Art Skill

Complete visual content system for creating illustrations, diagrams, and visual content.

Customization

Before executing, check for user customizations at: ~/.claude/skills/CORE/USER/SKILLCUSTOMIZATIONS/Art/

If this directory exists, load and apply:

PREFERENCES.md - Aesthetic preferences, default model, output location
CharacterSpecs.md - Character design specifications
SceneConstruction.md - Scene composition guidelines

These override default behavior. If the directory does not exist, proceed with skill defaults.

MANDATORY: Output to Downloads First

ALL GENERATED IMAGES GO TO ~/Downloads/ FIRST
NEVER output directly to project directories
User MUST preview in Finder/Preview before use

This applies to ALL workflows in this skill.

Voice Notification

When executing a workflow, do BOTH:

Send voice notification:

curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8888/notify \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"message": "Running the WORKFLOWNAME workflow from the Art skill"}' \
  > /dev/null 2>&1 &

Output text notification:

Running the **WorkflowName** workflow from the **Art** skill...

Workflow Routing

Route to the appropriate workflow based on the request.

Blog header or editorial illustration -> Workflows/Essay.md
Visualization or chart -> Workflows/Visualize.md
Mermaid flowchart or sequence diagram -> Workflows/Mermaid.md
Technical or architecture diagram -> Workflows/TechnicalDiagrams.md
Framework or 2x2 matrix -> Workflows/Frameworks.md
Stat card or big number visual -> Workflows/Stats.md
PAI pack icon -> Workflows/CreatePAIPackIcon.md

Core Aesthetic

Default: Production-quality concept art style appropriate for editorial and technical content.

UL Editorial Color Palette:

Background: Light Cream #F5E6D3 or White #FFFFFF
Primary Accent: Deep Purple #4A148C (strategic, 10-20%)
Secondary Accent: Deep Teal #00796B (5-10%)
Structure: Black #000000
Text: Charcoal #2D2D2D

Typography System (3-Tier):

Tier 1 (Headers): Valkyrie-style elegant wedge-serif italic
Tier 2 (Labels): Concourse-style geometric sans-serif
Tier 3 (Insights): Advocate-style condensed italic for callouts

Load customizations from: ~/.claude/skills/CORE/USER/SKILLCUSTOMIZATIONS/Art/PREFERENCES.md

Image Generation

Default model: Check user customization at SKILLCUSTOMIZATIONS/Art/PREFERENCES.md Fallback: nano-banana-pro (best text rendering)

CRITICAL: Always Output to Downloads First

ALL generated images MUST go to ~/Downloads/ first for preview and selection.

Never output directly to a project's public/images/ directory. User needs to review images in Preview before they're used.

Workflow:

Generate to ~/Downloads/[descriptive-name].png
User reviews in Preview
If approved, THEN copy to final destination
Create WebP and thumbnail versions at final destination

# CORRECT - Output to Downloads for preview
bun run ~/.claude/skills/Art/Tools/Generate.ts \
  --model nano-banana-pro \
  --prompt "[PROMPT]" \
  --size 2K \
  --aspect-ratio 1:1 \
  --thumbnail \
  --output ~/Downloads/blog-header-concept.png

# After approval, copy to final location
cp ~/Downloads/blog-header-concept.png ~/Projects/Website/cms/public/images/

Multiple Reference Images (Character/Style Consistency)

For improved character or style consistency, use multiple --reference-image flags:

# Multiple reference images for better likeness
bun run ~/.claude/skills/Art/Tools/Generate.ts \
  --model nano-banana-pro \
  --prompt "Person from references at a party..." \
  --reference-image face1.jpg \
  --reference-image face2.jpg \
  --reference-image face3.jpg \
  --size 2K \
  --aspect-ratio 16:9 \
  --output ~/Downloads/character-scene.png

API keys in: ${PAI_DIR}/.env

Examples

Example 1: Blog header image

User: "create a header for my AI agents post"
-> Invokes ESSAY workflow
-> Generates editorial illustration prompt
-> Creates image with consistent aesthetic
-> Saves to ~/Downloads/ for preview
-> After approval, copies to public/images/

Example 2: Technical architecture diagram

User: "make a diagram showing the SPQA pattern"
-> Invokes TECHNICALDIAGRAMS workflow
-> Creates structured architecture visual
-> Outputs PNG with consistent styling

Example 3: Framework visualization

User: "create a 2x2 matrix for security vs convenience"
-> Invokes FRAMEWORKS workflow
-> Creates hand-drawn framework visual
-> Purple highlights optimal quadrant

Example 4: PAI pack icon

User: "create icon for the skill system pack"
-> Invokes CREATEPAIPACKICON workflow
-> Generates 1K image with --remove-bg for transparency
-> Resizes to 256x256 RGBA PNG
-> Outputs to ~/Downloads/ for preview