Phrenology Head Diagram Vintage
Stable DiffusionAn SDXL prompt for a vintage phrenology head diagram in fine-line ink, the skull divided into thirty-five faculty compartments with blank label circles, drawn on aged cream paper with a faint sepia wash.
Last tested: August 2026 with Stable Diffusion SDXL 1.0
Part of the Stable Diffusion prompt library · see more line art prompts .
Prompt
A vintage phrenology head diagram in profile, a human skull divided into numbered compartments by thin curved lines, thirty-five small blank numbered regions across the cranium labelled with anatomical faculties, a side profile of a male head with closed eyes drawn in fine black ink on aged cream paper, thin labels pointing to small empty circles where the faculty names would appear, a faint sepia wash, generous margins, no text, no letters, no numerals
Negative prompt
color, photorealistic, 3d, modern, glossy, bright lighting, text, watermark, real numerals, modern font
Settings
- Model
- Stable Diffusion SDXL 1.0
- Aspect ratio
- 3:4
- Steps
- 32
- CFG scale
- 7
- Sampler
- DPM++ 2M Karras
How to use this prompt
The thirty-five compartments are the canonical Gall and Spurzheim count — spelling the number out stops the model from drawing a vague "divided skull" that could be any medical illustration. "Small empty circles where faculty names would appear" is the load-bearing phrase: phrenology charts are covered in tiny labels, and the model will invent pseudo-Latin if you don't reserve blank circles and ban letters. Profile view is non-negotiable — phrenology maps the cranium's shape, which only reads from the side. The faint sepia wash signals the 1820s source material; pure black on white drifts toward modern medical illustration. Closed eyes are the period convention (the head is a specimen, not a portrait).
Variations to try
- Rotate to a three-quarter view to show the frontal and parietal compartments together
- Recolour the wash to muted indigo for a Victorian bluebook-atlas variant
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What to do next
Adapt it →
Open this prompt in the Stable Diffusion builder, pre-filled, and change one layer at a time.
Explore more →
Browse the full Stable Diffusion prompt library — every entry tested with its settings.
For developers — copy this prompt as JSON
{
"title": "Phrenology Head Diagram Vintage",
"prompt": "A vintage phrenology head diagram in profile, a human skull divided into numbered compartments by thin curved lines, thirty-five small blank numbered regions across the cranium labelled with anatomical faculties, a side profile of a male head with closed eyes drawn in fine black ink on aged cream paper, thin labels pointing to small empty circles where the faculty names would appear, a faint sepia wash, generous margins, no text, no letters, no numerals",
"negative_prompt": "color, photorealistic, 3d, modern, glossy, bright lighting, text, watermark, real numerals, modern font",
"model": "Stable Diffusion",
"model_version": "SDXL 1.0",
"settings": {
"aspect_ratio": "3:4",
"steps": 32,
"cfg": 7,
"sampler": "DPM++ 2M Karras"
},
"style_tags": [
"line-art",
"vintage"
],
"use_case_tags": [
"wall-art",
"illustration"
],
"source_url": "https://promptkoi.com/prompts/stable-diffusion/phrenology-head-diagram-vintage/"
}The whole library is available as an open JSON dataset · developer docs.
