A skill that makes Claude write the brief you send an illustrator, or the style rules you give an image tool. It starts with what the art must do and where it runs. Then it sets the rights: licence, assignment or work made for hire under US law, in a grid of media, territory, term, exclusivity and AI terms. It writes the style as twelve numbered decisions with numbers in them, lists every file in every size with the maths shown, defines the rounds, works the timeline back from your deadline and writes the fee questions to ask. Then it reviews the sketches or tool images that come back against that brief.
Inside are five reference files: a complete brief for an invented tea brand, the rights and payment rules with their sources, a guide to describing a style in words, size and file specs with current image-tool settings, and a review checklist. Claude never names a living artist as a style to copy. When you name one you admire, it asks which qualities you like and writes those down instead. It never estimates a rate or a usage fee. It flags the common mistake of calling a freelance packaging illustration work for hire, which US law usually does not allow. Every dated fact carries its source and the date it was checked.
Claude cannot draw or generate images here. For image tools it writes prompts and a style block for your own tool, and it says plainly that purely tool-made art cannot be registered for copyright in the US, so anything you must own should be made or redrawn by a person. It explains rights but is not a lawyer, and it says when a contract needs one. Turn on code execution and it can draw a crop template to scale, check colour contrast, check delivered files and export the brief as a document. Settle the rights before you ask for quotes, so every illustrator prices the same job.
Claude skill · version 1.0
Illustration brief
Checking your access.
In the download · 7 files
- SKILL.mdThe method Claude follows, in six stages: job, rights, style, deliverables, schedule and money, then the brief and the review.
- README.mdHow to install it in claude.ai or Claude Code, how to start, and the licence.
- references/worked-example.mdA complete brief for an invented tea brand's tin label and four spot illustrations, from the job to the sketch review, plus an image-tool version.
- references/rights-and-fees.mdLicence, assignment and work made for hire under US law, the rights grid, AI terms, fees to ask about, and US freelance payment laws, with sources and the date checked.
- references/style-in-words.mdTwelve style decisions with numbers, mood words translated, how to use references, the originality check, and how to write an image-tool style block.
- references/specs-and-tools.mdSize maths, bleed, colour, file types, crops, accessibility rules, and current image-tool settings and terms, with sources and the date checked.
Install it and begin
01Install it in Claude CodeTerminal mkdir -p ~/.claude/skillsunzip ~/Downloads/illustration-brief.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/# Start it with /illustration-brief. 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 illustration brief skill. We need [NUMBER] illustrations for [WHAT THEY ARE FOR] running in [WHERE AND WHICH COUNTRIES]. They will be made by [AN ILLUSTRATOR OR YOUR IMAGE TOOL] and we need final files by [DATE]. Our budget is [YOUR RANGE, RIGHTS INCLUDED]. Start with the commission sheet and tell me what is missing.Attach your brand guide or its colour codes, any illustrations you already own, and the illustrator's portfolio pages if you have chosen one. Add your contract template too, because Claude checks its rights clause first.
Common mistakes
Mistakes that sink an illustration commission
Instead ofAsking for a look "like" a named living illustrator.
Do thisWrite the three qualities you admire as decisions with numbers: line weight, colour count, figure proportion. If you love one illustrator's whole look, commission them.
Instead ofWriting "work made for hire" into a freelance contract for packaging or an advert.
Do thisIn the US a commissioned piece only qualifies in nine categories, such as a book's illustrations. For packaging, adverts or a website, use a licence or a signed assignment.
Instead ofAsking for all rights, in all media, for ever, on a small fee.
Do thisLicense the uses you can foresee in the next two years by media, territory, term and exclusivity, and ask the price of a buyout as an option.
Instead ofPromising feedback "as needed" and leaving revisions open.
Do thisName the stages and rounds: thumbnails, one sketch round, one colour round, minor fixes on finals. A round is one consolidated list from one approver.
Instead ofGiving one size, then cropping the art to a tall Story and a wide banner later.
Do thisList every shape up front and mark the text space, so the illustrator composes for the crops. A 9:16 frame needs 42% more height than a 4:5 one.
Instead ofAsking several illustrators for a free test drawing to compare.
Do thisChoose from portfolios, or pay one illustrator for a small style test.
Instead ofUsing an image tool's mascot as the brand's character and assuming you own it.
Do thisPurely tool-made art cannot be registered for copyright in the US. Have a person make or redraw anything the brand must own and defend.
Instead ofUploading an illustrator's portfolio to an image tool as a style reference.
Do thisUse only art you own or have licensed for that use, and write the brand's own style block in words.
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.
- MidjourneySubscription
Generates images from a written description, with the strongest default aesthetic of anything in the category.
Bad at That default aesthetic is the problem as often as it is the draw. It has a house look, it pulls everything towards it, and getting a plain honest photograph of a real product out of it is harder than it should be. Text inside an image is unreliable.
- RecraftFree tier, paid above it
Generates vector and raster artwork, and can hold a defined style across a set.
Bad at Vector output still wants cleaning by hand before it goes into an identity. Style consistency is good, not locked.
- Adobe FireflyFree tier, paid above it
Adobe's generative models, trained on licensed and public-domain material and wired into Photoshop and Illustrator.
Bad at Raw image quality trails the leaders. What you are buying is the indemnity and the fact that it sits inside files you already have.
- GPT ImagePay per use
Generates and edits images with unusually good instruction-following, and can hold text inside a picture better than most.
Bad at Faces drift between generations unless you feed a reference every time. Skin can come out plasticky at default settings, and a heavy fidelity setting costs many times more and takes many times longer.
- 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
Without a brief, an illustration job drifts. The client asks for something like a famous illustrator, writes all rights and unlimited revisions, and the illustrator guesses the price. Six weeks later the art does not fit the tall crop, the work-for-hire clause does not hold, and nobody agreed what a round was. This skill makes Claude settle the use, rights, style, files and rounds in writing first, so the quote, the drawing and the review all work from one page.
- Type
- technique
- Period
- ongoing