“Jaram Boat on the Danube, Belgrade”
Commissioned Watercolor Painting
Saunders Watercolor Block 13x18cm 300gsm
Rotring 800 Mechanical Pencil + Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolors + Schmincke Watercolors + Micron Fineliners
Commissioned watercolor painting from an earlier plein-air study.
As an architect and artist deeply invested in design technology, I’ve always looked for tools that could free up time, unlock creativity, and streamline my workflow.
Today, artificial intelligence offers something remarkable — a way to go from sketch to photorealistic render in seconds, explore multiple iterations, test materials and moods, and even experiment with early 3D form — all without traditional 3D software, or expensive cloud services.
In this article, I’ll show you how these free, open-source tools can change how you work — whether you’re in architecture, interior design, product development, fashion, game design, or visual storytelling. And I’ll share a free guide you can download right now to get started with your own offline AI-powered workflow.
AI tools are no longer just a novelty. They are powerful extensions of the creative process, enabling rapid visualization, concept development, and artistic exploration.
Instead of spending hours modeling and rendering a single view, you can now explore multiple versions, styles, and moods — then refine the most promising ones using your traditional tools.
Using AI-powered workflows, you can:
Generate quick volumetric compositions and design variations from loose sketches.
Visualize materials, patterns, finishes, lighting scenarios, and moods without long render times.
Transform a napkin sketch into a watercolor painting, photorealistic render, or stylized concept drawing.
Experiment with pencil, marker, watercolor, or other render styles.
Test different material palettes in seconds — even for products, furniture, or fashion.
Create early-stage 3D forms or massing models from one or more images — even furnitre, game characters, buildings or whole environments.
AI doesn’t replace human creativity or technical precision. It can’t:
Use AI as an exploration tool, not a replacement for design fundamentals.
Most cloud-based services charge monthly or impose restrictions. But with tools like ComfyUI Portable, A1111 Stable Diffusion and InvokeAI you can run everything locally, with full control and for free.
✅ No subscription or generation credits costs
✅ Full privacy for your projects
✅ Better performance on powerful machines
✅ Custom workflows and flexibility
✅ Share the tool and workflows on your local network
Download the free guide to learn how to set up and use a very capable and flexible local sketch-to-image AI workflow using ComfyUI and other open-source tools.
When you’re ready to go deeper, the Full Guide ($49.99) continues where the Free Guide ends, and is a complete toolkit that helps you:
Here are a few examples generated through the pipeline:
Want to see more? I’ll be sharing ongoing updates and examples through my Medium, Reddit and Gumroad updates.
While you can technically run these tools on modest hardware, for the best experience:
We’re entering an era where AI is your assistant, your co-creator, and your visual experimentation tool. It can’t replace your skill as a designer — but it can radically enhance your process, giving you speed, variety, and freedom in early design stages.
Start with the free guide and try it for yourself. If it clicks, the full version gives you everything you need to build a pro-level AI visualization studio at home or in your practice with free open source tools.
It’s been years since I last touched any kind of pastels, but for my birthday, I received a 36-mini set from Faber-Castell. So, I figured it was the perfect time to try again.
Exploring the Colors – First Studies:
To get a feel for the set, I started with three small nature studies, each under different lighting conditions.
I wanted to understand the range of colors and how they interact with each other.
It was mesmerizing to watch the pigments blend, shifting and merging effortlessly under my fingertips. One of the things I really enjoyed was how light colors could cover darker ones—and vice versa—something you don’t get as easily with other mediums.
Bringing It All Together – A Sunset by the Lake
After those initial studies, I moved on to a larger piece: a lake at sunset.
This painting was an attempt to combine the different palettes I had tested before, layering warm and cool tones to create depth.
I have to say, I love how vibrant the colors are—soft pastels really pop in a way that watercolor doesn’t.
Testing Detail – A Close-up Sea Scene
For the final painting, I wanted to push things further and see how much detail I could achieve.
I chose a close-up sea scene, playing with a mix of blurry and sharp elements.
