assets/scaffold/style/visual-style-guide.md

---
id: visual-style-guide
type: style_guide
title: "Visual Style Guide"
status: seed
language: ko
medium: "painterly editorial illustration"
palette:
  - muted ink black
  - warm paper ivory
  - deep indigo
  - oxidized red accent
composition_rules:
  - restrained negative space
  - one dominant focal object or figure
  - no generated typography by default
texture_rules:
  - visible paper grain
  - soft ink wash
  - controlled edge detail
avoid:
  - glossy fantasy rendering
  - modern UI or poster mockup frames
  - random neon accents
created: 2026-06-21
updated: 2026-06-21
tags:
  - visual
  - cover
  - illustration
---
# Visual Style Guide

## Purpose

Use this file as the canonical visual direction for covers, chapter illustrations, spot illustrations, and recurring visual motifs.

## Core Style

- Medium: painterly editorial illustration.
- Drawing or rendering style: restrained ink-and-wash look with subtle digital polish.
- Historical or cultural reference level: grounded in the story files, with no decorative anachronism.
- Realism level: semi-realistic, literary, and atmospheric rather than cinematic spectacle.
- Line quality: quiet, selective edges; avoid comic-style outlines unless requested.
- Texture: paper grain, ink bloom, muted pigment, and slight archival wear.

## Palette

- Dominant colors: muted ink black, warm paper ivory, deep indigo, weathered gray.
- Accent colors: oxidized red, faded gold, or cold moonlit blue when narratively justified.
- Colors to avoid: saturated neon, glossy purple-blue gradients, and cheerful primary palettes.

## Composition

- Cover composition: one clear central image with room for later title typography unless text is explicitly requested.
- Chapter illustration composition: scene-driven, readable at EPUB size, with one emotional or narrative focal point.
- Spot illustration composition: simple object, motif, or cropped gesture with minimal background.
- Negative space: preserve restrained empty space; avoid crowded poster layouts.
- Cropping: prefer deliberate asymmetry, doorway/window/framing devices, and archival-object closeups.

## Lighting And Mood

- Default lighting: soft side light, moonlight, lamplight, or overcast daylight.
- Emotional tone: quiet tension, mystery, memory, and latent consequence.
- Contrast level: moderate contrast with readable silhouettes.
- Weather or atmosphere: mist, dust, paper shadow, rain trace, smoke, or night air when useful.

## Character And Setting Treatment

- Faces: avoid over-specific celebrity likeness; keep expressions subtle.
- Clothing: follow the era and social role from `world/` and `characters/`.
- Architecture: use setting files for period and location cues.
- Props: recurring objects should stay visually consistent across images.
- Anachronism rules: no modern objects, signage, UI, or typography unless source files require it.

## Continuity Rules

- Reuse the same palette, texture, and camera distance unless the user intentionally changes the visual system.
- Keep recurring objects visually recognizable across images.
- Do not introduce story facts through images unless the corresponding source files are updated.

## Avoid

- Generated text unless explicitly requested.
- Watermarks, signatures, logos, UI chrome, or poster mockup frames.
- Unmotivated style shifts between assets.
- Modern objects in historical scenes unless the story calls for them.