How I Use My List of Midjourney Styles

One subject, every style

A style word is the strongest word in a prompt. It sets palette, texture, era, and mood at once. So test styles the way a photographer tests lenses. Pick one subject and hold it still. Change the style word between renders and nothing else. After five renders you know what each movement does, and you can trust it on any subject.

The examples below all use the same subject: a lighthouse on a rocky coast. Copy any line into Midjourney or Stable Diffusion. For Nano Banana, GPT-Image, and the other chat image models, wrap it in a sentence: paint a lighthouse on a rocky coast in the style of Impressionism.

Impressionism

Impressionism focuses on light, atmosphere, and visible brushstrokes. Use loose brushstrokes, vibrant colors, outdoor scenes, natural light, and changing shadow. Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Edgar Degas are useful references. The movement paints the light on the subject, so give it weather to work with.

Fauvism

Fauvism uses intense color, simplified forms, and expressive brushwork. Ask for vivid non-naturalistic colors, flattened forms, and bold brushstrokes. Henri Matisse, André Derain, and Maurice de Vlaminck are useful references. The trick is to name the wrong colors on purpose. The model will follow.

Cubism

Cubism breaks forms apart and shows several viewpoints at once. Use fragmented forms, geometric shapes, multiple perspectives, angular lines, and muted earth tones. Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Juan Gris are central references. A still life is the classic first test because its objects break into planes with ease, but any strong silhouette works.

Surrealism

Surrealism uses dreamlike scenes, unrelated objects, symbolism, and precise rendering of impossible things. Use unexpected object combinations and hyper-realistic surreal elements. Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, and Max Ernst are useful references. Describe one impossible event in plain words and keep the rest of the scene ordinary.

Abstract Expressionism

Abstract Expressionism centers gesture, marks, and color. Use large-scale canvas, gestural brushstrokes, dynamic lines, abstract composition, and textured color. Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Mark Rothko are useful references. Keep the subject broad. Let the brushwork and color carry the image.

Add a medium word

Movements and mediums are two different levers. The movement sets composition, palette, and subject bias. The medium sets the surface: what the image appears to be made of. Watercolor, gouache, ink wash, linocut print, and risograph are medium words from the styles wall. One movement plus one medium is a complete style phrase.

Beyond the movements

The same test works on the internet aesthetics. Synthwave, vaporwave, cyberpunk, solarpunk, pixel art, and glitch art each carry a palette and an era the way the classic movements do. The styles wall holds 100 of these words with a note on what each one changes.

When the style does not land

Four failures cover most bad renders.

• The style is ignored. Camera words override painterly words. If a prompt says impressionism as well as 85mm lens, the lens wins on most models. Keep photography vocabulary out of painted styles.
• The model slides back to its house look. Chat image models drift over a long thread. Restate the style in each follow-up: same scene, keep it Fauvist.
• The era leaks. Ask for a Cubist scene with a smartphone and the phone comes back in modern gloss. Lean into the clash, or swap in period props.
• The artist name backfires. Artist names steer harder than movement names, but some models decline them or land on the artist's most famous work. Movement words are portable across every tool, which is why this list leans on them.

Tips that hold across tools

Start with one movement and one subject. Add only the terms that define the style. Keep a record of the prompt and result so you can compare changes.

• In Midjourney and Stable Diffusion the bare word works: impressionism. In Nano Banana and GPT-Image a sentence works better: in the style of Impressionism.
• Research the movement itself. Knowing why Fauvist color is wrong helps you ask for the right kind of wrong.
• Mix influences after you understand each one on its own.
• Use composition terms for balance, focal point, and framing. The composition wall covers them.
• Keep reference images nearby when you need a closer match. Most tools accept an image alongside the words.

Conclusion

Styles are starting points. Learn their marks, colors, forms, and subjects, then combine them with your own idea. A short style phrase gives a prompt a clear direction, in any tool you point it at.

Related walls

Published here first. This one never made it to Medium.