Mosaic Still Life

/mosaic-still-life — locked mosaic-tile + painterly hybrid style

This skill produces editorial still-life illustrations in a hybrid style where mosaic-tile/tessellated surfaces carry the background and ground, while painterly objects with crisp ink outlines sit on top. The technique evokes the look of a hand-glazed ceramic tile mural overlaid with a gouache painting — cozy, nostalgic, slightly naive, deeply atmospheric.

Each invocation swaps a few user-adjustable dials (palette, scene, animal companion, mosaic grain, point of view). Every other style axis stays locked.

Prompt interpretation

The user gives a short brief — usually palette + scene + animal (e.g. "moonlit garden, black cat, indigo palette"). It is your job to brainstorm and expand it into a rich, specific still-life moment. Do not stop to confirm. Imagine the scene vividly and run.

For each invocation:

1. Take the user's short brief as the seed. Treat it as the starting hook, not the whole composition.
2. Pick the dial values:
   • Palette → from validated palettes below or a sibling
   • Scene → outdoor or indoor; outdoor uses grass/sky/sand as the mosaic field, indoor uses pegboard/color-swatch wall/tile backsplash/brick/checkered floor
   • Animal → cat / dog / bunny / bird, fitted to the scene's mood
   • Mosaic grain → fine (painterly), medium (ceramic-tile), or chunky (pixel-art)
   • POV → 3/4 angle (cozy/intimate) or top-down (active/narrative)
3. Compose the still life. 5-9 objects on a table or surface, arranged loosely. Include food/drink, a vessel of greenery or flowers, at least one container with a label or pattern, and small character props (a folded napkin, a sliced fruit, a tiny spoon, a candle).
4. Place the animal companion so it anchors the emotional center — sitting on a chair, curled on a cushion, peeking from under the table, perched on the counter.
5. Identify the patterned textile that peeks through — chair cushion, tablecloth corner, draped napkin, throw blanket.
6. Keep the style brief style-locked. The only creative variation should be the dial values and the scene-specific props.

Bias toward concrete, lived-in details: a half-bitten croissant, a tiny pencil beside the open book, a wisp of steam off a teacup, a single lemon rolled off the bowl. The scene should feel like the artist was there.

User-adjustable dials

1. PALETTE

Pick a palette that matches the mood. Validated working palettes (see reference images):

User may also propose new palettes. Always keep at least one creamy/neutral tone in the mix to keep the painterly objects readable on top of the mosaic.

2. SCENE

Anchor the still life somewhere specific. Validated scenes — split by mosaic surface type:

Outdoor (the mosaic lives in grass/sky/sand/water):

• Garden table on a lawn (mosaic grass)
• Mediterranean breakfast terrace (mosaic sunlit stucco wall)
• Beach picnic blanket (mosaic sand + mosaic horizon sea)
• Moonlit garden with starfield (mosaic night sky with tiled stars + crescent moon)
• Forest clearing, lake dock, rooftop terrace

Indoor (the mosaic lives in wallpaper, pegboard, tile backsplash, brick, checkered floor, bookshelves):

• Reading nook by a window (mosaic windowpanes showing tessellated sky/trees)
• Cottage by the fireplace (mosaic brick wall + tiled floor)
• Woodworking workshop (mosaic pegboard + mosaic brick floor)
• Painter's studio (mosaic color-swatch wall — the mosaic becomes diegetic, literally a painter's color study)
• Kitchen counter (mosaic tile backsplash + mosaic checkered floor)
• Library wall (every book spine on the shelves reads as a colored tile)
• Pantry, mudroom, sunroom

The principle: every space has at least one surface that wants to be tessellated. The mosaic doesn't need nature — it needs modular repetition, which is everywhere in human-made spaces too.

3. ANIMAL COMPANION

The heart of the scene. Validated: tabby cat, ginger cat, calico cat, charcoal-striped cat, black cat, corgi, border collie, basset hound, lop-eared bunny, seagull. Pick one whose temperament fits the mood (sleepy tabby for reading nook, alert collie for workshop, regal black cat for moonlit garden).

