ChatGPT Oil Painting Prompts: 12 Ready-to-Use Templates for Portraits, Landscapes & Still Life

Create an oil painting portrait in the style of the Dutch Golden Age masters (Rembrandt, Vermeer).
Subject: [person description]. Technique: Oil on canvas with layered glazing technique,
dramatic chiaroscuro lighting with single directional light source from upper left.
Brushwork: Smooth blending on skin tones with slightly more textured treatment in
hair and clothing. Background: Dark, graduated shadow (black to dark umber).
Skin tones: Warm undertones using lead white, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, and
cadmium red. Expression: [dignified/contemplative/serene]. Detail level: Museum-quality
portrait painting, fine details visible in eyes and collar. Medium: Oil on canvas.
Style: Old Masters realism, 17th-century Northern European portraiture.

Create an Impressionist oil painting landscape in the style of Claude Monet or
Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Scene: [landscape description]. Technique: Plein air painting
with loose, expressive brushwork capturing fleeting light and atmosphere. Brushstrokes:
Short, comma-shaped dabs of pure color applied side by side rather than blended,
visible canvas grain between strokes. Color palette: Pure, unmixed colors —
cadmium yellow, cobalt blue, viridian green, rose madder, titanium white.
Light: [golden morning/afternoon/sunset] light breaking through. Atmosphere:
Shimmering, alive with captured moment. Composition: Open, panoramic view with
strong color relationships rather than sharp detail. Feel: The vibration of light
on [water/foliage/fields]. Museum-quality Impressionist painting.

Create an oil painting portrait in the style of John Singer Sargent's bravura
technique. Subject: [person or group]. Technique: Alla prima (wet-into-wet)
single-session painting with confident, slashing brushwork. Brushstrokes: Bold,
visible, confident — each stroke placed precisely without overworking. Values:
Strong value contrast with brilliant highlights on lightest areas (titanium white
applied directly). Palette: Limited — black, white, yellow ochre, burnt sienna,
cadmium red with occasional viridian for shadows. Background: Loosely rendered
[interior/outdoor setting] with impressionistic treatment. Clothing: Fabric texture
suggested with single confident strokes capturing material quality. Expression:
[lively/elegant/direct]. Feel: The energy and spontaneity of a masterful sitting.

Create an oil painting still life in the Flemish tradition of Jan de Heem or
Adriaen van Dyck. Arrangement: [objects — fruits, flowers, vessels, fabrics].
Surface: Dark wooden table with rich shadow. Technique: Multiple oil glazing layers
creating extraordinary depth and luminosity. Objects: Each rendered with obsessive
detail — every petal, fruit skin imperfection, and surface reflection visible.
Lighting: Single dramatic light source illuminating arrangement from [left/right],
deep shadows. Color: Rich jewel tones — deep reds, luminous yellows, lush greens
against dark backgrounds. Textures: Contrast between smooth glass, rough cloth,
soft petals, and rough wood. Hidden details: [Optional: insects, water droplets,
vanitas symbols]. Museum quality, 17th-century Dutch masterpiece aesthetic.

Create an oil painting of [harbor/lake/river/ocean] scene in the plein air tradition.
Technique: Outdoor painting capturing natural light with loose, gestural brushwork.
Water: Reflections rendered with horizontal brushstrokes capturing movement and light
— [choppy/calm/glassy] surface. Sky: Painted with confident, blended strokes showing
[cumulus clouds/clear blue/overcast gray]. Boats/vessels: [if present] simplified
with confident marks, rigging suggested rather than fully detailed. Atmosphere:
[Morning mist/afternoon clarity/evening warmth] captured in color temperature.
Foreground: [dock/rocks/sand] with textured impasto. Color palette emphasizing
[cool blues and grays/warm golden light/stormy atmosphere]. Compositional anchor:
Strong horizontal line of water meeting sky. Feel: Immediacy of outdoor painting.

Create a contemporary oil painting portrait combining realism with expressive
brushwork. Subject: [person description]. Background: [solid color/abstracted/textured
suggestion]. Technique: Modern alla prima approach — decisive brushwork, limited
palette, psychological depth. Brushwork: Face rendered with careful attention to
planes of the head, but visible and gestural rather than photographic. Values:
Strong lights and darks creating form and depth. Palette: [warm/cool/neutral]
key with complementary accents. Expression: Revealing [specific emotional quality].
Contemporary feeling while maintaining painterly tradition. Format: [square/portrait/
landscape orientation]. Oil on linen or canvas. Gallery-quality contemporary portrait.

