Illustration Style Spectrum: The Same Scene from Realistic to Flat

Using a single scene prompt to test how Recraft V4.1 Flash performs across the illustration style dimension: three side-by-side images land at three positions — "realistic impasto," "semi-flat decorative," and "minimalist flat" — sharing the same compositional skeleton and the same color palette, so the differences come only from the density of the rendering language: brushstroke layers, light-and-shadow transitions, and edge treatment. The author's pipeline inputs are only prompt, image_size, colors, and background_color — there is no style enum, and style is constrained entirely by the prompt together with the palette. This piece sets a unified colors palette and background_color and fixes the composition at landscape_4_3, so the three generations can be compared under the same color premise. The model follows short prompts closely and produces an image in about 1.3 seconds, making it well suited to locating style tiers through continuous trial and error; the output can be used directly as a concept draft or editorial illustration. If higher fidelity or larger resolution is needed, it can be handed to V4.1 Pro for an Enhance upgrade. Applicable scenarios: illustration style exploration, style alignment for serialized visual schemes, and providing identifiable style reference points for team communication.