Creative Challenge: “Lanterns in the Salt Fog”
Premise
Design a fog-swept pier-side teahouse that glows like a pocket hearth against a cobalt night. Weathered cedar glistens with ocean spray; brass lanterns bead with condensation; steam curls from porcelain like breath in winter. You can almost taste the brine, hear the gulls, and feel the damp silk of the air. This challenge asks you to architect both mood and meaning: first by distilling atmosphere into a precise mood board, then by shaping a narrative-driven concept board with a hero image and detail insets. Your language should conjure textures, light, and temperature; your images should feel like you could put your palm on the wood and leave a warm print.
Deliverables
- Mood Board (grid): a tactile atlas of palette, materials, light, and atmosphere.
- Concept Board (hero + insets): a composed storytelling plate with a principal scene and three focused detail crops.
Model + general guidance (non-binding defaults, tune to your rig)
- Model: SDXL 1.0 (or a high-quality photoreal/illustration SDXL finetune).
- Sampler: DPM++ 2M Karras, 30–45 steps for base; up to 60 if intricate.
- CFG scale: 4.5–7.0 (lower for cohesion, higher for punch).
- Aspect ratio: Mood board 16:9 or 4:3; Concept board 3:2 or 16:9 for cinematic spread.
- Seed: fix seeds for reproducibility; vary per board component.
- Optional: ControlNet with a simple grid sketch (Canny/SoftEdge) to lock collage; IP-Adapter Color for palette consistency; upscaler x1.5–2.0 for crisp detail.
- Prompt craft: put subject and intent early; favor specific nouns over adjective soup; use weighted terms sparingly (example: wet cedar:1.2). Avoid artist names unless you have rights.
Part I — Mood Board Prompt (2×4 or 3×3 grid)
Goal: A clean, graphic “flat lay” showing materials, palette swatches, and light moods. No legible text—leave white space for labels you’ll add later.
Prompt A: Mood Board (text-only)
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Positive prompt:
mood board, curated flat lay collage, neat grid layout on warm parchment paper, taped corners, clean margins, palette swatches and material studies, salt fog harbor at night mood, weathered wet cedar planks with silver lichen, hammered brass lantern lattice glowing amber, porcelain teacup with faint tea stain rings, ink-black seawater with micro ripples and oil-slick iridescence, basalt cobbles slick with rain, indigo silk ribbon damp and slightly translucent, bioluminescent blue hints in the mist, condensation droplets, soft top light, gentle shadows, high detail texture photography, cohesive color story: amber, indigo, sea-glass green, pewter gray, soot black
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Negative prompt:
letters, text, captions, logos, watermarks, people, faces, buildings, cluttered layout, chaotic collage, uneven borders, frames-within-frames, low-resolution, overexposed highlights, neon rainbow, plastic sheen, glossy magazine glare
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Suggested parameters:
Steps 40, CFG 5.5, Sampler DPM++ 2M Karras, Size 1280×800 (or 1440×960), Seed fixed (e.g., 212121)
Optional tile-level micro-variations (generate as separate tiles if you prefer assembling later):
- Wet cedar close-up:
macro, water-beaded weathered cedar plank, silvery lichen flecks, cold salty sheen, raking light revealing grain, micro-fibers and nicks
- Brass lantern filigree:
macro, hammered brass lattice with warm amber glow behind, condensation droplets, soft bloom, shallow depth of field
- Sea surface:
top-down ink-black sea, fine concentric ripples, specks of bioluminescence, faint reflection of lantern light, low-key
- Palette swatches strip:
neat paint swatches: burnt amber, indigo dusk, sea-glass green, pewter fog gray, basalt black, clean paper texture, taped corners
Part II — Concept Board Prompt (hero composition + insets)
Goal: A narrative image that feels lived-in—warmth versus cold, hand versus ocean, lantern versus fog—plus three insets that isolate signature details.
