Image-to-Image: Refine and Restyle Existing Art

Text prompts start from nothing. Image-to-image starts from a picture you already have — a rough sketch, an off result, a screenshot, or a piece of concept art — and uses it as a reference to steer the next generation. It's the fastest way to take something close and make it right.

When to reach for image-to-image

• You sketched a rough layout and want it turned into finished art.
• A generation is 80% there and you want to nudge the composition instead of re-rolling from scratch.
• You want to restyle existing art — same shapes, new look (e.g. turn a photo-style piece into pixel art).

Step 1 — Bring in your source image

Add the image you want to work from. The generator reads its shapes, colors and composition as a starting point, so even a messy sketch gives it far more to work with than words alone.

Step 2 — Describe the change

Your prompt says what should be different: "clean pixel art", "add torchlight and shadows", "same pose, knight armor instead of robes". Keep the source doing the heavy lifting on composition and use the prompt to direct style and detail.

Step 3 — Balance faithfulness vs. freedom

Image-to-image is a dial. Stay close to the source and you keep the composition but change little; push further and you get more creative freedom but drift from the original. If the result ignores your sketch, pull it back toward the reference; if it barely changes, let it stray further.

Step 4 — Iterate

Feed the result back in as the new source and refine again. A few passes — sketch → rough → clean → detailed — reliably beats trying to nail everything in one prompt.

Great uses

• Sketch-to-finished concept art.
• Cleaning up and upscaling rough pixel art.
• Restyling a whole set of assets to match one look.