Photo To French Watercolor

Overview

This skill transforms a photo into a bright, airy French Parisian lifestyle watercolor illustration, then produces a final comparison image by stacking the illustration above the original photo.

The target style is a Parisian lifestyle illustration: fresh but soft watercolor washes, visible brush strokes, elegant pastel-yet-lively palette, charming environmental details (architecture, cafe interior, plants, props), and a light romantic, leisurely atmosphere. The subject's likeness and spirit should be preserved.

Workflow

Step 1: Receive the source image

• Accept the local file path of the photo uploaded by the user.
• If the user also provided a reference image, inspect it for style cues but keep the default style prompt unless the user explicitly asks for a different look.

Step 2: Generate the illustration

• Call ImageGen in image-to-image mode, passing the source photo as the input image.
• Use the fixed style prompt below. It is tuned to produce a French watercolor scene that keeps the subject recognizable and renders the environment as charming watercolor details.
• Recommended parameters:
• size: match the orientation of the source image (portrait photos use 1024x1536, landscape use 1536x1024, square use 1024x1024).
• quality: high
• input_fidelity: medium (allows style transfer while preserving likeness and outfit).

Fixed style prompt:

Transform the photo into a bright and airy French Parisian lifestyle watercolor illustration. Keep the main subject (person) as the central figure, preserving their exact likeness, hairstyle, facial features, and outfit. Use soft watercolor brushwork with visible brush strokes, an elegant pastel yet fresh color palette, and a light romantic atmosphere. Render the background environment as charming watercolor details (architecture, furniture, plants, props), kept airy and dreamy so the figure stays the focus. Not photorealistic, artistic lifestyle illustration.

• Save the generated illustration to the workspace generated-images/ directory.

Step 3: Combine illustration and original photo

• Run scripts/combine_images.py with the generated illustration path and the original photo path.
• The script resizes both images to the same width and stacks them vertically (illustration on top, photo below).
• The final image is saved to outputs/photo_plus_illustration.jpg.

Step 4: Present the result

• Use present_files to show the final combined image and the standalone illustration.
• Tell the user the output paths and briefly explain the style.

Style Notes

• Name in Chinese: 法式巴黎生活水彩插画.
• Key visual traits: bright airy palette, visible watercolor brushwork, soft pastel-but-fresh colors, charming environmental details, romantic leisurely mood.
• Best inputs: clear subject, good lighting, lifestyle or portrait photos. Complex cluttered scenes are fine—they become part of the watercolor background.

Cost & Limitations

• Each ImageGen call consumes approximately 5–10 credits.
• Results depend on the input photo quality and composition.
• The prompt preserves the subject's outfit and features, but extreme poses or very low resolution may reduce fidelity.

Resources

• scripts/combine_images.py — resizes and vertically stacks the illustration and source photo.