Katy Smail style reference and prompts

The graphic storybook image combines abundant white paper with flat black silhouettes, fine gray botanical linework, and sparse muted ochre accents. A pale, lightly shaded central zone creates breathing room inside a dense square cluster of overlapping forms. Thin interior lines describe feathers, petals, and leaves, while larger dark shapes remain almost unmodeled and decisive. Depth comes from layering and scale rather than perspective or cast shadow. The palette is intentionally narrow: white, charcoal, cool gray, a touch of peach, and small golden notes. Edges are precise but hand-drawn, with soft wash inside some delicate outlines. Tiny repeated pale dots add a second rhythm against the larger organic curves. The whole frame feels poised and slightly uncanny through its balance of intricate natural pattern, blank space, and emphatic black form.

A delicate graphic storybook illustration shows a pale-haired young woman surrounded by black birds and large gray flowers. Her upper body occupies the center, drawn with a long light neck, a quiet sideways gaze, and fine strands of hair held back by a thin dark band. The face is mostly white paper with faint peach and gray shading at the nose, eyelids, and lips, making it the calmest area in a busy frame. Three dark birds overlap the floral setting: one rises behind her on the left, another crosses near the lower left shoulder, and the largest stands to the right with a muted golden beak. Their black bodies are decorated with thin silver-gray feather lines, so they remain readable against the dark parts of her clothing. Oversized blossoms and leaves crowd behind and below, rendered in finely lined gray washes with small ochre accents. Her black garment has tiny pale dots and a light collar; ochre leaves drift across its lower edge. The square composition is dense within a clean white border, yet the arrangement gives the face enough open space to anchor the image. Most shapes are flat and cut-paper-like, with depth created by precise overlap rather than realistic modeling. The whole frame feels poised and gently uncanny through pale skin, intricate botanical line, and the emphatic silhouettes of the birds.