-it'll just look a bit different.
What are AI art styles?
AI art styles are specific terms that refer to mediums, materials, photography concepts, lighting, color palettes, or other art-related descriptors. These words can give you precise control over the resulting image, transforming your outputs from average to amazing. But to achieve the best effects, you'll need to build up a specialized vocabulary of styles. I've split it up into five categories of AI image styles, each with loads of examples. Read on for specifics on what the results look like for each, or scroll to the end for a list of all the different art styles.
Types of art styles for AI
Medium
When specifying a medium in your AI prompts, you're guiding the AI to mimic the appearance and characteristics of traditional art methods. This can drastically alter the feel of your generated image, making it resemble a watercolor painting, a detailed charcoal sketch, or any other artistic approach.
- Stencil - Usually associated with street art, stencils are created by spraying or rolling paint over a cutout shape. The results are bold, minimalist designs, with flat, overlapping colors. They work best for simple subject matters.
- Watercolor - Watercolors are made with translucent layers of paint that produce soft gradients. Although the colors tend to be more muted than other media, bright, bold colors can sometimes highlight parts of an image.
- Papercraft - Usually three-dimensional, papercraft involves cutting, folding, and gluing paper. In AI image generation, it means the subject is typically depicted as three-dimensional.
- Marker illustration - Marker illustrations use colored markers to create vibrant illustrations commonly seen in fashion design and comic art. They feature sharp edges and unique shading effects created by blending colors on top of each other.
- Risograph - Known for unique textures and vibrant colors, Risographs are similar to screen printing and are typically used for posters and art prints. Unlike stencils, they feature variations in color due to slightly unpredictable ink coverage.
Material
One of the most fun ways to enhance your AI images is by introducing unexpected materials. You can use traditional materials like porcelain, wood, or ceramics, or venture into strange materials like candy or crystals-or even impossible materials like bubbles or light. When prompting, you can simply mention the materials at the end of a prompt separated by a comma, but it often helps to add the phrase "made of" to ensure the AI tool recognizes it as a material rather than a component of the image.
- Porcelain - Glossy, smooth, and usually white, porcelain is a type of ceramic glass that is highly decorative. Try styles like the blue and white Ming dynasty porcelain or celadon porcelain.
- Light - Adding "made of light" instructs the AI to render the subject as a glowing, ethereal object. Specify the color of the light for added effect.
- Candy - Candy is a playful material for bright, cheerful images. Use to depict whimsical landscapes or elements like letters and numbers.
- Bubbles - Generating images "made of bubbles" creates surreal results and is fun for letters, numbers, environments, and furniture.
- Crystals - Think glass with facets; crystals can be white or light yellow and colored by specifying crystal types or hues.
Photography style
Even if you're not a professional photographer, learning the terminology around photography helps you generate better images and evoke certain moods. This is particularly important for portraits but applies to all subjects.
- High key / Low key photography - High key means bright illumination with few shadows; low key emphasizes shadows for a moody feel.
- Low angle / High angle photography - Low angle makes the subject appear powerful; high angle can make the subject look vulnerable or isolated.
- Extreme close-up - Focuses on a tiny detail to reveal specifics not visible at a normal scale.
- Low shutter speed photography - Longer shutter yields motion blur and light trails to convey motion or time passage.
- Bokeh photography - Portrait and macro style where the subject is sharp and the background is blurred.
Lighting
Lighting dramatically alters mood and impact. By playing with light and shadows, you can add depth or create a specific atmosphere.
- Natural lighting - Uses sunlight or moonlight to add realism and depth.
- Light and shadow - Creates dramatic contrasts for moody or atmospheric images.
- Volumetric lighting - Visible beams of light, often with dust, smoke, or fog for drama.
- Neon lighting - Bright, saturated colors ideal for retro-futuristic, sci-fi, and edgy urban themes.
- Golden hour - Soft, warm light after sunrise or before sunset for romantic or serene moods.
Color and palette
Fine control over color palettes can shift the entire mood of the image. You can specify tones, palettes, or even exact colors to set the overall feel.
