mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Rethinking Style Transfer: From Pixels to Parameterized Brushstrokes

arXiv 2103.17185 ↗First posted 31 Mar 2021cs.CV cs.AI cs.GRcited by 42

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Abstract (arXiv)

There have been many successful implementations of neural style transfer in recent years. In most of these works, the stylization process is confined to the pixel domain. However, we argue that this representation is unnatural because paintings usually consist of brushstrokes rather than pixels. We propose a method to stylize images by optimizing parameterized brushstrokes instead of pixels and further introduce a simple differentiable rendering mechanism. Our approach significantly improves visual quality and enables additional control over the stylization process such as controlling the flow of brushstrokes through user input. We provide qualitative and quantitative evaluations that show the efficacy of the proposed parameterized representation.

Key facts. Cited by 42 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 39 of its 60 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 31 Mar 2021.

Builds on

39 of 60 references.

References · 39

  1. 2014Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimizationcited by 36,960
  2. 2014Very Deep Convolutional Networks for Large-Scale Image Recognitioncited by 15,267
  3. 2018A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 5,986
  4. 2016Image-to-Image Translation with Conditional Adversarial Networkscited by 4,510
  5. 2016Perceptual Losses for Real-Time Style Transfer and Super-Resolutioncited by 2,678
  6. 2018Large Scale GAN Training for High Fidelity Natural Image Synthesiscited by 2,609
  7. 2017Improved Training of Wasserstein GANscited by 2,223
  8. 2017Arbitrary Style Transfer in Real-time with Adaptive Instance Normalizationcited by 1,998
  9. 2017High-Resolution Image Synthesis and Semantic Manipulation with Conditional GANscited by 1,176
  10. 2019StarGAN v2: Diverse Image Synthesis for Multiple Domainscited by 1,095
  11. 2017StarGAN: Unified Generative Adversarial Networks for Multi-Domain Image-to-Image Translationcited by 1,036
  12. 2018Multimodal Unsupervised Image-to-Image Translationcited by 795
27 more
  1. 2017Unpaired Image-to-Image Translation using Cycle-Consistent Adversarial Networkscited by 707
  2. 2017Unsupervised Image-to-Image Translation Networkscited by 602
  3. 2017Universal Style Transfer via Feature Transformscited by 352
  4. 2016A Learned Representation For Artistic Stylecited by 340
  5. 2017A Neural Representation of Sketch Drawingscited by 311
  6. 2019Few-Shot Unsupervised Image-to-Image Translationcited by 222
  7. 2019U-GAT-IT: Unsupervised Generative Attentional Networks with Adaptive Layer-Instance Normalization for Image-to-Image Translationcited by 186
  8. 2016Texture Networks: Feed-forward Synthesis of Textures and Stylized Imagescited by 173
  9. 2017Demystifying Neural Style Transfercited by 152
  10. 2018A Closed-form Solution to Photorealistic Image Stylizationcited by 133
  11. 2018Synthesizing Programs for Images using Reinforced Adversarial Learningcited by 72
  12. 2019Learning to Paint With Model-based Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 70
  13. 2017Stable and Controllable Neural Texture Synthesis and Style Transfer Using Histogram Lossescited by 69
  14. 2018A Style-Aware Content Loss for Real-time HD Style Transfercited by 58
  15. 2020Collaborative Distillation for Ultra-Resolution Universal Style Transfercited by 52
  16. 2018Learning Linear Transformations for Fast Arbitrary Style Transfercited by 48
  17. 2019Diversified Arbitrary Style Transfer via Deep Feature Perturbationcited by 42
  18. 2019Two-Stage Peer-Regularized Feature Recombination for Arbitrary Image Style Transfercited by 36
  19. 2020Optical Flow Distillation: Towards Efficient and Stable Video Style Transfercited by 34
  20. 2020Deformable Style Transfercited by 31
  21. 2020Joint Bilateral Learning for Real-time Universal Photorealistic Style Transfercited by 31
  22. 2019Neural Painters: A learned differentiable constraint for generating brushstroke paintingscited by 28
  23. 2019Unsupervised Doodling and Painting with Improved SPIRALcited by 21
  24. 2018MetaStyle: Three-Way Trade-Off Among Speed, Flexibility, and Quality in Neural Style Transfercited by 16
  25. 2020Domain-Specific Mappings for Generative Adversarial Style Transfercited by 16
  26. 2020Filter Style Transfer between Photoscited by 10
  27. 2019PaintBot: A Reinforcement Learning Approach for Natural Media Paintingcited by 4

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2021: 6; 2022: 12; 2023: 9; 2024: 6; 2025: 3; 2026: 6.

