Midjourney Style Primitives Reference

This article is a reference guide for the most common Midjourney style primitives. Style primitives are phrases that reliably cause the AI to render its output in a specific way, and you can combine these primitives to create a unique style.

Many of the style primitives are similar to real artistic styles, such as stencil. However, some primitives do not refer to any traditional art style — for example, astral and sense of awe are not real art styles. They are included in this reference because they have a reliable effect on the output.

To make matters even more confusing, many primitives are misleadingly labeled. For example, in real life, the pen and ink art style is typically black and white, with stark lines and sharp edges. However, the style primitive pen and ink often produces colored images with finely shaded gradients and soft edges.

Do not confuse "style" (a style primitive) with "style" (a real-life artistic style.)

Style primitives that are artist names are a quick way to get your feet wet with Midjourney. However, using them can nudge the AI into adding people into your scenes. Try to avoid relying on artist primitives and create your styles out of the regular primitives.

The images below were created with Midjourney 5 and the following prompts. They are the first generation from the AI (not cherry picked) and are not edited aside from combining two 2x2 grids into a single 4x2 grid.
/imagine prompt: a <landscape|portrait> in the style of <primitive> --q 2 -- v 5