Beautiful Midjourney Children’s Book Prompts with Examples

Every storyteller carries a world within them, waiting to be shared. For children's authors, these worlds are bursting with vibrant colors, playful characters, and fantastical adventures. But translating these stories onto the page requires more than just words – it needs captivating illustrations. Think back to the whimsical worlds of Dr. Seuss. His illustrations weren't just decorations; they were integral parts of the stories, engaging young minds and igniting a spark of imagination.

This is where Midjourney steps in. This powerful AI tool allows you to effortlessly translate your vision into stunning visuals, bringing your children's book characters and settings to life. But how to write the best Midjourney children’s book prompts that can tell the story? Worry not! This guide will equip you with the tips and examples you need to write effective Midjourney prompts for children's book illustrations. 

Tips on How to Write Best Midjourney Children’s Book Prompts

1. Subject

When crafting Midjourney prompts for your children's book illustrations, clearly defining the subjects is crucial. This means going beyond simply stating "girl" or "tree." Here's how to achieve detailed and engaging descriptions:

Characters:

• Appearance: Specify age, race, hair color/style (curly, braided), eye color, and any distinguishing features like freckles, glasses, or a gap-toothed grin.
• Clothing: Describe their outfit, including color, style (dress, pants, hat), and any unique details like buttons, patches, or a favorite scarf.
• Expression: Mention facial expressions like a mischievous grin, a warm smile, or a look of curiosity. Consider the emotion you want to convey.
• Pose: Describe the character's position within the scene. Are they "running through the meadow with arms outstretched," "sitting cross-legged on a rug reading a book," or "climbing a tall tree with a determined expression?"

💬 A cute raccoon wearning a school bag in multiple poses and expressions, character sheet in the style of a 3d cartoon with simple lines, different viewing angles, solid color background in the children's book illustration style with ultra high definition details, 2D illustrations in a colorful style

Check how to design a character with Midjourney prompts

Objects: Describe the object's shape, size, color, texture (rough, smooth, shiny), and any unique features like patterns, engravings, or worn edges.

Scenes: Specify the location (forest, beach, bustling marketplace). Describe the environment's color palette, lighting (bright sunshine, soft moonlight), and any prominent features like a babbling brook, a majestic castle, or a cozy cottage nestled in the woods.

💬 children book illustration, watercolor painting style, cute a cute illustration Children book, Children book illustration style, Watercolor illustration, bright daylight, isolate on white background, cinematic lighting, disney style, --v 5.2 --ar 16:9

Maintaining Character Consistency:

For stories with a central character, ensuring consistent appearance throughout illustrations is essential. Here's how to achieve this:

1. Develop the Character First: Dedicate your initial prompts to creating detailed images of your main character. Include all the details mentioned above to define their unique look and personality.
2. Save the Best Result: Once you have a Midjourney-generated image that perfectly captures your main character's vision, save it for reference.
3. Import Reference in Subsequent Prompts: When creating illustrations featuring the main character in various situations, include the saved image link within your prompt. Use phrases like "based on the reference image [link]" or "character design inspired by [link]."

2. Illustration Style

When it comes to children's book illustrations, style plays a crucial role in capturing young imaginations. Clearly define the desired illustration style within the Midjourney prompts for children's book illustrations. Mention terms like "cartoonish," "realistic," "wondrous," or "sketch." Below are the commonly-used illustration styles for children books.

Tips: Take inspiration a step further. If you can consider styles from Dr. Seuss, Maurice Sendak, or Ezra Jack Keats and include reference images showcasing the specific style you envision in Midjourney children’s book prompts. This provides a clear visual direction for Midjourney's AI. Here are the steps to upload images to Midjourney for reference

• Cartoonish Illustration Style
• Realistic Illustration Style
• Wondrous Illustration Styles
• Line Drawing Illustration Styles
• Sketch Illustration Style
• Abstract Illustration Style
• Stylized and Exaggerated Illustration Style
• Vintage Illustration Styles
• Bold and Bright Illustration Styles
• Muted or Subdued Illustration Styles
• Moody Illustrations
• Whimsical Illustrations Style
• Wimmelbuch Style
• Manga Style Illustrations

3. Illustration Medium

While the illustration styles define the overall visual appearance and mood of your illustrations (e.g., cartoonish, realistic, whimsical), illustration medium refers to the materials or tools used to create the artwork (e.g., watercolor paint, digital art, collage). While some styles naturally lend themselves to certain mediums (e.g., watercolor for a watercolor style), the beauty of Midjourney lies in its flexibility. So you’re suggested to add illustration medium in Midjourney prompts for children's book illustrations. Here are some popular mediums:

• Watercolor
• Acrylic
• Pencil Art
• Charcoal
• Collage
• Multimedia
• Digital Painting
• Vector Illustrations

Best Midjourney Children’s Book Prompts

With the above tips for Midjourney prompts for architecture designs, below we share some examples of different architecture creation:

Also see: how to generate dragons for Children's book in Midjourney

Cartoon style:

💬 a very simple GOLDfish, small, oil pastel style, cute, simple flat cartoon design, children book illustration

💬 One cartoon styled tree house between two apartments. Reached with the help of a suspension bridge, Detailed background of building below the treehouse, retro, watercolor, cartoon, Illustration for children's book

Realistic style:

💬 the snowy woods painting, with a bog and his dog walking along a path in the woods, in the style of childlike innocence and charm, dutch landscapes, dark emerald and light crimson, realistic brushwork, children's book illustrations, impressionist-landscapes, traditional figurative art --ar 51:64

💬 living weapon, childrens book illustration, 2d, realistic art, vexel art, unreal engine, burnt sienna, cerulean blue color, cobalt color, astropunk, biopunk, cosmic, futuristic, vaporwave, synthwave, leather --ar 16:9 --iw 2 --s 500 --q 5 --uplight

Sketch style:

💬 a cute rabbit standing next to a white dresser covered in cotton plants, fresh cotton, cozy, in the style of children's book illustration sketch, light beige, childlike wonder, muralist, mundane materials, soft, blended colors, high resolution

💬 a childrens book style sketch of a pair of skis in front of cosy house in a wonderful winter landscape, poignant, authentic details, bold plack lines,Illustration --ar 4:5

Vintage style:

💬 2d cute children book illustration, vintage style of a gnome wearing a yellow hat, full body. It has a red and blue star pattern. The hat covers the face, showing only the nose and white whiskers. Taking a nap in a Hammock, lying on his side 2d --s 250

💬 an children book highly detailed image of a city with animals working jobs illustration of a city setting in the style of babar the elephant children book, vintage style, old fashioned --ar 3:2

Abstract style:

💬 cute talking family of avocados, style of a fun children's book illustration, abstract style --ar 8:5

💬 a children book illustration, abstract illustration, cool color scheme based on blue, --ar 16:9 --v 6.0

Conclusion

The guide provided step-by-step instructions, starting with crafting specific prompts and exploring variations within Midjourney. In a word, you need to experiment with different descriptions, styles, variations, etc. to get the best results for your book.

As for the output quality, you may try the option of upscaling and enhancing the generated images with tools like Aiarty Image Enhancer to ensure they meet the quality standards of children's book publishing. It can enhance low-quality images to better quality, and upscale the resolutions to 4K/16K/32K for different sizes.