Additive Prompting

Introduction

What is Additive Prompting?

Additive Prompting is a method to create organized and manageable prompts.

Why is it Important?

It is crucial as categorizing each parameter ensures easier adaptability of results to meet our actual needs.

What does it Involve?

It is simple. It involves categorizing our prompt so that each focuses on an aspect of the resulting image. For example, if we want to create GTA style character portrait illustrations, we could establish:

[SUBJECT] | [STYLE] | [COLORS] | [BACKGROUND] | [TAGS/EXTRAS]

Notable Feature:

The '|' symbols might stand out. Do they impact the results? No, they have no impact and are just used to make our categories easily identifiable visually.

Reviewing Each Category

1. Subject

Include the protagonist of our image here. Be as detailed as desired, recommending using 2 or 3 tokens at most e.g., a mechanic woman.

a mechanic woman | [STYLE] | [COLORS] | [BACKGROUND] | [TAGS/EXTRAS]

2. Style

Define the style here, e.g., GTA portrait flat illustration to indicate a subject illustration in the desired style.

a mechanic woman | GTA portrait flat illustration | [COLORS] | [BACKGROUND] | [TAGS/EXTRAS]

3. Colors

This category is vital, especially to achieve specific tones, recommending 1 or 2 colors max or using color palettes or tones, e.g.,

purple and red
cyan tones
ocean palette

a mechanic woman | GTA portrait flat illustration | pastel tones | [BACKGROUND] | [TAGS/EXTRAS]

4. Background

It is essential for illustrations to establish a specific background, e.g.,

plain magenta background
rainbow gradient background
garage in the background

a mechanic woman | GTA portrait flat illustration | pastel tones | garage in the background | [TAGS/EXTRAS]

5. TAGS/Extras

Use this section for any additional element or feature, using related terms and separated by semicolons (;), e.g., videogame loading screen; digital 2D.

a mechanic woman | GTA portrait flat illustration | pastel tones | garage in the background | videogame loading screen; digital 2D

Example Prompt

The resulting prompt could be something like the following:

a mechanic woman | GTA portrait flat illustration | pastel tones | garage in the background | videogame loading screen; digital 2D

example prompt additive prompting — Additive prompting example

Using stylize param

Add --s 180 at the end of the prompt to adjust the result as per your needs. More information can be found in the Stylize parameter section.

a mechanic woman | GTA portrait flat illustration | pastel tones | garage in the background | videogame loading screen; digital 2D --s 180

Aspect Ratio recommendations

For portraits, recommend using an aspect ratio of 1:1, 3:4 or similar. Check Aspect Ratio section for more information.

Practice: Underwater Photography Prompt

Final Objective:

Create a prompt for underwater photographs using additive prompting. You can use the following structure as a reference:

[SUBJECT] | [STYLE] | [LIGHT] | [BACKGROUND] | [TAGS]

Possible Solution:

Solution

Since we want a photographic image, we are going to opt for a style ideal for this type of challenges, that of National Geographic. To give the image higher quality, we will add the tags 'award-winning photography', which combine very well with everything mentioned before. And finally, to achieve a wider field of view, we will expand the aspect ratio to 16:9.

scuba diver under the water | national geographic shot | daylight | fishes and corals in the background | award-wining photography --ar 16:9

Extra tip

I also invite you to replace 'National Geographic' with 'GoPro Hero'. I'm sure you will love it!

a man in elegant suit under the water | GoPro Hero shot | daylight | fishes and corals in the background | award-wining photography --ar 16:9

Solution 2 — Man in suit under the water | GoPro

Conclusions

This way of creating prompts will help you be much more organized and will make achieving your goals simpler. There is no unique model for doing Additive Prompting. Feel free to experiment, remove/add/modify categories for your new prompts!

ChatGPT as an assistant

ChatGPT can be of great help in generating prompts with this technique, allowing us to save time and even gain inspiration.

To do this, use this prompt in ChatGPT, adapting it to your needs through the parameters inside the brackets {}.

ChatGPT prompt

Explore other types of scenes. How about giving it a touch of 2D video game style?

I want you to help me generate new prompts based on the following structure:

[style] | [genre] | [scene] | [color] | [tags]

So that you adequately fill in the parameters inside [] based on the image descriptions that I will provide you with. Also, remove the []. For the tags section, include a maximum of 3 words or sets of words that add extra information to the prompt, separated by ;.

For example:

{Illustrate a surreal vector graphic of a floating island with giant mushrooms and tiny houses, set against a pink and orange twilight sky.}

MJ result — Vector Graphic | Surreal | Floating island with giant mushrooms and tiny houses against a twilight sky | Pink and Orange | Mushrooms; Floating Island; Twilight

Join us at X, with the hashtag #PromptingForArtists to share your results, queries, or comments.

References

To cite this content, please use:

@article{promptingforartists,
    author       = {Luis Riancho and Mihail Eric},
    title        = { Prompting for Artists - Additive Prompting},
    howpublished = {\url{https://promptingforartists.storia.ai/additive-prompting}},
    year         = {2023}
}