Art Style Tags Encyclopedia: Mediums, Retro and Art Movements

Art style tag basics and how to write (medium)

On Danbooru, medium tags carry a (medium) suffix, as in watercolor (medium). One important caution here: Stable Diffusion WebUI uses parentheses as emphasis syntax, so parentheses inside a tag must be escaped with backslashes, like watercolor \(medium\). Forget this and you'll get unintended emphasis, so watch out.

• Write medium tags with their official (medium) name
• In WebUI, escape the parentheses as \( \)
• Style tags work more reliably placed near the front, e.g. right after the quality tags
• Use one or two styles at most. Mixing too many gives a half-baked result

Traditional medium tag list (watercolor, oil painting, sketch)

These tags give you the feel of analog art materials. Adding traditional media makes it easier to get a hand-drawn paper texture, so we recommend combining it with watercolor or colored pencil. For line-only work, use sketch or lineart.

Digital and retro tag list (pixel art, 90s anime style)

These tags cover digital-only looks and nostalgic retro anime styles. Stacking retro artstyle with 1990s (style) strongly brings out the cel-animation feel of that era. pixel art is a powerful tag that turns the image into pixel art, so it works well even on its own.

Art movement tag list (ukiyo-e, pop art)

These tags borrow styles from art history. Movement tags like ukiyo-e and art nouveau change the mood of a character illustration dramatically, so they're most effective for a special piece. minimalist works toward reducing detail, so it also suits simple icon-style illustrations.

masterpiece, best quality, watercolor \(medium\), traditional media, pastel colors, 1girl, solo, brown hair, long hair, green eyes, white dress, sun hat, flower field, wind, soft lighting, gentle smile, upper body, looking at viewer

How to adjust weights for style tags that won't take

Art style tags depend heavily on the model. Anime-focused models often render oil painting or impressionism weakly, so push them in with weighting. Starting at (oil painting \(medium\):1.3) and adjusting in 0.1 steps is the safe way. Conversely, if the style is so strong that the character melts away, lower it to 0.8 to 0.9.

• First generate one image with no weight to see how the tag behaves
• If it's weak, raise it in 0.1 steps: 1.2 -> 1.3 -> 1.4
• 1.5 and above risks breaking the character, so treat it as a last resort
• If it's too strong, lower it below 1, like (tag:0.8)
• Fix the seed and change only the weight for an accurate comparison

masterpiece, best quality, pixel art, retro artstyle, 1990s \(style\), limited palette, 1girl, solo, twintails, blue hair, school uniform, city street, sunset, standing, full body, looking at viewer

Mixing art styles and using the negative prompt

Once you're comfortable, try the advanced technique of mixing two styles. Tags with different roles can coexist, for example stacking watercolor \(medium\) and lineart for a "line art + light watercolor" illustration. Also, when you want your target style to stand out, it helps to put the opposite style (such as 3d or photorealistic) in the negative prompt. Try out combos like flat color + limited palette for a design-poster look and find your favorites.

For coloring style tags like anime coloring and galge coloring, see: Coloring Style Prompts (Anime Coloring, Galge Style, Painterly, Flat Color, Lineart) →