SREF Bites Begins: The First Visual Entry of July 2025

If you have been following SREF Bites elsewhere, you already understand the core idea. A strong MidJourney style reference is not about novelty or trend chasing. It is about choosing the right visual language for the idea you want to communicate.

This opening post is not concerned with realism, polish, or technical perfection. It focuses on illustration as a medium. Storytelling through shape, color, and texture. The kind of imagery that belongs in books, learning materials, and gentle narrative spaces rather than cinematic or photographic scenes.

The July 2025 SREF Bites collection spans a wide range of graphic and illustrative styles. What you see here represents only one part of that spectrum. This is simply the first selection. An illustrated opening that introduces one visual approach before the month unfolds further.

Over the next four weeks, the July collection will be explored piece by piece. Not as a catalog of codes, but as a series of visual decisions that can be reused, adapted, and combined in practical workflows.

This first entry focuses on what could loosely be described as a storybook aesthetic.

Where the Month Opens

Several SREFs in the July collection lean fully into illustration first thinking. Watercolor bleed, pencil friction, chalk dust, and paper grain are treated as core elements rather than surface effects.

Episode 001 is the clearest example.

It blends soft watercolor washes with gentle pencil definition in a way that feels immediately familiar. Children’s books, educational illustrations, and small scale narrative art where warmth matters more than precision.

This style is not concerned with realism or visual accuracy. Its strength lies in character, mood, and approachability. The images feel designed to be read rather than inspected.

The same approach carries through other early July episodes. Woodland scenes built from fur, bark, moss, and leaves. Chalk and pastel styles where light behaves as if it falls onto textured paper instead of a digital surface.

This progression is visible across Episodes 001, 004, 007, and 012 in the July pack. Together, they echo the visual language of classic illustrated books.

A Small Gift

Not everything needs to sit behind a paywall.

Below is the SREF code for Episode 001, the watercolor and pencil hybrid that opens this first pack.

Use it on something simple. A sleeping cat. A quiet kitchen. A single character.

Let the style do the work. This is how the July collection was built. Minimal prompts with strong stylistic intent.

SREF: 3536066762

Recommended settings:
--sw 1000
--stylize 900

Increasing the --sw value strengthens the influence of the SREF code, allowing the style reference to dominate more clearly. Reducing it, even below 50, can introduce subtler stylistic variation.

The --stylize value is set high here to encourage expressive results. If the prompt begins to override your instructions, lowering this value will usually restore structural accuracy at the expense of some stylistic richness.

Example prompt:

Extreme close up of a curious kitten sitting on the windowsill among pots with a variety of house plants, visible bookshelves, illustration --ar 16:9 --sref 3536066762 --sw 1000 --stylize 900

Result:

Practical Workflow Note

If an image feels incomplete within the frame, whether details are missing or composition feels cramped, begin by generating it in a different aspect ratio. This approach is consistently effective.

A vertical format such as 3:4 often provides stronger initial framing for characters or isolated subjects.

Once a solid base image is established, use MidJourney’s editing tools to adjust the aspect ratio gradually. Moving step by step from 3:4 to 1:1, then to 4:3, 3:2, and finally 16:9 allows the scene to expand naturally while maintaining control over composition.

For deeper refinement, retouching, or structural adjustments beyond MidJourney’s editor, the image can then be taken into Nano Banana Pro.

About the July Collection

The July 2025 SREF Bites pack contains 30 curated styles (The first episode started on July 2, therefore there are only 30 SREFs.). Each one has been tested using minimal prompts, consistent parameters, and an emphasis on clear stylistic behavior.

The collection includes illustrated aesthetics, graphic poster styles, darker editorial looks, isometric environments, and early world building foundations that will be explored in the weeks ahead.

The full July collection is available on Gumroad for those who want access to all styles, including the ones not shown here yet.

Next week moves into a different visual space. Organic textures, creatures, and why certain aesthetics are nearly impossible to achieve reliably without a strong style reference.

More soon.