AI Image Generation on Bruce on AI Engineering

Draw Things Ultimate Guide: Local AI Image Generation on Mac

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 01:00:00 +0800

Your Mac is a free AI art workstation — no Midjourney subscription, no cloud uploads, no privacy concerns. All you need is a free app called Draw Things, and you can generate any style of AI image locally on your Mac.

Most people stop at “install it, type a prompt, hit generate.” But Draw Things goes far deeper: local LoRA training, JavaScript scripting for batch automation, ControlNet for precise control, and MCP integration that lets Claude Code generate images directly. Even long-time users miss these capabilities.

Mac Mini M4 AI Image Generation: ComfyUI vs Draw Things (50s Flux Benchmark)

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 00:30:00 +0800

In 2026, local AI image generation on a Mac Mini M4 is not just possible — it’s practical. A 24GB Mac Mini M4 Pro can generate a 1024×1024 image with Flux in about 50 seconds, with zero API costs and all data staying on your machine.

But which tool should you use? I benchmarked ComfyUI, DiffusionBee, and Draw Things on my Mac Mini M4 Pro, running hundreds of generations and tracking speed, memory usage, and real-world experience. The results: one tool has been abandoned, and another outperforms ComfyUI by over 20% on Apple Silicon.