42 papers.

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  1. 2021CLIPstyler: Image Style Transfer with a Single Text Conditioncited by 203
  2. 2021CLIPDraw: Exploring Text-to-Drawing Synthesis through Language-Image Encoderscited by 186
  3. 2023StyleDiffusion: Controllable Disentangled Style Transfer via Diffusion Modelscited by 154
  4. 2022StylizedNeRF: Consistent 3D Scene Stylization as Stylized NeRF via 2D-3D Mutual Learningcited by 140
  5. 2021Paint Transformer: Feed Forward Neural Painting with Stroke Predictioncited by 61
  6. 2023DiffSketcher: Text Guided Vector Sketch Synthesis through Latent Diffusion Modelscited by 54
  7. 2022ArtFID: Quantitative Evaluation of Neural Style Transfercited by 49
  8. 2022CCPL: Contrastive Coherence Preserving Loss for Versatile Style Transfercited by 46
  9. 2024ProcessPainter: Learn Painting Process from Sequence Datacited by 37
  10. 2022MicroAST: Towards Super-Fast Ultra-Resolution Arbitrary Style Transfercited by 19
  11. 2024Geometry Transfer for Stylizing Radiance Fieldscited by 16
  12. 2023Stroke-based Neural Painting and Stylization with Dynamically Predicted Painting Regioncited by 14
30 more
  1. 2021Facial-Sketch Synthesis: A New Challengecited by 13
  2. 2022Region-aware Knowledge Distillation for Efficient Image-to-Image Translationcited by 10
  3. 2022Industrial Style Transfer with Large-scale Geometric Warping and Content Preservationcited by 9
  4. 2022Im2Oil: Stroke-Based Oil Painting Rendering with Linearly Controllable Fineness Via Adaptive Samplingcited by 9
  5. 2024VectorPainter: Advanced Stylized Vector Graphics Synthesis Using Stroke-Style Priorscited by 7
  6. 2021Intelli-Paint: Towards Developing Human-like Painting Agentscited by 6
  7. 2022Paint2Pix: Interactive Painting based Progressive Image Synthesis and Editingcited by 6
  8. 2024Inverse Painting: Reconstructing The Painting Processcited by 6
  9. 2022WISE: Whitebox Image Stylization by Example-based Learningcited by 5
  10. 2025SCFlow: Implicitly Learning Style and Content Disentanglement with Flow Modelscited by 5
  11. 2022Interactive Cartoonization with Controllable Perceptual Factorscited by 4
  12. 2022Stroke-based Rendering: From Heuristics to Deep Learningcited by 4
  13. 2023Multimodality-guided Image Style Transfer using Cross-modal GAN Inversioncited by 4
  14. 2023ITstyler: Image-optimized Text-based Style Transfercited by 3
  15. 2023Computational Approaches for Traditional Chinese Painting: From the "Six Principles of Painting" Perspectivecited by 3
  16. 2024D2Styler: Advancing Arbitrary Style Transfer with Discrete Diffusion Methodscited by 3
  17. 2024WaSt-3D: Wasserstein-2 Distance for Scene-to-Scene Stylization on 3D Gaussianscited by 3
  18. 2021CAMS: Color-Aware Multi-Style Transfercited by 2
  19. 2025CompArt: Operationalizing Aesthetic Alignment in Text-to-Image Generation via Principles of Artcited by 2
  20. 2022Interactive Style Transfer: All is Your Palettecited by 1
  21. 2023Interactive Neural Paintingcited by 1
  22. 2023Collaborative Neural Paintingcited by 1
  23. 2025Text2VDM: Text to Vector Displacement Maps for Expressive and Interactive 3D Sculptingcited by 1
  24. 2026Thinking Like Van Gogh: Structure-Aware Style Transfer via Flow-Guided 3D Gaussian Splattingcited by 1
  25. 2026Look, Compare and Draw: Differential Query Transformer for Automatic Oil Paintingcited by 1
  26. 2023Neural Collage Transfer: Artistic Reconstruction via Material Manipulationcited by 0
  27. 2026Parameterized Brushstroke Style Transfercited by 0
  28. 2026Image-Guided Geometric Stylization of 3D Meshescited by 0
  29. 2026PaintCopilot: Modeling Painting as Autonomous Artistic Continuationcited by 0
  30. 2026Contrastive-Augmented Flow Matching for Style-Content Disentanglementcited by 0