A skill that makes Claude work like a generative artist on a real brief. It turns your use and sizes into a short brief, proposes three systems from different families, and writes a plain statement of the idea for the one you choose. It then builds a single p5.js file you open in your browser, with seed controls, sliders, your brand palettes, a contact sheet of twelve seeds and exports. After that it helps you choose keepers, narrows each slider to the range that works, checks the space for your headline pixel by pixel, and exports print files with bleed, SVG files and loop frames.
Inside are five reference files. One holds a tested starting file with separate seeded generators, so a colour change never moves the layout and a seed gives the same picture at poster size next year. Others cover ten families of system with starting ranges, composition rules coded into the system, OKLab colour mixing and WCAG 2.2 contrast code, and print, screen and loop specifications with sources checked in October 2026. A worked example for a fictional record shop runs every stage with each figure measured. Claude ends each stage with one question, never names a living artist as a style, and never states a number it has not computed.
Check that code execution is on (it is by default on most plans) so Claude can create the file and run the checks. The live preview in claude.ai cannot save files, so you download the HTML and open it in Chrome or Firefox on a laptop. Send Claude a screenshot of the contact sheet when it asks, because it cannot see your screen there. Claude Code renders and checks the files itself. Large prints will not render on an iPhone, and turning frames into video needs ffmpeg on your computer. It writes code that draws, so it makes no photos or AI images. Bring exact colours, every size you need and where your words will sit.
Claude skill · version 1.0
Generative art
Checking your access.
In the download · 9 files
- SKILL.mdThe method Claude follows, in six stages: the brief, three directions, the build, exploring seeds, brand colour, and the export and handover.
- README.mdHow to install it in claude.ai or Claude Code, how to start, and the licence.
- references/worked-example.mdA full run for a fictional record shop: brief, three directions, the complete code, two failed contact sheets and their fixes, sweeps, palettes, checks and exports, every figure measured.
- references/export-specs.mdPrint and screen sizes in pixels, colour for print, loops that close without a jump, a tested SVG add-on, video commands, web backgrounds, the handover pack and rights, with sources checked October 2026.
- references/systems.mdTen families of system with starting ranges, how to make three directions differ, composition rules, the system card and philosophy, and how to read a contact sheet and run sweeps.
- references/p5-build.mdThe tested p5.js starting file with seed controls, sliders, contact sheet and exports, the ten rules that keep a seed reproducible, and the checks before handover.
Install it and begin
01Install it in Claude CodeTerminal mkdir -p ~/.claude/skillsunzip ~/Downloads/generative-art.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/# Start it with /generative-art. If this is your first skill, type /reload-skills once.On claude.ai there is nothing to unzip: upload the zip as it is. Every step is on Install and use a Claude skill.
02Your first message to ClaudeText Use the generative art skill. I need original generative art for [BRAND OR PROJECT], used as [WHAT IT IS FOR, FOR EXAMPLE A POSTER AND A LOOP]. The sizes are [SIZES, FOR EXAMPLE 18 X 24 IN AND 1080 X 1920]. The feel is [TWO OR THREE WORDS]. Start with the brief and tell me what is missing.Attach your brand guide or an SVG logo so Claude can read exact colours, and check that code execution is on. If the piece will be printed, have your printer's spec sheet to hand.
Try this
Your first generative piece with it
Pick one real use you have this month, such as a poster, a site background or a social loop, and run the skill to the end of Stage 4 in one sitting. Choose three keepers from the contact sheet yourself before Claude gives its picks, then compare the two lists and the reasons.
Time: About 90 minutes. You need: Your brand guide, or your logo as an SVG, the exact sizes the piece must be, and your printer's spec sheet if it prints, Chrome or Firefox on a laptop.
Look for
- Three directions a stranger could tell apart in two seconds when all three use the same colours.
- The same seed giving the same picture after a reload and after a full-size export.
- A quiet zone for your words that stays clean on most seeds without you hunting for them.
- Sliders narrowed after the sweeps, so no setting you can reach breaks the piece.
- Contrast ratios and colour shares that Claude computed, never ones it judged by eye.
What to do it with
- ClaudeFree tier, paid above it
A language model that writes, edits, reads long documents and runs tools, including agents that work inside a codebase.
Bad at It is agreeable by default, so it will improve a bad idea instead of telling you it is bad. Ask it to argue against you and the quality of the answer changes.
- Claude CodeSubscription
An agent that reads a whole repository, edits files, runs the tests and explains what it changed.
Bad at It is fast enough to make a large mistake quickly. Work on a branch, read the diff, and never let it push. Watch the starting mode: on Pro, Max and Team plans it opens in auto mode, which Anthropic's own list says may read a .env file and send the key in it to the API that key belongs to. Switch it off.
- FFmpegOpen weights or open source
The command-line tool behind most video conversion, trimming, joining and encoding.
Bad at Flag-heavy and unforgiving. A wrong option re-encodes when you meant to copy, or fails with a wall of text.
- PhotoshopSubscription
Still the place a picture is finished. Generative fill, expand and remove now sit on the same layer stack as everything else.
Bad at Generative fill matches its surroundings rather than obeying a brief, so it is a patching tool and not a directing one.
- IllustratorSubscription
Vector drawing, where logos and dielines are actually built.
Bad at Its generative vector features produce shapes that look right and have terrible point structure underneath.
Why it matters
Ask a chat for generative art and you get a pretty sketch that changes every time you reload it, draws at screen size only, and has your colours guessed from a screenshot. This skill makes Claude build a system you can come back to: seeded so each keeper can be remade, drawn in units so a poster and a reel match, judged across twelve seeds instead of one, and exported at the sizes your printer and platforms ask for.
- Type
- technique
- Period
- ongoing