This was a great test of control, figuring out where I could refine edges and where to let the colors softly transition.
Final Thoughts
Painting with soft pastels is incredibly satisfying—the rich, velvety colors, the tactile blending—but it’s also very messy. If you’re thinking of trying them, just be prepared for dust-covered hands (and probably a desk that looks like a crime scene of color). But in the end, it’s absolutely worth it.
Have you tried soft pastels before? What’s your favorite way to use them? Let me know in the comments!
This weekend, I ventured to Xyliatos Dam for a plein air painting session, eager to test my new Charvin 12-pan travel watercolor set—a thoughtful gift I recently received.
While the dam’s water levels were dishearteningly low after a dry season in Cyprus, the scene was still captivating. The reflections in the remaining water, framed by shadows of dense trees, rugged mountains, and scattered clouds, offered a challenge I couldn’t resist.
The Landscape: Nature in Reflection
Xyliatos Dam sits quietly in the heart of the forest, where the stillness is broken only by the whisper of the wind and the occasional bird song. The water, though sparse, was like a mirror for the world above it. The dark greens of the pines, earthy browns of the mountains, and fleeting patches of sunlight created shifting reflections that felt both melancholic and beautiful. While the lack of water was a poignant reminder of the struggles with drought in Cyprus, it also emphasized the resilience of the forest surrounding the dam.
Testing the Charvin Watercolor Set
This plein air session also served as my first test of the Charvin watercolors. While the 12-pan set offers a charming and very interesting range of colors, I quickly noticed a few quirks:
• The paints are slightly sticky in texture, which made them harder to control for fine details.
• Blues and greens, though vibrant, have a tendency to bleed through layers, even after significant drying time. This was most evident when building up reflections and layering shadows in the water.
• On the plus side, the yellows and earth tones handled beautifully, blending seamlessly into the natural tones of the landscape.
To prepare for the session, I created a small color palette with swatches of each shade, noting how they behaved and their tendency to bleed. I’ll include the palette below for anyone curious about how these paints perform in practice.
The Painting Experience
Despite the challenges with the paints, plein air painting at Xyliatos was a deeply rewarding experience. The low water levels meant I had to focus more on the textures and shadows of the surrounding landscape, letting the reflections tell their own fragmented story. The sticky nature of the paints forced me to adopt a looser style, which brought its own charm to the piece.
If you’ve visited Xyliatos Dam or have tried Charvin watercolors, I’d love to hear your thoughts! How do you adapt to supplies with quirks? Or what’s your favorite plein air spot in Cyprus?
“Parisian Roof”
Watercolor Painting 2024
Arches Fine Grain 18x26cm 300gsm
Rotring 800 Mechanical Pencil + Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolors + Schmincke Watercolors + Micron Fineliners
Jaram Boat on the Danube, Belgrade
Watercolor Plein-air Study 2024
Moleskine Watercolor Sketchbook 9.5x14cm 200gsm
Rotring 800 Mechanical Pencil + Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolors + Schmincke Watercolors + Micron Fineliners
Grid #1, Paris (Science Museum de la Villette Facade) – Study
Watercolor Study 2024
Moleskine Watercolor Sketchbook 9.5x14cm 200gsm
Rotring 800 Mechanical Pencil + Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolors + Schmincke Watercolors + Micron Fineliners
Delfin Ship, Belgrade
Watercolor Study
Moleskine Watercolor Sketchbook 9.5x14cm 200gsm
Rotring 800 Mechanical Pencil + Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolors + Schmincke Watercolors + Micron Fineliners
Rainy Afternoon, Paris
Watercolor Study
Moleskine Watercolor Sketchbook 9.5x14cm 200gsm
Rotring 800 Mechanical Pencil + Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolors + Schmincke Watercolors + Micron Fineliners
Sunset, New Belgrade
Watercolor Study
Moleskine Watercolor Sketchbook 9.5x14cm 200gsm
Rotring 800 Mechanical Pencil + Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolors + Schmincke Watercolors + Micron Fineliners