The animal is painted in the same crisp ink-outline + soft-fur painted style as the rest of the still life. Never rendered as mosaic. Eyes are expressive — closed-smile for sleepy scenes, bright open for alert scenes.

4. MOSAIC GRAIN

• Fine — small tiles, painterly/postcard feel. Best for atmospheric scenes (dusk, moonlight, indoors).
• Medium — visible square tiles, real-ceramic feel. Best for warm interiors, brick, terracotta floors.
• Chunky — large blocky tiles, strong pixel-art read. Best for sandy beaches or bold playful scenes.

5. POV

• Slight 3/4 angle — cozy/intimate. The table is partially seen from the side, you feel like a guest pulling up a chair. Default.
• Top-down — active/narrative. Picnic blankets, prep counters, board games. Opens up the still life as a flat composition.

Locked style elements (NEVER vary)

Mosaic surfaces (the foundation)

• At least one large background or ground surface is rendered as small tessellated square tiles in varied tones of the chosen palette
• The mosaic mimics the look of irregular hand-glazed ceramic — slight tonal variation tile-to-tile, no perfectly uniform grid, occasional darker or lighter accent tiles
• For outdoor scenes, the mosaic IS the grass/sky/sand. For indoor scenes, the mosaic IS the wallpaper, pegboard, backsplash, brick, or color-swatch grid
• Some scenes can layer two mosaic surfaces for texture density (e.g. mosaic pegboard above + mosaic brick floor below; mosaic backsplash above + mosaic checkered floor below)

Painterly objects ON TOP

• Still-life objects (food, vessels, candles, books, tools, the animal) are NOT mosaic — they're rendered painterly with crisp ink outlines and soft gouache-style color fills
• Objects sit visually ON TOP of the mosaic surface, never blending into it
• Outlines are slightly imperfect, hand-painted, with subtle pressure variation — not vector-clean

Animal companion

• One friendly animal at the emotional center of the scene
• Same painterly style as the objects
• Soft fur detail, expressive eyes, calm body language

Patterned textile peeking through

• At least one textile shows a small pattern — striped chair cushion, gingham picnic blanket, plaid tablecloth corner, paisley throw, woven rug under the table, embroidered napkin edge
• Adds another layer of pattern density beneath the painterly objects

Still-life centerpiece

• A table, counter, blanket, workbench, or other flat surface holds 5-9 small objects arranged loosely
• Always include: a vessel of greenery/flowers, a drink, a food item, a labeled container, small character props (spoon, candle, folded napkin, pencil, ruler)
• Items chosen to fit the scene (breakfast scene → croissant + jam jar; workshop scene → hand plane + nail jar + blueprint)

Mood

• Cozy, nostalgic, bucolic, hushed
• Never busy or frenetic; the scene feels like a calm captured moment
• Reads like a magazine spread or storybook page

Output format

• Portrait orientation default, 1024x1536
• No text labels (other than tiny incidental handwritten labels on a jam jar, etc.)
• Gouache + digital mosaic hybrid feel

Composition rules

• Animal companion is the emotional center
• Still-life centerpiece is the visual center
• Mosaic surface fills the negative space (background, ground, or both)
• Patterned textile draped or visible somewhere
• Generous breathing room — never crowd the still life
• Slight off-center composition allowed; perfectly symmetric arrangements feel stiff

Generation approach

This style is best produced by an image-to-image model with a strong reference image and a high input-fidelity setting. The reference image carries the mosaic-tessellation cue that text alone struggles to specify.

• Reference image: pass one of the validated ref-*.jpg files in this directory as the source. Pick the one whose palette/mood is closest to the user's brief — the generator will inherit its mosaic-grain calibration.
• Input fidelity: high — the mosaic technique is fragile and easily lost without strong style anchoring.
• Quality: high — fine mosaic grain requires resolution to read correctly.
• Size: portrait 1024x1536 by default.

Known-good model: gpt-image-2 via fal.ai. Other strong painterly models with i2i support may also work; calibrate input fidelity to preserve the mosaic ground.

If a model rejects high input fidelity or strips the mosaic on first pass, increase emphasis on "tessellated/mosaic ground rendered as small square tiles, pointillist" in the prompt, and explicitly call out the surface that should carry the mosaic.

