I Open-Sourced an AI Skill for Generating Minimalist Hand-Drawn Illustrations
Most AI-generated illustrations today look highly polished, glossy, and over-rendered.
While that's impressive, I wanted something different.
I wanted illustrations that feel simple, human, playful, and intentionally imperfect — the kind of sketches you'd find in a notebook or on a whiteboard.
So I built and open-sourced Kunaal's Illustrations.
The Goal
The objective was straightforward:
- Minimalist black line art
- Lots of whitespace
- Wobbly hand-drawn aesthetics
- Consistent character style
- Easy generation through AI prompts
Instead of creating photorealistic artwork, the focus is on communication and storytelling.
What Can It Generate?
Cozy Lifestyle Scenes
Examples:
- Boy reading a book with a coffee
- Girl working on a laptop
- Friends chatting at a dining table
- Someone studying late at night
Technical Concepts
It can also visualize abstract ideas such as:
- Complex server architectures
- API workflows
- System design concepts
- Developer productivity themes
Documentation & Presentations
The illustrations work particularly well in:
- Notion pages
- Blog posts
- Technical documentation
- Slide decks
- Educational content
Built-in Character Style
The skill includes a consistent visual identity through:
- Reference Boy
- Reference Girl
These characters provide style consistency while still allowing generation of completely new scenes and concepts.
Example Prompt
Generate an illustration: A boy and a girl sitting opposite each other at a dining table saying hi and hello.
Why Open Source?
I wanted:
- Anyone to use it
- Anyone to improve it
- A reusable illustration style for creators and developers
Open-source tools become far more useful when the community can adapt and extend them.
GitHub Repository:
@Yuvakunal/kunaal-illustrations
Contributions, feedback, and suggestions are welcome.
If you find it useful, consider giving the repository a ⭐.
Happy building!