With AI art generators, what you’re able to create shouldn’t be limited by your artistic skills. There are several AI art styles you can invoke to transform your ideas into masterpieces you can be proud of. Let’s explore the best of them.
1. Minimalism
If you need designs that are not too crowded, jam-packed, or complex, using the minimalist AI art style is one of your best options.
Minimalist designs ensure your images are stylistically simple. It emphasizes the use of simple shapes, fewer colors, empty spaces around key subjects, and fewer objects in the foreground.
Black, white, and neutrals are popular. If using multiple colors, they tend to be muted, soft tones. Any text or additional elements are kept minimal, and the art usually speaks for itself.
Using the prompt, “Robot illustration made of puzzle pieces on a purple background,” produces the image below. The image contains multiple colors with various shades and tones, has a significant visual weight due to the high level of detail and the number of elements present, and features many intricate details.
The image was created by the author, Maxwell Timothy.
Using the same prompt, but asking the AI art generator to use a minimalist design, creates the image below.
The minimalist version sticks to the essentials of the image, dropping unnecessary complexity, extra details, and colors. It also uses a limited color palette, featuring only shades of purple throughout the image.
2. Surrealism
Surrealism-themed AI images usually feature imaginative, dream-like, and sometimes even bizarre or unsettling elements.
When you ask one of the manyAI art generatorsaround to produce surrealist-styled images, expect the subject to be placed in unusual contexts or juxtaposed in surprising ways. Surrealist art aims to jolt viewers out of their normal modes of perception.
Unexpected imagery, improbable combinations, and peculiar perspectives are used to create feelings of surprise, curiosity, or unease. Rather than portraying what you’d logically expect from a prompt, surrealism thrives on the mysterious, the absurd, and the irrational.
Using the prompt, “Create an image of a clock and a tree,” produces the image below. The image is typical of what you’d expect from the used prompt.
Using the same prompt, but asking the AI art generator to use a surrealism style creates something unexpected and unusual.
The surrealist version offers an uneasy and bizarre combination of a clock and a tree.
3. Cyberpunk and Steampunk
The steampunk style produces images that mix futuristic technology with 19th-century-style settings and tools. Expect complex tools made from gears, cogs, and metal pipes with people dressed in old-fashioned clothing but using SciFi-style gears.
The cyberpunk style invokes images of futuristic urban environments and characters blended with a dystopian high-tech ambiance. Expect neon-lit buildings, glowing signs, flashy billboards, holograms, and characters with robotic body modifications, tattoos, and strange hairstyles.
Using the prompt, “Create an image of a girl holding a sword and standing on a street, facing the camera,” we got the image below.
Using the same prompt but asking for the image in a cyberpunk style produces the following:
The same prompt in steampunk style produces:
4. Pixel Art
The pixel art style creates images that mimic the retro-style pixelated graphics and limited resolutions in old-school video games and computers. Expect simple backgrounds with bright colors and objects seemingly built from blocks rather than complex continuous shapes.
Using the prompt, “Create an image of a girl cooking in a rustic kitchen with a goat beside her,” I got the below result.
Asking for the image to be recreated in a pixel art style produces the following:
In this pixel art version, the grid of pixels is quite visible, which is not the case with the original image where individual pixels are indistinguishable.
5. Victorian
The Victorian era, named after Queen Victoria’s reign from 1837 to 1901, had a major influence on art and design. You can replicate the key elements of the Victorian style in your AI art.
The Victorian style is characterized by ornate, opulent, and complex decorative elements. Most AI art generators can simulate the style’s indulgent ornamentation and preoccupation with lavish, in-depth visual fictions reminiscent of a romanticized past. Some key aspects include ornate furniture and interiors featuring detailed woodwork, carvings, inlays, and luxurious fabrics.
Using the prompt, “Image of a girl in the middle of a room with lots of furniture,” generates the image below.
Asking the AI image generator to recreate the same image in the Victorian style produced the copy below.
Here is a close-up look at how a contemporary suitcase would look in a Victorian design:
6. Geometric
The Geometric AI art style uses simple geometric shapes like circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles arranged in repetitive patterns. These clean lines and symmetry create a sense of order and precision.
The style involves a rhythmic interplay of precise geometric forms and bold colors, with an emphasis on well-defined lines between color fields. The repeating geometric patterns create minimalist, abstract visuals with a clear sense of order.
Using the prompt, “Create an image of a cute cat sitting up-close,” produces the image below.
Asking the AI art generator to create the image using the geometric AI art style produces the image below.
Notice the image is created by using a unique combination of geometric shapes like triangles and squares, all blending together to create a clear sense of order.
7. Oil Painting
Oil painting is a classic art form that was used by renowned artists like Rembrandt and Van Gogh to create masterpieces.
It features realistic lighting, visible brushstrokes, luminous colors, and a charming painterly aesthetic that is created with oil paint. The idea of the oil painting AI art style is to recreate the three-dimensional, hand-crafted feel of fine art rather than a photorealistic image.
Using the prompt, “Create an image of a girl plowing a field,” produces the following:
Asking the AI art generator to recreate the same image in an oil painting style produces:
8. One Line Drawing
Simple line drawing can be summed up in three words; beauty in simplicity. This style of art involves using a single unbroken line to create an entire artwork.
It has been used by famous artists like Pablo Picasso and is a great way to represent a complex object in a simple way. The result is clean, minimalist outlines of forms and figures, mimicking the simplicity and impact of human-drawn contour line art.
Using the prompt, “Create an image of a horse in the one line drawing art style,” produces the image below.
Notice how one continuous line is used to create the entire image?
9. Anime Art
Anime-styled AI art usually features characters with exaggerated, stylized facial features like large expressive eyes and colorful spiky hair. Backgrounds tend to be minimalistic or dreamlike.
When you ask an AI art generator to produce anime-styled images, expect characters to have smooth, flattened coloring with strong outlines. Anime art makes use of symbolic shortcuts like speed lines, sweat drops, and action bursts to depict motion and emotion. Expressive hand gestures, poses, and perspectives help convey a character’s personality and feelings.
Below is a typical image created using the prompt, “Create an image of an angry man riding a bike on a street.”
And here is the same image after asking for it to be recreated in an anime AI art style:
10. Optical Art
Optical AI art uses illusory shapes, colors, and repetitive patterns to create disorienting visual effects like vibration, depth, and movement that engage the viewer’s perception. This art style generates effects like vibration, perspective distortions, and motion using techniques that trick the eyes and mind.
Below is an optical art-type spiral createdusing the DALL-E image generator.
And here is another created by asking DALL-E to create an eye using an optical art style:
Looking closely or staring at the center of both images for a long time creates an illusion of movement or vibration. In reality, the image is not moving nor vibrating, it’s just crafted in a way that tricks your eyes and mind to see motion.
While you’re able to create entire images solely with a single AI art style, you can make the best use ofdifferent AI art promptsby combining them in a single image. You could ask the AI art generator to, say, create a Victorian character in a steampunk scenery.
The right combination of AI art styles can instantly take an image you are trying to visualize from just good enough to breathtaking.