Create a grand landscape oil painting in the Hudson River School tradition (Thomas
Cole, Frederic Edwin Church). Scene: [American wilderness/dramatic natural landscape].
Scale: Vast, sublime panorama conveying nature's grandeur. Light: Transcendent golden
or dramatic light — often sunset or sunrise illuminating landscape from within.
Detail: Meticulous foreground botanical detail transitioning to atmospheric distance.
Atmosphere: Luminous, glowing atmosphere suggesting divine presence in nature.
Human element: [tiny figures/small settlement] emphasizing nature's scale. Colors:
Rich autumn tones, luminous sky, reflective water, detailed foliage. Technique:
Smooth, precise blending conveying vast, crystalline distances. Mood: Awe-inspiring,
romantic nationalism. 19th-century American masterpiece quality.

Create an oil painting of a moody interior scene in the tradition of Dutch Golden
Age interiors or Vermeer. Setting: [room description — kitchen, studio, parlor].
Light source: Single window or candle providing all illumination. Window light:
Cool, diffused natural light entering from [left/right], creating dramatic contrast
with interior shadow. Objects: Everyday items rendered with extraordinary attention —
fabric textures, ceramic glazes, wooden surfaces, metal reflections. Human figure:
[If present] engaged in [activity] with quiet, absorbed expression. Floor: [tile/
wooden floorboard] with subtle light reflection. Atmosphere: Quiet, contemplative,
suspended moment. Palette: Warm earth tones in shadow, cooler lighter tones where
light falls. Painting quality: Museum-worthy interior genre painting.

Create an oil painting in the Academic Realism tradition of William-Adolphe
Bouguereau. Subject: [figure description]. Technique: Highly finished, smooth oil
glazing technique with virtually invisible brushwork. Skin: Porcelain-smooth complexion
with subtle color variations — warm pinks, cool shadows, translucent highlights.
Form: Perfectly rendered three-dimensional anatomy. Background: [classical setting/
soft landscape/simple studio]. Lighting: Soft, flattering studio light with subtle
shadows. Drapery: [If present] rendered with perfect understanding of fabric behavior.
Color: Clean, luminous palette — bright highlights, subtle color in shadows.
Idealization: Classical beauty ideals applied to [subject]. Quality: Comparable to
19th-century French Academy Salon submission. Technical excellence paramount.

Create an Abstract Expressionist oil painting in the tradition of Franz Kline,
Willem de Kooning, or Mark Rothko. Style: [Kline-esque bold black gesture/de Kooning
energetic figuration/Rothko luminous color fields]. Technique: Raw, physical painting —
evidence of bodily gesture, drips, palette knife marks, scraping. Color palette:
[Specific colors relevant to chosen style]. Scale: Monumental feeling even in
reproduction. Surface: Visible canvas texture, varied paint thickness, layered
history of marks. Emotion: [Urgency/contemplation/violence/serenity] expressed
through painterly gesture. No representational content — pure formal expression.
Quality: Major museum-quality Abstract Expressionist canvas.

Create a Romantic tradition seascape oil painting in the style of J.M.W. Turner
or Winslow Homer. Sea: [stormy/calm/dramatic] ocean scene. Technique: Atmosphere
and light as primary subject matter — forms dissolving into light. Turner approach:
Vortex composition with light at center, forms swirling toward it. Homer approach:
More structured composition with powerful wave forms and rocky coast. Color:
[Turner's luminous yellows and ochres dissolving into sea/Homer's dark green-gray
waves]. Drama: Sense of nature's power and sublime beauty. Human element: [Ship/
figures/boats] if present, shown vulnerable against nature's scale. Atmosphere:
Spray, mist, atmospheric perspective creating depth. Painterly quality throughout.

Create a contemporary oil painting still life combining traditional technique with
modern sensibility. Objects: [contemporary items — [phones, books, everyday objects]
alongside traditional still life elements]. Arrangement: Thoughtful composition
on [surface description]. Technique: Combination of precise rendering and looser
gestural passages. Light: [Natural window light/dramatic artificial light]. Color:
Contemporary palette — perhaps limited or high-key or deliberately discordant.
Concept: [Optional conceptual element — vanitas updated for contemporary life,
commentary on consumer culture]. Background: [Simple neutral/textured/patterned].
Quality: Gallery-ready contemporary painting with painterly vitality.

Multiple translucent glazing layers creating depth — warm reddish underpainting
visible through cool shadow glazes, luminous highlights built with white mixed
into medium layers, final transparent amber glaze unifying the composition

Thick impasto applied with palette knife — ridges and peaks of paint visible,
shadows cast by raised paint areas, gestural knife marks creating surface energy,
paint dragged and scraped across canvas

Evidence of warm sienna underpainting visible through thin passages, alla prima
touches over established structure, tonal foundation supporting final color layers