This week we’re doing something a bit different and looking at our favourite online creatives. This means we have to start with the brilliant young artist Francisco Fonseca (link to his online store), the 29-year-old from Portugal who specialises in architecture illustrations.

After gaining a Masters degree in Drawing and Printmaking from the Fine Arts University in Porto, he’s gained an impressive following online with his amazing work. Thus, let’s celebrate it!

Tour the Streets of Porto With Francisco Fonseca

For creative inspiration, Fonseca tours around the streets of Porto in northwest Portugal, where there are lots of stately old buildings with unique colours.

From the various buildings he discovers, he then creates his work. The result is work such as the above.

You can see the architectural delights of the city clearly in his work. If you take the Zen Walk below of Porto, you’ll see some of the sights and the colourful nature of the buildings.

Whilst a lot of his work takes a random house and warps it (almost comically), he also often focusses on near isolation—lone houses lost amongst the rolling countryside.

But the large proportion of his work is about lone buildings, warped up in subtle cartoonish fashion, all to deliver a homely and distinct appearance.

Fonseca provided an interview to ChildrenIllustrators about his experiences. Of his technique, he explained:

“My techniques are a response to the need for something fast and traditional looking. So my favourite techniques that I have developed through the years is a ‘photoshop watercolour collage’ this is basically where you are working with watercolour collages in real life, cutting them, pasting them, the only difference is being on a digital program which makes the process faster and also easier. This is my favourite technique. It’s super fast, I don’t even need any fancy tools to do it, (a lot of my illustrations until not so long ago like my Douro illustration were made just using the mouse), and it also gives the feeling of a traditional illustration which is what I really like.”

Recently, he’s been branching out his projects into more advanced concepts. This includes with a range of miniature paper houses (available to buy from his store if you like them).

Out of all the digital artists we follow online, Fonseca is our favourite. We’ve taken to architecture over the last six years or so and his adaptations, colourful, endearing, and eye-catching, having an uplifting energy to them.

His Etsy store is always busy and we picked up a 2025 wall calendar (along with the 2024 one), so no doubt 2026 will have his work on our walls again.

An exciting talent! We’re looking forward to all future projects, man, keep them coming. 🏡

A Look Into Fonseca’s Art Technique

On his YouTube channel, Fonseca is also an active educator. He provides viewers with free tips on how to draw good and the types of software to use (amongst other tools).

He’s a digital artist, but he also does hand drawn sketches. An initial outline can be loaded up into software and from there he can make one of his glorious renditions.

For abandoned old buildings, his work kind of brings them back to life. At least in artistic form.

So, yeah, his YouTube channel is a wealth of amazing information if you need tips (or are looking to get started).

Although we feel his style and technique are inimitable, you can at least take a creative trip and express yourself in a creative, fun way. That’s always a good thing, you know?