ink-storefront

Imported from okou-ai/vm0-skills (illustration-template/ink-storefront/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add okou-ai/vm0-skills --skill ink-storefront. Copyright stays with the author.

/ink-storefront — locked boutique storefront illustration

Forge a portrait boutique-poster illustration of a small storefront in the ink-storefront house style: single-color hand-drawn ink line drawing on warm cream paper, with a hand-lettered shop sign baked into the building, foliage and small street props softening the facade. Mood: airy, charming, hand-illustrated by a fineliner pen — a poster you'd hang in a café or send as a postcard.

Every invocation flexes the dials below against a locked frame. The frame never changes; the dials describe the per-piece shop.

Locked frame (never change)

• Canvas — portrait aspect ratio, 1024×1536.
• Background — warm cream / off-white paper #f4ecd8, fully flat. No vignette, no border ring, no paper-grain texture overlay.
• Line treatment — single-color ink, monochromatic. Every stroke in the same hue, no accent color, no second hue, no shadow color. Confident fineliner contour drawing with occasional double-stroke shadow under awnings, signs, ledges, wheels, and other prominent edges. The double-stroke is the only shading device in the style.
• Subject — always a small storefront / shopfront seen from street level. Architectural focus, never an interior, never a portrait. The building, its sign, and its sidewalk are the entire piece.
• Signage — a hand-lettered shop name is baked into the building (over the door, on an awning, on a wall sign). Optional smaller subtitle or street-address line beneath. The lettering must look hand-drawn — decorative serif or script, not vector-perfect.
• Foliage + props — plants/foliage and at least one small street prop are always present. A bare facade is wrong for the style.
• Ground line — a faint horizontal sidewalk line runs across the bottom of the canvas.
• Rendering — pure linework. No solid color fills. No shading beyond the double-stroke trick. No gradients. No dense hatching. Plenty of cream paper showing through.

Dials (vary per piece)

Prompt template

Single-color hand-drawn ink line illustration of a {ARCHETYPE} storefront viewed
from the street, {PERSPECTIVE}, on a warm cream off-white paper background (#f4ecd8).

Ink color: {INK_HEX}, monochromatic — every line in this single hue, no other
colors.

Hand-lettered serif shop sign reads '{NAME}' with smaller subtitle '{SUBTITLE}'
below.

Foreground props: {PROPS}. Foliage: {FOLIAGE_DENSITY}.

Confident fineliner contour drawing with occasional double-stroke shadow under
awnings, signs, ledges, and wheels. No solid color fills, no shading, no
gradients — pure linework only. Faint horizontal sidewalk line across the bottom.

Portrait orientation. Boutique poster aesthetic, hand-illustrated by a fineliner
pen. {COMPLEXITY_NOTE}.

Where {COMPLEXITY_NOTE} is:

• L1 — "Single facade, one or two foreground props, plenty of paper showing"
• L2 — "Small scene, dense foreground with planters and a walking figure"
• L3 — "Full vignette with multiple figures, vehicles, and overhead detail"

How to interpret a brief

The user will usually hand over a short seed (e.g. "boulangerie called Petit Pain in cobalt", "Japanese ramen counter in charcoal", "wine bar named Lupo in burgundy"). Expand it into the locked frame:

1. Resolve the ink color. If the user names a hue without a hex, pick from the tested anchors above or a nearby boutique shade. Avoid neons, pastels, and pure black — they break the boutique-poster mood.
2. Lock the shop name + subtitle. The sign is the focal type. If the user gives only a name, invent a tasteful subtitle that matches the archetype (e.g. boulangerie → "BOULANGERIE", florist → "FLOWERS · PLANTS · GIFTS", ramen → katakana transliteration).
3. Choose the perspective. Default to flat facade for L1; switch to 3/4 corner when the archetype benefits from depth (florist with spilling pots, ramen in an alley, wine bar with sidewalk seating).
4. Pick foreground props that fit the archetype. Bike/A-frame for café/bakery. Planters/sandwich-board for florist. Lanterns/scooter/noren for ramen. Bistro tables/lemon tree for wine bar. Never reach for the same prop set every time.
5. Calibrate foliage. Sparse for tight L1 facades. Overgrown for romantic L2 floristry. None for urban L3 ramen alleys.
6. Set complexity. Default to L1 unless the brief explicitly asks for a fuller scene. L3 is a rare treat — don't reach for it by default.

Reference pieces

Reference assets are under this resource directory:

• ref-l1-petit-pain.png — anchor (L1, cobalt blue, boulangerie, flat facade)
• ref-l2-fleur-fern.png — secondary anchor (L2, forest green, florist, 3/4 corner)
• ref-l1-lupo.png — smoke-test piece (L1, burgundy, Italian wine bar, flat facade)

Example briefs

Brief 1 — L1 / cobalt blue / boulangerie / flat facade

Shop: "PETIT PAIN" with subtitle "BOULANGERIE". Ink: #1f4ec9. Perspective: flat facade. Props: a vintage bicycle leaning on the wall, an A-frame chalkboard, two terracotta planters with trailing ivy on either side of the door. Foliage: sparse. L1.

Brief 2 — L2 / forest green / florist / 3/4 corner

Shop: "FLEUR & FERN" with subtitle "FLOWERS · PLANTS · GIFTS". Ink: #2f5b3a. Perspective: 3/4 corner showing front and side. Props: overflowing planters and pots spilling onto the sidewalk, hanging baskets above the door, a sandwich-board easel, a woman with a tote walking past in profile. Foliage: overgrown. L2.

Brief 3 — L1 / burgundy / Italian wine bar / flat facade

Shop: "LUPO" with subtitle "VINI · APERITIVI". Ink: #7a1f2b. Perspective: flat facade. Props: two small bistro tables with curved iron chairs, a chalkboard menu on an A-frame, a cat under one of the tables, a small planter with a lemon tree on the sidewalk. Foliage: climbing vines around the upper windows. L1.

Brief 4 — L3 / charcoal indigo / ramen counter / 3/4 alley

Shop: "AKIRA RAMEN" with katakana subtitle "アキラ ラーメン". Ink: #1f2547. Perspective: 3/4 corner looking down a narrow alley. Props: paper lanterns strung across the entrance, a noren curtain partly open, a vintage Vespa at the curb, a man in a flat cap walking past with an umbrella, a hand-painted standing sign with a bowl-of-ramen icon, overhead wires criss-crossing between buildings, faint steam wisps from a vent. Foliage: none. L3.

Anti-patterns

• Engraving / etching drift — if linework gets too tight, hatched, or Victorian-engraving-like, the piece stops feeling like a boutique poster. Push for airy, sparse, confident strokes with paper showing through.
• Vector-perfect signage — the shop sign must look hand-lettered, not Illustrator-clean. Slight wobble and personality.
• Multiple ink hues — every stroke must be the same single color. No accent, no second hue, no separate shadow color.
• Empty facade — always include foliage AND at least one street prop. A bare building reads as a technical drawing.
• Missing sidewalk line — the faint ground line at the bottom is part of the locked frame. Skip it and the piece floats.
• Generic relabeled shop — the props must fit the archetype. A bicycle + A-frame in front of a ramen counter is wrong; lanterns + scooter + noren is right.

Output expectations

A portrait 1024×1536 PNG, register-only style. The output should pass these quick checks:

• One ink hue across the entire piece, sitting on cream paper.
• Hand-lettered shop sign readable as the focal type element.
• Foliage and at least one street prop visible in the foreground.
• Faint horizontal sidewalk line across the bottom.
• Paper showing through generously — not packed with hatching.