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AI Art Tutorials > Midjourney SREF Style Review: Neon Noir Surrealism

Midjourney SREF Style Review: Neon Noir Surrealism

This Midjourney SREF style is a bold and surreal fusion of neon-lit aesthetics with a dark, noir-inspired atmosphere. It combines vibrant, high-contrast colors like electric yellow, glowing red, and intense green with pitch-black backdrops, creating a stark, almost cinematic mood. The imagery often includes exaggerated facial expressions, dreamlike animals, eerie figures, and fantastical landscapes that are steeped in both whimsy and an unsettling quality. This approach evokes a mixture of fantasy, dystopia, and mystery.

The defining feature of this style is its use of saturated neon colors that seem to glow against the dark voids of its compositions. It conveys an otherworldly and edgy feel, drawing heavily from cyberpunk, retro-futuristic, and surrealist influences. The characters and objects are often distorted or exaggerated in proportion, giving the scenes an eerie, dreamlike quality. Faces are highly expressive, with red, glowing eyes or dripping, surreal accents, adding a sense of intensity or danger. Animals and flora take on surreal transformations, often mixing with human elements or unnatural colors, creating a hybrid reality.

The mood conveyed by this style is one of stark contrasts—light against darkness, vibrancy against voids, life against decay. Scenes are filled with symbolic imagery, from skeletal elements intertwined with lush greenery to mechanical creatures juxtaposed against natural landscapes. The architecture is futuristic and otherworldly, with flowing, unconventional forms glowing in luminous colors. The settings often resemble surreal, dystopian dreamscapes, where reality feels slightly off-balance yet visually arresting.

In terms of texture and detail, the style emphasizes smooth, polished surfaces for modern or artificial subjects while contrasting them with organic textures for natural elements. This creates a dynamic interplay between the synthetic and the organic, reinforcing the surreal atmosphere. The use of color is both dramatic and strategic, focusing on a limited palette of fluorescent hues that draw the eye while allowing the black backgrounds to provide breathing room and contrast.

This aesthetic feels at home in conceptual art, music album covers, or narrative-driven visual mediums like sci-fi and horror. It appeals to audiences looking for a unique blend of retro nostalgia and cutting-edge surrealism, evoking emotions that range from wonder to unease.

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

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