Archinect - News

Stability AI launches free sketch-to-image tool

2023-07-17T13:32:00-04:00

AI developers Stability AI have announced the release of Stable Doodle, a sketch-to-image tool that “converts a simple drawing into a dynamic image, providing limitless imaging possibilities to a range of professionals and hobbyists.”

Accessible through Stability AI’s Clipdrop platform, Stable Doodle translates sketches drawn directly into its interface and currently does not support hand-drawn sketches being uploaded to the platform. Having drawn a sketch, users can enter a supporting text prompt to explain the scene, as well as select preferred styles including photographic reality and comic book art.

“Stable Doodle is geared to both professionals and novices, regardless of their familiarity with AI tools,” Stability AI explained in a blog post. “With Stable Doodle, anyone with basic drawing skills and online access can generate high-quality original images in seconds.”

Stable Doodle joins other web-based, AI-driven tools in Stability AI’s portfolio. The company is also the creat...

This architect crafts detailed illustrations of the hotel rooms she stays in

2022-04-01T17:22:00-04:00

Architect Kei Endo has a fascinating hobby: While traveling, she measures and sketches her hotel rooms, including the furniture and objects within them, in great detail……draws them up with a Rapidograph……and renders them in watercolor.

Endo, a graduate out of the Tokyo University of the Arts with experience as a practicing architect, currently works at an environmental color planning office. Her work as an illustrator has gained acclaim, though, as she’s produced an array of incredibly detailed drawings of the hotel rooms she visits.

Endo’s work can be viewed on her Twitter and Instagram. She also uploads videos of her illustrating process on her YouTube channel “Draw with KEI”.

Video via Draw with KEI on YouTube

Artist and designer Alán Ramiro Manning launches new architectural hand sketching course

2021-01-21T12:28:00-05:00

You might remember Alán Ramiro Manning from a profile Archinect published about his sketching journey back in 2019. Alán is an international artist, traveler, designer, and founder of SeeTheLines. He has recently launched a new online sketching course, SeeTheLines Mexico - Travel Sketching in Puerto Vallarta, to teach architects, designers, and lovers of architecture, how to look at a scene, "see the lines," and sketch it on paper.

Previously on Archinect: True Grit: How One Designer Taught Himself to Draw and Became an International Artist. Sketch by Alan Ramiro Manning. Centro Historico, CDMX

"I created the Travel Sketching in Puerto Vallarta online course because travel sketching has been a vehicle for me to connect with people all around the world, and I want to share that gift with others by empowering them to do the same," Alán told Archinect about the course. The 2-hour course covers principles including one-point perspective and proportions, pencil work, pen work, and waterco...

Stanley Tigerman Rides Again: Architect's final sketches go on display in Chicago

2019-09-16T20:09:00-04:00

A collection of engrossing sketches created by the late architect Stanley Tigerman are currently on view at Chicago's Volume Gallery. The exhibition, titled Tigerman Rides Again, presents some of the final creative works produced by the iconoclastic architect who passed away in June of 2019.

According to exhibition text, "After a hiatus from his daily drawing practice, Stanley Tigerman picked up his pen and his moleskin notebook in January 2019. He began creating images that harkened back to his early paintings and moved away from the drawings he made to express, explore, and develop ideas on architecture throughout his over five decade-long practice. While he is known for his lively and often colorful collages of buildings and cartoons, these black and white drawings revert to another time. The works produce optical illusions and align with his paintings from the 60’s that reveal influences of his former Yale professor, Josef Albers."

Tigerman Rides Again. Images courtesy of Volum...

Morpholio Trace and Shapr3D launch new iOS 12 features to integrate 3D modeling and sketching for architects

2018-09-26T15:59:00-04:00

With Apple's recent release of its latest mobile operating system, iOS 12, we're now seeing new feature releases in a variety of apps. Two players in the world of architectural software, Morpholio Trace and Shapr3D, today announced a joint effort that promises to further bridge the divide between 3D modeling and sketching on the iPad Pro thanks to Apple’s Drag and Drop and the new universal 3D file type USDZ.

Credit: Jim Keen. Image courtesy of Morpholio.

Dubbed "Drag 'n' Fly", the new iOS 12 feature by Morpholio, a company that we've covered previously on Archinect, enables users to integrate live 3D models in Trace sketches, create infinite views, and draw over automatically generated perspective grids. Shapr3D models can now be exported directly to Trace via the new OBJ export, simplifying the switch between drawing and modeling.

Credit: Jim Keen. Image courtesy of Morpholio.

Morpholio Co-Founder Mark Collins explains the reason behind...