- Cool tones / Warm tones - Cool tones evoke calm; warm tones feel inviting and cozy.
- Pastels / Vibrant - Pastels are soft; vibrant colors are highly saturated and energetic.
- Earth tones / Jewel tones - Earth tones reference natural colors; jewel tones are deep, saturated hues like emerald or ruby.
- Specific colors - Use exact color names or hex codes to fix colors precisely.
Other color-related AI art styles to try
- Monochromatic blues
- Earthy reds and oranges
- Neon graffiti
- Autumn leaves
- Deep sea blues
- Grayscale
- Sepia
- Primary colors
- Rainbow spectrum
- Metallics
AI art styles list
Here's a full list of the 70+ AI art style words mentioned in the article, grouped by category. Use it as a cheat sheet when you're writing your AI art prompts. Medium: Stencil, Watercolor, Papercraft, Marker illustration, Risograph, Graffiti, Ink wash, Quilling, Charcoal, Oil painting, Collage, Mosaic. Material: Porcelain, Light, Candy, Bubbles, Crystals, Ceramic, Plastic, Wood, Metal, Water, Glass, Sand, Rain. Photography style: High key / Low key photography, Low angle / High angle photography, Extreme close-up, Low shutter speed photography, Bokeh photography, Silhouette photography, Studio lighting, Black and white photography, Bird's-eye view, Worm's-eye view, Dutch angle, Long exposure photography. Lighting: Natural lighting, Light and shadow, Volumetric lighting, Neon lighting, Golden hour, Blue hour, Backlighting, Chiaroscuro, God rays, Studio lighting, Candlelight, Street lighting, Softbox lighting, Moonlight, Fairy lights. Color and palette: Cool tones / Warm tones, Pastels / vibrant, Earth tones / Jewel tones, Monochromatic blues, Earthy reds and oranges, Neon graffiti, Autumn leaves, Deep sea blues, Grayscale, Sepia, Primary colors, Rainbow spectrum, Metallics.
Build your AI art style vocabulary
By building your AI art style vocabulary, you can get better at fine-tuning your prompts to generate exactly what you want in terms of the mood and emotional appeal of the images you generate. Don't be afraid to experiment! The fun in creating images comes partially from combining things in unexpected ways. So combine AI art styles, and see what happens. Your next "wow" image is just a prompt away.
Automate your AI images with Zapier
Creating images with AI art styles is fun, but it can also be a critical part of your work. If you're generating images as part of your regular workflows, Zapier can help you orchestrate the entire process-not just the image generation step, but everything around it. For example, say you're a social media manager who needs to create daily post images. You can have Zapier pull a content brief from Google Sheets, send an image prompt (complete with style words) to ChatGPT, and then drop the finished image into a Slack channel for your team to review. Learn more about how to automate AI image generation with Zapier, or get started with one of these pre-made templates. Zapier is the most connected AI orchestration platform-integrating with thousands of apps from partners like Google, Salesforce, and Microsoft. Use forms, data tables, and logic to build secure, automated, AI-powered systems for your business-critical workflows across your organization's technology stack. Learn more.
AI art styles FAQs
If you've scrolled all the way down here, you've earned a few more answers.
- What art styles can AI do? AI can process almost any art style you can think of, including watercolor, oil painting, charcoal, and ink wash. It can also go beyond what's physically possible-think: a pineapple made of bubbles or candy hearts. You can even layer multiple styles together for something unexpected. The key is building up your vocabulary of style words, so you have more creative options to pull from when you're crafting your prompts.
- What is a good prompt for AI art? A good AI art prompt is specific, descriptive, and includes at least one style word. It's also helpful to write your art prompt in layers: start with your subject, then add a medium or material, a lighting style, and then a color palette. You don't need to include all of these every time, but even one or two style words can transform your output from average to amazing.
- How to create unique image styles with AI prompts? The secret to creating a unique style is combining style words in unexpected ways. Try pairing a medium with an unusual material, or combine a photography style with an artistic medium. The more you play around with mixing and matching, the more you'll develop your own go-to style combinations that no one else is using.
