An evolution of an emoji-text style

Usually I do a style comparison between models but this time it's a little different. I set myself a challenge. @justrob shared a prompt here https://budgetpixel.com/p/65164 A feudal woman baker in muted sepia tones smiles at the camera with a splash of red to the side embodied in a melted seal. You can see his prompt and the image on his link. Please view it while checking out this blog. I would suggest having his image and prompt up in a second tab so you can compare as we go along. My challenge was could I develop a similar style but using emoji with text in under 150 characters? I am showing all the steps, partly because I think the images all are cute but also emoji testing is a little different than text prompting in that you are testing how the AI interprets certain sequences. Also you are limited with some imagery becasue they do not yet have an emoji for everything even if it seems like it. Text is mandatory for some concepts as there is no emoji for it. So blog about how I tried to recreate a text prompt into an emoji/text prompt is overly long. If you want, just skip towards the end to get closer to the end of the process. Table of Contents Mostly I did GPT2 Low. So the prompts that I did only GPT 2 Low are below but ar enot listed on the TOC. The TOC just shows the few when I did also did other models. 3rd Prompt : GPT 2 Low / Flux 2 Pro / Imagineart 1.5 / Ideogram 4 / Nano Banana 2 Lite / Recraft v4 9th Prompt : Grok / SeeDream 5 Lite 10th Prompt : GPT 2 Low / Recraft v4 / P-Image / Krea 2 Medium 13th Prompt : GPT 2 Low / Nano Banana 2 Lite / Recraft v4 14th Prompt : Flux 2 Pro 15th Prompt : GPT 2 Low / Flux 2 Pro 19th Prompt : I think this is the closest I got to the justrob's style 20th Prompt : I like this the best a sit's close to justrob's style but I like the bit of sepia tone I have going First Prompt My first prompt attempt. First I changed the woman in justrob's prompt to a female cat baker as I preferred to do cats to people. With cats, I don't worry about them inadvertently looking like a real person. I read justrob's prompt for ideas of what direction to go in in choosing emojis but mostly I looked at the image for visual cues. Emoji prompting is very visual. I saw some crosshatching in the justrob's image. There is no crosshatch emoji but there is a crosshatch or grid symbol ⩩ so I used that. There was a bleeding water color effect along the edges so I tried 🫟 with black, grey, and white chircle emojis to try to get a monochromatic vibe. I did the 📜 for the watercolor paper and followed it with white to hopefully make the edges bleed to white. ⚪ ⩩⚫✒️, ✏️⚫🫟🔘🫟⚪🫟📜. ⚪ ⚪👩‍🍳😺large expressive 🔵👁️.⚪🥋👖👟👒⚪👩‍🍳 😺🥖🍞🥐feudalpunk kitchen My First prompt failed. Cool pic but none of the elements I hoped for showed up. Plus I ended up in a Japanese steampunk bakery. GPT2 Low: The success: We have a baker and the baker is looking at the camera. I had used the 🥋to infer the chef's jacket but instead it queued the AI to make it Japanese. Very cute baker tho. Second Prompt I changed the 🥋 to a 🥻. I have noticed in the past that the 🥻emoji often acted as if I used the word costume and would be the correct costume for the era and region I'd mad ethe prompt for. In China, it would be a Chinese dress; in Africa, it would be an African dress. I wanted a feudal baker's dress so I hoped 🥻 would do that. I moved some of the art style emojis around, changing places but basically keeping the same ones. ⚪🫟 ⩩⚫🫟✒️🫟✏️, ⚫🔘⚪📜. ⚪ ⚪👩‍🍳😺large expressive 🔵👁️.