A series of architectural illustrations commissioned for the Historic Preservation Association of Coral Gables — a nonprofit dedicated to documenting the Crafts Section, one of Miami's oldest and most architecturally significant neighborhoods. The brief was open: create artwork that could serve a free public event, with no budget and full creative latitude. The result is a set of seven digital paintings that treat Coral Gables' built history not as documentation, but as portraiture.
Each building was approached as a subject with its own character. The rendering style combines precise ink linework with loose, atmospheric digital watercolor washes — a deliberate pairing that honors both the architectural rigor of the structures and the handmade, community-rooted spirit of the project. The vignette treatment on each piece gives the series a cohesive sketchbook quality, as though pulled from a naturalist's field journal rather than a municipal archive. Color palettes were pulled directly from the buildings themselves — terracotta rooftiles, warm stucco, brick red, and aged glazing — keeping the work grounded in authenticity rather than stylization.
The key tension in every piece was legibility versus feeling. Too tight, and the illustrations read as technical drawings. Too loose, and the architecture loses its specificity. The solution was to commit fully to the linework on structural elements — window casings, arches, cornices — while letting the sky, foliage, and ground plane dissolve into wash. That contrast creates depth without sacrificing the warmth that makes the series feel like a tribute rather than a survey.