AI Art Tutorials, AI Image Prompts, Styles, Techniques, Artists, Tips & Tricks and more...

AI Art Tutorials > Midjourney SREF Style Review: Gilded Ethereal Fusion

Midjourney SREF Style Review: Gilded Ethereal Fusion

This Midjourney SREF style is a masterful blend of traditional and contemporary aesthetics, heavily characterized by the extensive use of golden tones and richly textured surfaces. The artwork seems to echo classical East Asian influences, with its intricate details and traditional motifs such as nature, floral patterns, and mythical inspirations. At the same time, it incorporates a modern touch through highly detailed, almost photographic realism, particularly evident in the depiction of faces, animals, and surreal landscapes. This style stands out due to its fusion of old-world craftsmanship with contemporary digital precision, creating an immersive, otherworldly visual experience.

The hallmark of this style lies in its use of gold as both a dominant color and a textural element, imbuing the pieces with a sense of luxury, opulence, and timelessness. The golden hues serve as a unifying thread across diverse subjects, from serene portraits and vivid animal depictions to sprawling landscapes and abstract designs. This gilding effect not only highlights the details but also adds depth and luminosity, giving the artworks an almost three-dimensional quality. Often paired with deep greens, vibrant reds, and muted earth tones, the color palette feels both harmonious and striking.

Thematically, this style often explores themes of nature, mythology, and humanity’s connection to the spiritual realm. Portraits are ethereal, blending hyperrealistic facial features with decorative, symbolic elements like flowers, leaves, or cosmic motifs. Animals are depicted with a reverence, their eyes capturing an enigmatic energy, while landscapes evoke a sense of tranquility and grandeur, reminiscent of traditional Chinese or Japanese scroll paintings. The works often feel alive, as though the subjects are emerging from the golden canvas into reality.

Texture plays a pivotal role in this style, with the surfaces of the works appearing layered, cracked, or embossed. These textural elements lend an aged, almost archaeological feel to the pieces, as if they are relics from a forgotten golden age. This sense of timelessness is further reinforced by the meticulous attention to detail, which invites close inspection and rewards viewers with hidden intricacies and subtle embellishments.

Ultimately, this style is a celebration of contrasts—between the ancient and the modern, the realistic and the abstract, and the earthly and the divine. It resonates with viewers by invoking nostalgia for classical art while captivating them with contemporary precision and a sense of wonder. Its aesthetic is both deeply rooted in cultural traditions and universally accessible, making it a versatile and evocative visual language.

To create images in the following style in Midjourney, simply add this SREF (Style Reference Code Number) at the end of your prompt.

Full tutorials and articles are available to paid members supporting AI-Art-Tutorials.com on Patreon, all for the price of two coffees a month! The service is ad-free and is growing thanks to your support, for which I SINCERELY THANK YOU!:-)

Join my AI art community on Patreon and gain access to exclusive content related to creating AI images, including tutorials, AI image prompts, styles, artists, mediums, techniques, tips & tricks, and more!

Learn from the beginning how to create images for various purposes, including commercial use. Create stunning content for blogs, social media (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok), presentations, newspapers, or books. Monetize your art by selling it on stock photo banks and offering products with AI images like posters or shirts.

Resource for everyone, from novice AI artists to advanced graphic designers, marketers, PR professionals, and business owners.