⚪🥻👞⚪👩‍🍳 😺🥖🍞🥐feudalpunk kitchen My Second prompt was an improvement in that it moved to a European kitchen and didn't feel like a bakery shop. GPT2 Low My cat is female this round and is wearing possibly feudal dress -- anime feudal and very dressy so she must work for royalty. The kitchen still feels more steampunk tho. And the art style is the same as the previous image so that's no good. Third Prompt ⚪ ⩩⚫✒️, ✏️⚫🫟🔘🫟⚪🫟📜. ⚪ ⚪👩‍🍳😺large expressive 🔵👁️.⚪🥻👞⚪👩‍🍳 😺🥖🍞🥐feudalpunk kitchen I moved the crosshatch symbol to second place. I was ok with the clothes so didnt change her much. Since I also needed to do my Day 26 Promptshare with a Model Comparison, I decided to do this one. So this one is in several models. Pretty much across the board I was happy with the feudal kitchen and the oufits. Some had a woman with the cat and some introduced a more illustrative style or more realism. These differences between models is pretty common. GPT 2 Low Flux 2 Pro Imagineart 1.5 Ideogram v4 Nano Banana 2 Lite Recraft v4 Fourth Prompt ⩩✒️⚫🔘⚪🫟⚫🫟✒️🫟✏️📜. ⚪👩‍🍳😺large expressive 🔵👁️.⚪🥻👞⚪👩‍🍳 😺🥖🍞🥐feudal kitchen I had hoped by bookending the first line with ⚪ that it would put the image on a white page. That was obviously not working so I gave up on that and took the bookend ⚪ off. So now the ⩩ symbol started the art section and the 📜emoji ended it. I changed the "feudalpunk kitchen" to the "feudal kitchen" as some models were incorrectly interpreting "feudalpunk" as "steampunk". GPT 2 Low GPT 2 Low (same prompt) So I definitely got a feudal castle's kitchen. Or maybe a huge manor. 🥻 was performing as expected in making the clothes. I ran it twice to check it. So while the setting has improved, our art style remains unchanged. Fifth Prompt ✏️✒️ ⩩⚫🔘⚪📜⚪✒️✏️. ⚪👩‍🍳😺large expressive 👁️.⚪🥻👞⚪👩‍🍳 😺🥖🍞🥐feudal kitchen So thist time I worked on the style a little more. I tried using the ✏️✒️ as bookending the art style to emphasize a more grey (pencil) and black and white (ink pen) color scheme. GPT2 Low The colors are more muted but it's still doesn't have the graphite/ink/watercolor bleeding vibe I want. Sixth Prompt ⚪✏️✒️ ⩩⚫🔘⚪📜⚪✒️✏️. ⚪👩‍🍳😺large expressive 👁️.⚪👩‍🍳 😺🥖🍞🥐feudal kitchen⚪ Sometimes if I start with a color, the canvas will start with that color so I decided to try adding ⚪ at the start of the prompt and ⚪ at the end. yeah, it didn't work. Sighs. Seventh Prompt 🔘⚪✏️✒️🎨🖌️ ⩩ᝰ⚫🔘⚪📜⚪✒️✏️. ⚪👩‍🍳😺large expressive 👁️.⚪👩‍🍳 😺🥖🍞🥐feudal kitchen⚪ Ok, so not getting the art vibe I wanted at all. So trying something different, I added 🔘 to the front of the style. The radio button often results in greys. I also added the 🎨 and 🖌️to try to encourage a more arty vibe. This didn't work. The palette brought in more color. boo. 8th Prompt ⚫🔘⚪✏️ ⩩ᝰ ✒️🎨🖌️⚪. ⚪👩‍🍳😺large expressive 👁️.