A couple of months ago I decided to study more painting techiniques, specially watercolor. My work takes almost all my time, but magically I found a gap to study in January. So I went to Florence to take drawing and painting lessons.

I was selected to study with Roberto Ciabani, from Istituto Galilei. In my first class I told him I had no problems drawing people, but I often got stuck trying to draw buildings and landscapes. So we decided I should practice drawing some architectural things and I started sketching the Duomo.

Well, if you have seen the Duomo you know how detailed and complex it is. What was supposed to be just a study turned out to be an extremely demanding work. After some sketches I came up with this drawing. I didn’t want to use a ruler thus the lines are all crooked and the circles are far from perfect.

After some corrections I transferred the drawing to a watercolor paper. I used a Fabriano paper, incredibly good. Buying paper in Florence was one of my best experiences in Italy. This is the first layer of paint:

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Autodesk has opened the doors to all designers and artists that want to try the upcoming Sketchbook Pro. According to the official post, they “are giving you advanced access to the trial version before it hits the streets”. You can download the full-featured preview now and try for 15 non-consecutive days.

Sketchbook Pro is a software specific for tablet users. It simulates traditional materials such as pencil and brushes in order to create artistic sketches. You can read many articles about this new version at the Area site. To download the preview, click here.