Style brief structure

Copy code
Generate an editorial still-life illustration in the mosaic-tile + painterly hybrid style shown in the reference image. Match the locked style EXACTLY.

SCENE: {{SCENE — e.g. "a sunny Mediterranean breakfast terrace viewed from a slight 3/4 top-down angle"}}

PALETTE: {{PALETTE — e.g. "terracotta, cream, butter yellow, denim blue, poppy red, ginger orange"}}

MOSAIC SURFACES (the foundation — rendered as small tessellated square tiles in varied tones, pointillist, like the reference):
- {{SURFACE 1 — e.g. "the round bistro table is covered in patterned terracotta and cream ceramic mosaic tiles, slightly irregular hand-made look"}}
- {{SURFACE 2 — e.g. "background is a pixelated/mosaic field of warm stucco wall in dappled sunlight, rendered as varied small square tiles in cream, butter yellow, soft peach and sage — pointillist mosaic technique exactly like the grass in the reference"}}

MOSAIC GRAIN: {{fine / medium / chunky}}

STILL-LIFE CENTERPIECE (painterly objects with crisp ink outlines sitting ON TOP of the mosaic surfaces, NOT rendered as mosaic):
{{ITEMS — 5-9 objects arranged on the table. Example for Mediterranean breakfast:
- a small white espresso cup with saucer
- a flaky golden croissant on a small ceramic plate
- an open glass jar of apricot jam with a tiny spoon and handwritten paper label
- a clear small bottle of olive oil
- a pottery bowl with three yellow lemons
- a clear glass bottle vase holding two red poppies and green grass stems
- a folded patterned napkin}}

ANIMAL COMPANION (heart of the scene, painterly style, expressive):
{{ANIMAL — e.g. "a striped ginger tabby cat sits on the chair seat, looking forward with painted soft fur detail and crisp ink outlines, alert posture"}}

PATTERNED TEXTILE peeking through:
{{TEXTILE — e.g. "the vintage wooden bistro chair has a blue striped patterned cushion"}}

POV: {{slight 3/4 angle OR top-down}}

LOCKED STYLE RULES:
- Mosaic/tessellated treatment on at least one large background or ground surface — rendered as small varied square tiles, slightly irregular, hand-glazed ceramic feel.
- Painterly objects sit visually ON TOP of the mosaic, never blending into it. Crisp ink outlines, gouache-style soft color fills, slightly imperfect hand-painted edges.
- Animal companion at the emotional center, painterly style (NEVER mosaic).
- Patterned textile peeking through somewhere.
- Still-life centerpiece on a flat surface, 5-9 objects, loosely arranged, breathing room.
- Cozy, nostalgic, bucolic mood. Calm captured moment.
- Gouache + digital mosaic hybrid feel.
- Portrait orientation, no text labels other than tiny incidental ones.

Match the locked exemplar style precisely. Do NOT copy any text or UI from references.

Style correction guide

If the output misses on a specific axis, use a correction focused on that one issue:

Reference images in this folder

• ref-mediterranean.jpg — terracotta palette, outdoor terrace, ginger tabby, fine grain, 3/4 POV
• ref-reading-nook.jpg — denim/sage palette, indoor dusk, charcoal tabby, mosaic windowpanes, fine grain
• ref-autumn-cottage.jpg — rust/ochre palette, indoor fireplace, corgi, mosaic brick wall, medium grain
• ref-beach-picnic.jpg — aqua/coral palette, outdoor top-down, bunny + seagull, chunky grain
• ref-moonlit-garden.jpg — indigo/plum palette, outdoor night, black cat, mosaic starfield, fine grain
• ref-workshop.jpg — wood/denim palette, indoor workshop, border collie, mosaic pegboard + brick floor, medium grain
• ref-art-studio.jpg — cream/ochre/paint accents, indoor studio, calico cat, mosaic color-swatch wall (diegetic mosaic), fine grain
• ref-kitchen.jpg — terracotta/sage palette, indoor kitchen counter, cream tabby, mosaic tile backsplash + checkered floor, medium grain

Use these as i2i source images. Pick the one closest in palette/mood to the user's brief.