WorkflowDraftsImages4 min read

The ten-minute draft loop: iterate an AI image without sinking your budget

Sketch with a cheap draft model, change one thing per round, then re-render the winner on a bigger model. A quick loop for getting one good image.

Three rounded frames in a row: a dashed outline of a yellow rubber duck, a flat colour version and a glossy finished one, with a stopwatch in the corner

The most expensive habit in image generation is also the most natural one: write the perfect prompt, press the big button, hope. Sometimes it works. Mostly you get a picture that is close, and you pay full price again to find out which word to change.

Painters do not start with the final canvas, and neither should you. Spend your first ten minutes in a sketchbook, then spend real money on exactly one picture. Here is the loop we use.

The loop in four beats

  1. Draft small. Use a cheap text-to-image model, for example p-image. Its form is a prompt, an aspect ratio, an output format and a seed. Nothing else to fiddle with, which is the point.
  2. Pick by squinting. Make a few drafts of the same idea and shrink them until they are thumbnails. Keep the one whose shape you can still read from across the room.
  3. Change one thing. Subject, light, angle or palette. Never two at once, or you will not know which change helped.
  4. Promote. Send the winning prompt, at the same aspect ratio, to the model you will actually ship with, such as Nano Banana 2.1, which renders at 1k, 2k or 4k.

Use the seed like a lab bench

The draft model has a seed field, and -1 means random. Put a real number in it and the same prompt gives you the same picture, every time. That turns a guessing game into an experiment: keep the seed, change one word, and whatever moved in the picture is what that word does.

Write the seed down next to the prompt. When a draft is 90 percent right, you can come back to it tomorrow.

Draft in the shape of the final

This draft model offers 1:1, 16:9, 9:16, 4:3, 3:4, 3:2 and 2:3, or a custom width and height from 256 to 1440 pixels in steps of 16. Decide where the picture will live first. A square draft that you later crop to a banner throws away the composition you just chose.

Three prompts for one evening

Prompt
A yellow rubber duck captain steering a wooden bathtub ship through storm waves made of soap foam, dramatic sunset, wide shot, toy photography.
Round one, 16:9. Run it a few times. The only question: does the ship read at thumbnail size?
Prompt
A yellow rubber duck captain steering a wooden bathtub ship through calm water, pale pink dawn sky, wide shot, toy photography.
Round two. Same seed as your favourite from round one, and only the light changed. Compare the two side by side.
Prompt
Close-up of a rubber duck captain's tiny hat with brass buttons, soft window light, shallow depth of field, toy photography.
Round three is a detail shot. Detail shots are where cheap drafts shine, because you are testing a mood, not a texture.

Lifehacks that save rounds

  • Name your rounds. composition, light, palette, detail. If a round has no name, it has no question.
  • Judge the thumbnail, not the pixels. If the idea is not visible small, it is the prompt that is wrong, not the model.
  • Keep a words-that-worked note. Three or four phrases you trust beat a long list you copied.
  • Edit instead of rerolling. When a draft is nearly right, send it to an edit model such as p-image edit, which takes one to five reference images, instead of throwing the whole thing back in the pond.

The honest limit

A draft is a sketch of the idea, not a preview of the final picture. Different models read the same words differently, so colour, texture and especially any text in the image can change when you promote. Plan one or two repair rounds on the bigger model. The loop still wins, because you arrive with a composition and a palette you already trust.

Once the winning picture exists and you need ten more that look like it, read how to keep a mascot consistent.

Questions

How many drafts before I promote?

Stop when two rounds in a row teach you nothing new. If every draft still surprises you, the prompt is not ready; if none do, you are polishing and it is time to promote.

Does a seed carry over to a different model?

No. A seed steers one model's randomness. Change the model and the same number gives a different picture, so use seeds to compare drafts inside one model.

What does a draft cost?

The studio shows the exact price before every render, and the models page lists what each model starts at. A top-up starts at €3.00.

Try it: every price is shown before you render.

Start generating

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