Prompt B1: Concept Board (hero image)
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Positive prompt:
concept board, hero composition, fog-drenched wooden pier teahouse on pylons, hand-planed cedar walls dark with rain, sliding shoji panels glowing from within, brass lanterns casting amber halos that melt into cobalt mist, steam curling from porcelain cups on a low lacquered table, wind-bent prayer ribbons in indigo silk, puddles on plank floor mirror the lantern light, gentle gull silhouettes drifting, subtle bioluminescent flecks at pier edge, low-key cinematic lighting, volumetric fog, wet specular highlights, long-lens compression of pier posts, quiet human presence: solitary figure in indigo haori seen from behind, hair stirred by sea breeze, composition with clean white margins and space reserved for detail insets, cohesive color story: amber warmth vs blue-gray cool, high fidelity, realistic textures, atmospheric perspective
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Negative prompt:
text, letters, signage, logos, extra people, modern city clutter, electric wires, plastic gloss, harsh flash, oversaturated neon, chaotic reflections, crooked horizon, aliased edges, smeared faces, illustrative outline halos (if going photoreal)
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Suggested parameters (photoreal):
Steps 45, CFG 5.0, Sampler DPM++ 2M Karras, Size 1536×960 (or 1344×768), Seed fixed (e.g., 314159), mild lens bokeh: f/2.8, 50–85mm equivalent
Prompt B2: Concept Board Insets (3 detail crops, generate separately or via regional prompting)
- Lantern lattice close-up:
macro, brass lantern filigree, beads of condensation trembling on the lattice, inner flame diffused by fogged glass, amber glow feathered by mist, tight framing, shallow depth, tactile metal grain
- Tea surface detail:
macro top-down porcelain teacup, ripple of amber tea swirling in a slow gyre, faint tea oil rainbow, a single steam plume threading upward, porcelain crazing barely visible
- Joinery and plank texture:
low-angle macro, soaked cedar beam joinery pegged with darkened wooden dowels, droplets pooling in the seam, salt crust whispering white, raking light across rough grain
Optional creative toggles
- Photographic realism:
add realistic, natural skin tones, physical camera language: 35mm/50mm/85mm lens, f/2–f/4, filmic contrast, soft halation
- Painterly illustration:
add watercolor granulation, soft edge bleed, paper tooth texture, ink wash, restrained palette, subtle brushwork, hand-drawn callout circles without text
- Stylized CG:
add physically based rendering, subsurface scatter on steam, ray-traced reflections in puddles, cinematic bloom, film grain 10%
Control and composition tips
- To lock the grid and margins: draw a simple grid (rectangles for hero + three insets) and feed it to ControlNet (Canny or SoftEdge, low-to-mid weight 0.5–0.8). Prompt “clean margins, balanced layout” for tidy hierarchy.
- To keep text areas blank: include “empty labels, no legible text” in the positive prompt and “text, letters” in the negative prompt.
- Palette cohesion without references: insert “limited palette: amber, indigo, sea-glass green, pewter gray, basalt black” early in the prompt. If available, use IP-Adapter Color to enforce palette.
- Avoid prompt bloat: limit to concrete nouns and measurable qualities (wet cedar, condensation, raking light) rather than stacks of generic superlatives.
Quality checklist (before finalizing)
- Do materials read tactile at a glance? Wood grain, metal hammering, porcelain glaze, water behavior.
- Is the warm–cool dialogue clear (amber vs cobalt/pewter)?
- Does fog shape depth through layered contrast and soft occlusion?
- Are specular highlights plausible for wet surfaces without plastic overgloss?
- Do insets amplify signature design decisions (lantern, tea, joinery), not repeat the hero?
Negative prompt library (curate, don’t dump)
text, letters, numbers, captions, logos, watermarks, JPEG artifacts, overprocessed HDR, plastic shine, neon rainbow, messy collage, misaligned grid, lens dirt blobs, chromatic noise, AI signature smearing, duplicate subjects, disfigured hands, bland gray mush
Advanced prompt skeletons (swap variables as needed)
- Mood board skeleton:
mood board, flat lay grid on {paper_texture}, taped corners, clean margins, palette swatches: {palette_terms}, material studies: {materials_list}, light mood: {light_mood}, atmosphere: {atmo_terms}, high detail, cohesive color story
- Concept hero skeleton:
concept board, hero shot of {place_asset} in {weather}, key lighting: {light_setup}, focal action: {micro_narrative}, color contrast: {warm_vs_cool}, composition: {lens_and_angle}, atmosphere: {fog_haze_terms}, texture fidelity: {materials_focus}, margins reserved for insets
- Insets skeleton:
macro inset of {detail_subject}, tactile surface cues: {micro_textures}, depth of field: {dof}, highlight behavior: {specular_behavior}
Example variable fills
- {paper_texture}: warm parchment, toothy kraft paper, muted gray museum board
- {palette_terms}: burnt amber, indigo dusk, sea-glass green, pewter fog, basalt black
- {materials_list}: wet cedar grain, hammered brass, porcelain glaze, basalt cobbles, silk ribbon, seawater ripples
- {light_mood}: lantern amber pooling on wet wood, moonlit fog in cobalt tones
- {atmo_terms}: salt spray, condensed haze, micro-droplet bloom
- {place_asset}: pier teahouse on pylons
- {weather}: cold marine fog with light drizzle
- {light_setup}: warm interior spill vs cool ambient fog, volumetric shafts
- {micro_narrative}: a solitary figure setting a cup down, steam unraveling in the draft
- {lens_and_angle}: low vantage, 50–85mm, slight compression
- {fog_haze_terms}: layered mist, soft occlusion, gentle falloff
- {materials_focus}: realistic wet wood, fogged glass, patinated brass
- {detail_subject}: lantern lattice, tea surface, beam joinery
- {micro_textures}: condensation droplets, tea oil film, salt crust grains
- {specular_behavior}: wet specular with soft bloom, no plastic glare
- {dof}: shallow, creamy bokeh
Submission suggestion
- Export 1 mood board + 1 concept board (with three insets), each with consistent seed notes and parameters listed. If assembling in a layout tool, keep generated borders intact, add your labels manually for clarity.
The aim is to let the image smell of sea and brass, taste of tannin and salt, and glow with a hearth’s small courage in the weather. Keep the language concrete, the palette disciplined, and the fog a sculptor of space, not a smothering veil.
