| name | concept-art |
| description | Use when the user is exploring art direction — wants 3-4 rough variants of a character, environment, or prop to pick a vibe before committing to a final asset. Generates a batch of evocative concept images, not finals. Trigger on "concept art", "art direction", "explore the look", "give me some variants", "what could this character look like", "mood board", "rough sketches". |
| license | MIT |
| compatibility | ["Cursor","Claude Code","Windsurf","Codex"] |
| category | 2d-assets |
| user-invocable | true |
| allowed-tools | Read Grep Glob Write Edit summer_generate_image summer_search_assets summer_import_from_url |
| paths | ["assets/**","art/**","concepts/**"] |
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.