Pro Tips on sketching for virtual reality

2017-01-31T19:57:00-05:00

In any great hack, speed and convenience reduce formerly tedious, mind-numbing tasks into relatively easy operations. This appears to be the case with Volodymyr Kurbatov's tips on hand sketching numerous POVs/scenarios for virtual reality simulations. He breaks down the process with helpful diagrams and downloadable templates, explaining in his distinctive syntax:

I’m an old fashion guy who likes taking the pencil first.

So I tried to use 360 panorama grid to align my sketches to wide angle view. It was looking not very spectacular, till I scanned it and put on my face.

And it is working! So I’ll be glad to share my process step by step.

Take your sketching to the next level: Morpholio launches Trace Pro app for the iPad Pro & Pencil

2015-11-11T19:54:00-05:00

Ever since Apple announced the launch of the supersized iPad Pro tablet and its Pencil companion, the anticipation grew which new apps—specifically developed for designers and creatives—could fully make use of the enhanced capacity: a more powerful A9X processor, larger 12.9-inch Retina display and stylus precision encouraged potential new features that neither traditional tablets nor desktop computers had been capable of. "It could offer a lot to designers who still bring out tracing paper before launching inDesign or Rhino," Nicholas Korody wrote on Archinect after the product launch in September.

One exciting new app that promises to fully bridge that gap between physical and digital sketching via iPad Pro and Pencil was just launched by Morpholio this week: Trace Pro.

Here is some more information we've received from Morpholio:

Trace Pro Unleashes 5 Super Tools:

Hyper Zooming with Scale:
Zoom from a plan sketch, into a room, into the furniture, and ultimately into the details. Trace...

Ten Top Images on Archinect's "Art-chitecture" Pinterest Board

2014-08-29T14:57:00-04:00

In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles.

(Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect profiles!)

Today's top images (in no particular order) are from the board Art-chitecture.

↑ Collapse Construction in Los Angeles, CA by Formation Association in collaboration with Los Angeles artists, Edgar Arceneaux and Nery Gabriel Lemus; Photo: Hammer Museum

↑ From "Personal Work" by Megan McGlynn

↑ Empty Architecture by J. F. Bautista

↑ From "Selected Artwork" by Christopher Alexander

↑ GOOGLE CAMPUS project by Dimitra Tampaki in cooperation with Irem Dokmeci, Dimitra Pavlakou, Angel Tenorio

↑ The Chair Pavilion by Michael Jantzen

↑ Cable car project in Wengen by Fei Alexeli

↑ Vista Initiation 12 by Aimilios Davlantis Lo

↑ Drawings on John Cage by Nurhan Gokturk

(Cover pic: Illustration by Angel Beale)

Click her...

Archinect test drives FiftyThree's Pencil and Paper app for iPad

2014-07-25T10:57:00-04:00

Ever since I spotted FiftyThree's beautifully designed iPad pen, aptly called “Pencil”, I couldn't wait to get my hands on one (like literally).

Made by the creators of the award-winning “Paper” drawing and sketching app for the iPad, Pencil is promised to be “the most natural and expressive tool for getting ideas on Paper.” Archinect reached out to FiftyThree, and a few days later, we received a Pencil in the mail – pretty packaging and all – for a test drive.

The first impression is thoroughly impressive: my Pencil's body is milled from a solid piece of premium-grade walnut (there's also a "Graphite" model sporting a handsome seamless brushed aluminum body) with an eraser tip on one end and a tapered rubber-coated tip on the other end. No cheap plastic here, no buttons to push, no distracting LED diodes flashing. Inspired by the iconic form and dimensions of the carpenter pencil, the design and engineering team of Pencil really set out to turn a cutting-edge high-tech device into a ...

Adobe is scratching the surface with new analog tools for digital drawings

2013-05-29T16:18:00-04:00

Our XD team revealed a few projects they're working on at Adobe MAX 2013. The team has been exploring how new form factor displays, new interactions (like touch and gesture), cloud connections and even new hardware might change how you all create and in turn how it might impact what software we need to build.

The Morpholio Project launches Trace for the iPad

2012-09-25T18:04:00-04:00

The next generation of tracing paper can now be loaded onto your iPad.

New York, September 25, 2012 – The Morpholio Project announces the launch of its second app, simply called Trace. The app explores the role of technology in the conceptual phase of the design workflow through a digital version of trace paper, and fosters communication amongst a global design culture. Trace, essential to any design or creative process, allows users to instantly draw on top of imported images or background templates, layering comments or ideas to generate immediate, intelligent sketches that are easy to circulate.

The uniqueness of Trace is most visible in two primary modes. One is communication, in which the user can simply trace over something in order to give feedback or convey information quickly, and graphically. The second is idea exploration. “You are plugging yourself into a recursive feedback loop, as you iteratively build up an idea, taking several passes at it,” says co-creator Mark ...