⚪👩‍🍳 😺🥖🍞🥐feudal kitchen⚪ Ok, I still want to try the 🎨 and 🖌️but maybe further back. Sequencing matters with emoji prompts. Also trying ⚫🔘⚪✏️ in front to see if I can dim it back down. Cute but no cigar. I'm even more colorful than the last one. Sighs. 9th Prompt ⚫🔘⚪✏️ ⩩ᝰ ✒️🫟🎨🖌️⚪. ⚪👩‍🍳😺large expressive 👁️.⚪👩‍🍳 😺🥖🍞🥐feudal kitchen⚪ ok this next batch I decided to do more than one model. I've been doing GPT mostly so wanted to make sure how the others were looking. Mostly because I was thinking about doing another Day promptshare. Basically the prompt is the same as the last one but I added 🫟 into it. grok : on Grok I finally got hte bleeding edges I wanted. Well maybe too many splats too. The edges went to white. The inside image tho was cartoony. seedream 5 lite: mostly it went towards realism except for the cat. Look at those eyes! lol seedream 5 lite: so I tried it again to see if it was an anamoly 10th Prompt ⚫🔘⚪✏️ ⩩ᝰ ✒️⩩ᝰ 🫟⚪. ⚪👩‍🍳😺large expressive 👁️.⚪👩‍🍳 😺🥖🍞🥐feudal kitchen⚪ I'm not quite ready to give up on the crosshatch ⩩ and squiggle ᝰ symbols so I doubled them this time. The thing is the models tend to be more straightforward with emojis. How they handle symbols is really up in the air. A lot of times symbols just show up written as is on the image. That hasn't happened here thankfully. I'm hopping it gets the idea that ⩩ is in the image. so tried again. I'm a glutton for punishment. GPT 2 Low : don't see much change. Recraft v 4 - Recraft definitely served up a muted palette but in a realistic image. It ignored the ✏️and ✒️ entirely. P-image. No cat this time. No feudal kitchen. But we did get bakers. Krea 2 Medium . One of the wtf moments, lol. But looking on the bright side, I did get a monochromatic look with a splash of red. I'm still laughing tho. 11th prompt 🎨🖌️✏️⚫🔘⚪ ⩩ᝰ ✒️⩩ᝰ 🫟⚪. ⚪👩‍🍳😺large expressive 👁️.⚪👩‍🍳 😺🥖🍞🥐feudal kitchen⚪ Went back to adding 🎨🖌️✏️ in the front GPT2 Low 12th prompt 🎨🖌️✏️✒️⚫🔘⚪ crosshatched ✒️ ⚫🔘⚪✏️✒️. ⚪👩‍🍳😺large expressive 👁️.⚪👩‍🍳 😺🥖🍞🥐feudal kitchen⚪. 🔴accent 🫟. So ok, I have to admit the ⩩ and ᝰ symbols were doing nothing. There is no crosshatch emoji so I decided to just use the word "cross hatched". I also added "🔴accent 🫟" to try to get that red accent color in. GPT2 Low -- Yay! finally we are getting somewhere. 13th prompt ✏️✒️⚫🔘⚪ crosshatched ✒️ soft bleeding 🔘✒️aged 📜canvas . ⚪👩‍🍳😺large expressive 👁️.⚪👩‍🍳 😺🥖🍞🥐feudal kitchen⚪. 🔴accent 🫟. so since ᝰ 🫟 didn't work for soft bleeding, I decided to just say "soft bleeding". We added the 📜 but let it become part of "aged 📜canvas ". Yep, I'm adding text now. GPT2 Low ok, I think that's look pretty good. We've got a sepia-ish tone, we've got a muted palette and splashes of red. So let's try it again GPT 2 Low GPT 2 Low Nano Banana 2 Lite Recraft V4 14th Prompt ✏️✒️⚫🔘⚪ crosshatched ✒️ soft bleeding 🔘✒️aged ⚪🔘canvas . ⚪👩‍🍳😺large expressive 👁️.⚪👩‍🍳 😺🥖🍞🥐feudal kitchen⚪. 🔴accent 🫟. Another small change. I thought I'd done a few models of this one but can't seem to find them. The only thing i changed was the last one had "aged 📜canvas " and this one I changed to "aged ⚪🔘canvas" Flux 2 Pro 15th Prompt ✏️✒️🔘 crosshatched ✒️ soft bleeding 🔘✒️aged ⚪🔘canvas . ⚪🔘👩‍🍳😺large expressive 👁️.