From reference: borrow the mood, not the picture

From reference takes one or more images you point at and generates original cover art that carries their mood, palette and framing rather than reproducing them.

Describing a look in words is hard: "warm nostalgic light with a slightly faded palette" is four adjectives that mean four different things to four people. Showing is easier. Drop in an image whose feeling you want, add a line about what should actually be in the picture, and the model reads the reference as direction — light, color, distance, texture — while building a different scene.

What comes back is new art, not a reproduction, and it lands on the art layer only. Your title and author name stay live vector type above it, so nothing done here can reach your typography.

How to use it

1. Add your reference images
   Open the From reference scene and drag an image into the drop zone, paste it with Ctrl+V, or use Add image to pick files. Several can go in at once; each appears as a thumbnail you can remove with one click.
2. Check whether the canvas art is joining in
   If art is already on your canvas, a chip reading Also use canvas art as reference sits just above the description line — and it starts switched ON. Your current cover is counted as one more reference unless you say otherwise. Leave it on when the new image should stay in the same world as the cover you have, and tap it off when you are opening a different direction, or the old art keeps pulling the result back toward itself.
3. Say what should be in the new image
   The reference supplies the feeling; this line supplies the subject. Write what changes: "same light and composition, a rundown gas station instead of the motel". Without it you get a near neighbor of the reference rather than your own scene.
4. Run it and place the new art
   The operation costs one credit and returns a fresh proof in the RESULT column — there is no before-and-after tab here, because nothing is being edited. Place the one you keep on the canvas and carry on with your typography.

What it solves

The one cover you could afford to commission

A great many romance authors own exactly one piece of paid-for art: a cover an illustrator drew two years ago, or a character portrait bought for a newsletter. The look is settled; the budget or the illustrator's calendar is not. If your license lets you use that file, it is a strong single reference — drop it in and put a completely different scene in the line, a snowed-in cabin instead of the summer pier. What travels across is the treatment: how the skin is lit, how warm the palette runs, how close the camera sits. The drawing itself stays behind, which is the point.

A photo you own that is not cover material

Memoir and travel authors usually have exactly the right place on their phone: the kitchen, the coastline, the corner shop — shot in bad light with a parked car in the frame. Use it as the reference and ask for a painted or cinematic version of the same place. You keep what made it personal and lose the snapshot look.

A mood you can point at but cannot name

Sometimes you know the shelf you want to sit on and cannot put it into words: something about the light, something about the color. Pull two or three images that carry it and let the model average the direction. Use references you have the right to use — the output is original art, and pointing at somebody else's cover transfers no rights in it to you.

Frequently asked questions

How many references can I add?

Fourteen in the strip, plus your canvas art when that chip is on. The ceiling is hard rather than advisory: once fourteen thumbnails are in, further files are ignored without a warning, so if a drop seems to do nothing, count the strip. A second limit usually bites first — the whole set travels with the request, so even a short strip of large photos can be refused as too big. In practice neither limit matters, because one strong reference reads clearly, two or three blend into an average, and a dozen produce mush. Start with one and add a second only when something specific is missing.

Will it copy my reference exactly?

No, and that is deliberate. The reference is read as direction — light, palette, framing, texture — not as pixels to reproduce, so faces, buildings and logos in it do not come back intact. If you want that picture itself altered rather than echoed, use Image to image; if one area of it needs repair, use Region fix.

Can I mix a reference with the art already on my canvas?

Yes, and that is what happens by default: whenever the canvas already holds art, the chip starts on and your cover art joins the reference list as an equal input. This is the usual way to move a cover you already like toward a new mood: the canvas holds the subject, the reference holds the feeling, and the line you write decides which of the two wins.

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