concept-art

concept-art — Batch-of-Variants for Art Direction

This skill produces 3-4 rough concept images of the same subject under different stylistic interpretations. The goal is not the final asset — the goal is to give the user something visual to react to so they can lock a direction. Variants are deliberately divergent (different palette, mood, framing, era) so the user has real choices, not four near-identical takes.

If the user wants ONE polished image (a dialogue portrait, a hero card), this is the wrong skill — route to summer:2d-assets/character-portrait. The summer:asset-pipeline/asset-strategy meta-router uses the disambiguation phrase "Quick check — exploring the look (3-4 variants for art direction) or generating a final character portrait for dialogue UI?" to send users to one of the two. If you arrived here without that question being asked, ask it before generating.

When to use

• "I'm not sure what this character should look like — give me some options."
• "Show me 3-4 directions for the witch."
• "I want a mood board for the swamp level."
• Early-project art direction, before the GameSoul.md visual style is locked.
• The user describes a vibe ("dark fantasy", "Ghibli-esque", "Mobius") and wants to see it rendered.

When NOT to use

• The user wants a single locked portrait for a dialogue UI → summer:2d-assets/character-portrait.
• The user wants pixel art specifically → summer:2d-assets/pixel-art.
• The user wants a UI icon or HUD element → summer:2d-assets/ui-graphics.
• The user wants a tileable wall/floor texture → summer:2d-assets/tileable-texture.
• The user wants an image-to-3D reference → summer:asset-pipeline/asset-strategy (the 3D pipeline has its own prompt suffix).

Steps

1. Confirm exploration vs final

Before generating, ask once:

Quick check — exploring the look (3-4 variants for art direction) or generating a final character portrait for dialogue UI?

If "final" → hand off to summer:2d-assets/character-portrait. If "explore" → continue.

2. Search for prior concepts

summer_search_assets(query="<subject> concept", filter={ kind: "image" })

If something already exists, ask if the user wants to riff on it (img2img via referenceImageUrl) or start fresh.

3. Pick a variant axis

Variants must differ on one explicit axis, not noise. Pick one:

Axis	Use when
Palette / mood	"Should this feel grim or hopeful?"
Era / setting	"Medieval, sci-fi, modern, post-apoc?"
Stylization	"Painterly, anime, photoreal, Mobius line-art?"
Silhouette / proportions	Character design — slim/bulky/childlike/monstrous
Time of day / lighting	Environment — dawn/noon/dusk/night

State the axis to the user before generating: "I'll vary on stylization — painterly, anime, line-art, photoreal. OK?"

4. Generate the batch

Issue 3-4 calls in parallel, one per variant. Use the same subject phrasing across all four; only the style-modifier changes.

summer_generate_image(
  prompt="<subject>. <axis variant 1>. concept art, evocative, rough painterly, atmospheric lighting",
  model="nano-banana-2",
  style="none",
  options={ image_size: "landscape_16_9" }
)

style: "none" is intentional — concept art doesn't want the default "realistic" or "cartoon" preset overriding the prompt's stylistic direction.

5. Present the batch

After all 4 return, show the user the thumbnails (link thumbnailUrl for each) and ask:

Which direction lands? I can generate variants on the chosen one, or hand off to character-portrait for a final.

Do NOT import any of these as res:// assets yet. Concept art is reference, not shipped art. Only import once the user picks a winner — then either it goes to character-portrait for a polished version or directly to summer_import_from_url if they want to use it as-is as a reference.

Prompt patterns

The structure: subject + axis variant + "concept art" + lighting/atmosphere. Keep prompts under 30 words.

Goal	Prompt that works	Why
Character — palette axis	young witch with raven familiar. <warm autumn palette / cold blue moonlit palette / sickly green swamp palette / monochrome ash palette>. concept art, painterly, atmospheric	Locked subject + four explicit palettes
Character — silhouette axis	goblin warrior. <slim wiry / hulking brute / childlike imp / multi-limbed mutant>. concept art, full body, rough painterly	Forces real shape variation
Environment — mood axis	swamp village at dusk. <hopeful warm lanterns / oppressive fog / abandoned ruins / overgrown nature reclaim>. concept art, wide shot, atmospheric	Mood drives composition
Environment — stylization axis	mountain temple. <Studio Ghibli soft painterly / Mobius clean line-art / dark Berserk ink / Hayao detailed wash>. concept art, wide establishing shot	Names real reference styles the model recognizes
Prop — era axis	royal sword. <bronze age / medieval / ornate baroque / sci-fi energy>. concept art, three-quarter view, neutral background	Era as the only varying dimension
Creature — physiology axis	forest spirit. <deer-like elegant / fungal grotesque / jellyfish floating / branch-and-moss elemental>. concept art, atmospheric, painterly	Forces real morphological divergence

Bad prompts (and why)

Bad	Failure mode
cool fantasy character	No subject, no axis. All 4 variants will look interchangeable.
make 4 different witches	Model doesn't render "4 of"; you must call 4 times.
epic concept art masterpiece trending on artstation	Adjective soup. Trending-on-artstation is a 2022 cliche; modern models render it as bland slop.
same character but different	"Different" is undefined. Pick an axis and name it.

Anti-patterns

• Generating 4 near-identical variants because you didn't pick a real axis. The user can't choose between four images that all look like the same painting.
• Importing concept art as final assets. These are exploration. The polished version comes from character-portrait after a direction is picked.
• Using style: "realistic" or style: "cartoon" — the preset fights the prompt's stylistic direction. Use style: "none" for concept art.
• Skipping the disambiguation question. If you don't ask, you'll get yelled at when you generate 4 portraits and the user wanted one polished bust.
• Generating before the GameSoul.md is written. If .summer/GameSoul.md exists, read it first — its visual-style section narrows the axis.

Edge cases

• User says "just one" after you propose 4. That's a character-portrait job. Hand off.
• User wants 8+ variants. Generate 4 first; if the user wants more on the same axis, generate 4 more. Don't dump 8 at once — overload paralyzes choice.
• Subject is a fully described scene, not an asset. You're producing key art, not asset reference. Use image_size: "landscape_16_9" and bias toward atmospheric.
• User wants the final to be 3D. After they pick a direction, route to summer:asset-pipeline/asset-strategy — concept-art images are not 3D-ready references (they have backgrounds, scene context, dramatic lighting baked in). The 3D pipeline needs its own clean white-background reference.

Fallback (no MCP)

Print the 4 prompts and the call for each:

summer_generate_image(prompt="<variant 1>", model="nano-banana-2", style="none", options={ image_size: "landscape_16_9" })
summer_generate_image(prompt="<variant 2>", ...)
...

Tell the user to run via the Summer dashboard, then come back and summer_import_from_url the winning variant.

Handoff

Once the user picks a direction:

• Character / NPC final → summer:2d-assets/character-portrait (use the picked variant as referenceImageUrl).
• 3D model from this concept → summer:asset-pipeline/asset-strategy (regenerate a 3D-ready reference; concept art is not 3D-ready as-is).
• Tileable texture from this mood → summer:2d-assets/tileable-texture.
• Pixel-art version → summer:2d-assets/pixel-art.
• Lock the visual direction → write the choice into .summer/GameSoul.md under ## Visual style so future asset skills inherit it.

See also

• summer:asset-pipeline/asset-strategy — meta-router that delegates here vs other 2d-assets skills.
• summer:2d-assets/character-portrait — the polished single-image counterpart.
• references/mcp-tools-reference.md — summer_generate_image parameter schema.