⚪🔘👩‍🍳 😺🥖🍞🥐feudal kitchen⚪. 🔴accent 🫟. This one I shortened the beginning. I had "✏️✒️⚫🔘⚪ crosshatched" and this one is now "✏️✒️🔘 crosshatched" GPT2 Low Flux 2 Pro 16th Prompt ✏️✒️🔘 crosshatched ⚫✒️ soft bleeding 🔘✒️aged ⚪🔘canvas . ⚪🔘👩‍🍳😺large expressive 👁️.⚪🔘👩‍🍳 😺🥖🍞🥐feudal kitchen. 🔴accent 🫟. ⚪ This one I added some circles. "✒️ soft bleeding" became "⚫✒️ soft bleeding". "🔴accent 🫟." became "🔴accent 🫟. ⚪". Adding the ⚫did add black ink throughout the image. GPT 2 Low 17th prompt ✏️✒️🔘 crosshatched ⚫✒️ soft bleeding 🔘✒️aged ⩩ canvas . ⚪🔘👩‍🍳😺large expressive 👁️.⚪🔘👩‍🍳 😺🥖🍞🥐feudal kitchen. 🔴accent 🫟. ⚪ I don't know. I think I'm a glutton for punishment. I swapped out "aged ⚪🔘canvas " which actually was working well I thought into "aged ⩩ canvas". I still wanted to see if the ⩩ grid symbol would add crosshatching. Once again the answer is no. I don't think it did much but I did notice a vignetting of the corners getting darkened which I like. I'm not sure what caused that. Does it sound like I'm guessing? Well, yeah. Not a lot of people experiment with emojis and symbols along with text in ai image prompts so there's not other people's research I can fall back on. 18th prompt ✏️✒️🔘 crosshatched ⚫✒️ soft bleeding 🔘✒️ . ⚪negative space. ⚪🔘👩‍🍳😺large expressive 👁️.⚪🔘👩‍🍳 😺🥖🍞🥐feudal kitchen. 🔴accent 🫟. ⚪ Okay so this is one of those that a small change makes a big change. I changed "🔘✒️aged ⩩ canvas ." to "🔘✒️ . ⚪negative space." And finally I got a white page background which I've wanted. It's a little too much negative white space but I must made a huge leap forward in recreating justrob's style. 19th prompt ✏️✒️🔘 crosshatched ⚫✒️ soft bleeding 🔘✒️ . ⚪blended 📜negative space. ⚪🔘👩‍🍳😺large expressive 👁️.⚪🔘👩‍🍳 😺🥖🍞🥐feudal kitchen. 🔴accent 🫟. ⚪ Ok so this time I changed "⚪negative space. " to "⚪blended 📜negative space. " And look! I think it's definitely go the vibe of justrob's style. I know it's got an anime/manga thing going but that's because of the cat part of my prompt and it's intentional. The cat is my main subject although to be fair the AI has been adding a female human baker but I'm ok with that. I'm thrilled that I came so close to his style. The muted colors, the bleeding fading towards the edges, the dim browns and the accent of red. Could be a little less black. Ok, could be a lot less black but I like that. The reed is a little darker than his scarlet but overall I think the style is close. 20th prompt ✏️✒️⚫🔘⚪ crosshatched ✒️ soft bleeding 🔘✒️aged ⚪🔘canvas . ⚪👩‍🍳😺large expressive 👁️.⚪👩‍🍳 😺🥖🍞🥐feudal kitchen⚪. 🔴accent 🫟. What? I'm satisfied and I did antoerh one? I went back to the sepia one and tried to do a merger of that style with the 19th prompt as I liked the bit of sepia. This moves away from justrob's style towards a more sepia look but I like that. This is a style I can picture me using over and over. This is my favorite one! Yay! I'm done! What is your favorite one? Name the prompt # and model that's your favorite below in the comments.