The Architect’s Blueprint: My Story from Pencil to Prompt

If you walked into my studio today, you’d see a strange harmony. On one side, a workstation running MidJourney and NightCafe . On the other hand, a wooden box of high-pigment watercolors, a pack of professional markers, and a stack of technical vellum. As a licensed architect practicing since 2015, I’m often asked if I’m worried about AI replacing my profession. My answer is always the same: "AI doesn't build houses; architects do. But architects with AI will build the future." To understand why I believe this, we have to go back to the very beginning—before the software, before the license, and before the prompt. 1. The Preliminary Years: The Anime Awakening My journey began with the flicker of a television screen and the scratch of a pencil. In my Preliminary Youth , I was captivated by the world of Anime . While other kids were playing outside, I was at my desk, deconstructing the visual language of Japanese animation. I was obsessed with how a single, sharp line could define a character's resolve, or how the "big eyes" weren't just a style but a window into profound emotion. During these early years, my sketchbook was a chaotic gallery of shonen heroes and magical landscapes. I didn't know it then, but I was learning my first lesson in Visual Economy : how to convey the maximum amount of feeling with the minimum amount of lines. This "Anime DNA" would later become the foundation for my ability to "speak" to AI generators in 2025. 2. The High School Expansion: Portraits and Posters As I moved into my Secondary School years , my curiosity outgrew the boundaries of manga. I wanted to see if I could capture the "real" world. I began training my hand in human portraits , spending hours studying the subtle planes of the face and the way light catches the iris. This was a time of intense exploration. I branched out into: Poster Artworks: Learning how to balance typography, color, and composition to grab attention. Abstracts: Discovering that art didn't always have to "look like" something to mean something. Fantasies: Building worlds that didn't exist, using nothing but my imagination and a set of colored pencils. By the time I graduated high school, I wasn't just a "kid who draws." I was an artist with a diverse toolkit, ready for the next challenge. 3. The College Pivot: From Anatomy to Architecture (2006–2012) College was a massive shift in scale. I chose to pursue Architecture , a field that demanded the precision of a scientist and the soul of a painter. The Nude Studies Early in my college years, a friend asked me a question that changed my artistic trajectory: "Can you draw me naked?" I said yes. That single moment led to a deep, multi-year exploration of nude artwork . In architecture, we learn about the "skeleton" of a building; in nude art, I learned about the skeleton of the soul. There is no hiding in a nude study. You have to understand muscle, bone, skin, and light. It taught me the structural integrity of the human form , a skill that now allows me to spot a "bad" AI generation instantly—I can feel when a pose is anatomically impossible. The Architectural Library From 2006 to 2012, I immersed myself in the Theory and History of Architecture . I wasn't just memorizing dates; I was learning "Design Languages." I mastered the vocabulary of: The Classics: Gothic, Romanesque, Baroque, and Renaissance. The Modernists: Bauhaus, De Stijl, and the International Style. The Radicals: Deconstructivism, Constructivism, and Parametricism. The Cultural: Feng Shui, Austronesian, Mayan/Aztec, and East Asian styles. I learned to draw manually on a drafting board, but I also mastered the "New Media": AutoCAD, Revit, 3ds Max, and SketchUp. 4. The Professional Journey: 2012–2024 After my apprenticeship (2012–2014) and becoming a Licensed Architect in 2015 , I began my career designing the spaces where we live: single dwellings, flats, and hotels. Throughout my professional life, I have maintained a "Dual Track" workflow. I use the latest software to build technical blueprints, but I still reach for watercolors, markers, and pencils to create ultra-realistic renderings. I never wanted to lose the "Human Touch"—the way a marker bleeds on paper or the way watercolor creates a texture that a computer can only simulate. 5. The AI Frontier: March 2025 – Present When I discovered AI art in March 2025, I didn't see it as a threat. I saw it as the Ultimate Sketchbook . My first try was converting a photo of myself into a Anime style—a tribute to the anime roots of my childhood. From there, I asked ChatGPT where a professional could grow without censorship (crucial for my nude art studies) and with high technical fidelity. It led me to NightCafe, MidJourney, Fotor, and eventually BudgetPixel (Thanks to @justrob for introducing me to this platform). I spent five months as an "Apprentice" to the AI, observing top creators and deconstructing their prompts. I realized that my 20 years of history and theory were actually a Prompting Superpower. I don't just type "modern house"; I draft a "text-blueprint" that uses the specific logic of Biophilic design or Brutalist textures . Figure 1: My First AI Artwork done in ChatGPT Figure 2: My First 5 artworks done in AI Artwork Platform (NightCafe) Figure 3: My first official artworks in BudgetPixel 6. Philosophy: The Mind is the Medium There is a lot of gatekeeping today. People claim that if you didn't "suffer" over the canvas for 100 hours, it isn't art. I disagree. In my practice, I use AI for "pure art" and for "architectural concepts." But I also still use watercolors. I don't do this because one is "holier" than the other. I do it because the hand and the AI are both just Blueprints of the Mind. Whether I am guiding a brush or guiding a prompt, the "Soul" of the work doesn't live in the tool. It lives in the Mind and Emotion of the artist. As my college professor told me: "Art is not the product of the medium; art is an endless process in the mind and emotion of an artist." The watercolor wash, the Revit 3D model, and the AI-generated concept are all different languages. But the story they tell is mine. I am an architect, a traditionalist, and a digital explorer. I am not gatekeeper-minded because art is an endless process, and I am finally using every tool at my disposal to finish the drawing. Figure 4: Design Concept using AI-generated work from BudgetPixel. ** I begin by exploring various design concepts through AI-based analysis, then refine the chosen direction into schematic floor plans and immersive 3D models using SketchUp and 3ds Max.** 💡 Quick Tips: Leveling Up Your Design Prompts Stop using Adjectives, Start using Movements: Instead of saying "a tall, weird building," say "A deconstructivist skyscraper with parametric glass curtains." * The "Underlay" Method: Generate an AI image, lower the opacity to 20%, print it, and then trace over it with your own manual sketches using colored pencils. Observe the Logic: On platforms like NightCafe or BudgetPixel, don't just look at the image. Look at the Prompt Weights . Words are like the load-bearing walls of your art; put the most important ones first.