Transform a Photo into a Textured Picture-Book Illustration

Format

Text Parameterized

Inputs

Reference_photo (image) · Required headline (text) · Required caption_1 (text) · Required caption_2 (text) · Required

Outputs

Picture_book_illustration (image)

Replace the ${…} placeholders with your values before using this prompt. See parameters and defaults below.

Use the uploaded photo as the sole source of reference. Read from it the people, identity, pose, expression, clothing, accessories, important objects, camera angle, composition, setting, season, weather, lighting, and story mood.

Transform the entire photo into a single modern picture-book illustration printed on warm-textured paper. Output only the finished illustration. Do not show the original photo, a before-and-after comparison, a top-and-bottom layout, a split screen, or a collage.

Preserve the original viewpoint and composition. If the photo uses a high angle, low angle, close-up, overhead view, unusual perspective, or foreshortening, keep it. Preserve the visible body area and crop. Do not expand the frame, zoom out, or invent body parts outside the photo.

Preserve the features that make the main subject recognizable. These include hair silhouette, length and color; approximate face shape and apparent age; type of expression and direction of gaze; clothing type, main clothing colors and visible patterns; shoes, bags, glasses, jewelry, hats, hoods, and other distinctive belongings. Keep the original pose, hand gestures, arm and leg positions, body orientation, and how the subject interacts with the surroundings.

Redraw any person as a moderately stylized modern picture-book character. Gently simplify the face. Give the eyes expressive character without making them oversized, use thin eyebrows, a small simple nose, a clearly readable mouth, warm blush on the cheeks, and flexible contours. Retain enough of the original hair, face shape, expression, and belongings for the person to remain recognizable.

Do not mechanically copy the photo. Simplify and reinterpret facial details while preserving the original emotional tone. Keep distinctive expressions recognizable, such as a smile, wink, pout, serious look, or surprised expression.

Draw hair with grouped, fine strokes of ink, colored pencil, and dry pastel. Preserve its approximate length, curl, part, volume, direction, and flow. Do not render individual hairs photorealistically or reduce the hair to a smooth plastic-like mass.

Render clothing and accessories with broad matte color shapes, loose sketch lines, dry-brush edges, and visible colored-pencil or oil-pastel texture. Preserve major layers, silhouette, color relationships, recognizable patterns, bag placement, shoes, and important accessories. Small seams and metal fittings may be simplified, but do not change the clothing into something else.

Materials and surface:
Combine matte gouache, oil pastel, crayon, colored pencil, dry ink, and worn silkscreen textures. Include broken contours, uneven pigment, visible paper grain, scattered speckles, rubbed edges, slight misregistration, dry-brush gaps, and handmade irregularities. The result should look drawn and printed on fibrous paper, not digitally airbrushed.

Take the colors from the uploaded photo. Preserve its dominant colors and emotional temperature, translating them into slightly muted, warm print colors. Do not force in seasonal colors that are absent from the photo, such as autumn orange, yellow leaves, or dark asphalt.

Derive the environmental theme only from the photo. A spring scene may use pale greens, flowers, soft sunlight, or light decorative elements. A summer scene may use clear blues, bright greenery, warm light, water, or lively colors. An autumn scene may use ochre, rusty colors, dry leaves, or warm dark ground. A winter scene may use cool gray-blues, snow, bare branches, knit textures, or soft indoor light. Preserve the character of the specific indoor setting, such as a home, café, office, bedroom, or studio. Preserve recognizable elements of urban, seaside, forest, travel, celebration, or everyday scenes.

These are conditional examples, not requirements. Do not change the photo’s season, setting, weather, or activity to fit a preset mood.

Simplify the background into large, readable graphic shapes while retaining what is needed to understand the place and situation. Translate plants, flowers, snow, water, clouds, buildings, furniture, road markings, seasonal objects, and ground textures in the photo into the same handmade illustrated style. Remove irrelevant photographic clutter.

Use decorative elements only if they are already in the photo or natural to its setting: leaves for a tree-lined street, flowers for a garden, waves for a seaside, snowflakes for a snowy place, stars for a night scene, or small everyday objects for an indoor memory. Do not add autumn leaves to an unrelated scene.

Keep the main subject clearly in focus and at roughly the same scale in the frame as in the original. Build contrast using colors from the photo rather than automatically using a black background. Background shapes may be lighter or darker to support the original mood and separate the subject.

Animal option:
Keep any animal present in the photo. Add an animal that is not in the photo only if the user explicitly requests it. If adding one, render it with the same gouache, pastel, and printed-paper texture. Do not add a cat by default.

Text option:
Include text only when the user provides the exact wording.

Large title: ${headline}

Small text 1: ${caption-1}

Small text 2: ${caption-2}

Examples of possible wording include “FIRST SIP” for a large title and “still too hot” for small text. Omit any text field the user leaves blank.

Render the large title in naturally uneven, hand-lettered strokes. Write small text in smaller handwriting. Choose text colors from the illustration so the words remain readable without competing with the subject. Add no more than two small marks, such as hearts, underlines, stars, leaves, or flowers, and only when they suit the photo’s subject.

Use only the exact wording the user provides. Do not infer a season for the title, translate or rewrite the wording, or invent captions. If the wording does not fit the scene, the text may be omitted entirely, so use wording that suits the photo. Never change the season, setting, or weather to fit the wording. Place text on a broad, quiet area within the illustration. If there is little empty space in the sky, on a wall, ground, or water, leave the calmest available area clear for the text. Do not write across the surface of objects such as umbrellas, clothing, or signs. If no wording is provided, omit all text. Use Latin letters only: no Hangul, Han characters, kana, or other non-Latin scripts, and no numerals.

Finish with a slightly worn printed look: rubbed pigment, scattered grains, tiny blemishes, visible dry-brush marks, and naturally broken strokes along parts of the edges. It should look hand-printed on paper, not framed, Polaroid-style, torn-paper collage, or bordered with decoration.

Overall aesthetic: warm modern picture-book everyday-life illustration, a memory-filled editorial poster, matte gouache, colored pencil, oil pastel, worn silkscreen, tactile paper grain, expressive characters, colors drawn from the photo, handmade warmth, and moderate charm.

Avoid: any remaining photo area; comparison layouts; a fixed autumn palette; automatic orange leaves; changing the season, setting, or weather; pasted-on photographic faces; realistic skin; smooth digital gradients; glossy 3D; clean vector art; extreme chibi proportions; enormous sparkling eyes; replacing the person with a generic face; changing hair, clothing, or pose; inventing limbs; widening the frame; adding animals that are not in the photo; unrelated decorations; excessive environmental detail; invented text; fake signatures; logos; social-media marks; and watermarks.

Replace the entire uploaded photo with the illustration. Return only one full-bleed illustration. Do not show, reproduce, or incorporate the original photo anywhere in the final result.