Who are you and what do you do?
My identify is Alicia Levantini, and I’m a self-taught pen & ink illustrator residing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I do personalized residence and building drawings as very well as create stationery and prints of my function.
Why do you do what you do?
I’ve usually been a lover of Philadelphia’s charming row houses and of strolling around the city admiring them. Above quarantine, I begun to draw Philadelphia stoops in my neighborhood, and as shortly as I posted them on the web, I experienced a long waitlist for me to draw other people’s stoops and residences! What started out as a quarantine hobby has turned into my entire-time job. I experience so blessed to do what I do!
You use so many vibrant colours, do you have any that you favor?
I completely like when I’m ready to generate a blooming window flower box or yard landscape in my customized residence drawings! I adore when there are splashes of pinks, purples, and reds in the illustrations. I also swoon around a colorful front doorway – I imagine blue is my preferred to attract!
What inspires your artwork?
My love of charming architecture, and generating practical-seeking, to-scale, drawings – all although incorporating dazzling hues and good lines.
How and when did you get into art?
I’ve been a creator considering that I was previous adequate to maintain a paintbrush. My parents say that on my 1st working day of preschool, I walked by means of the door and appropriate up to the easels! I haven’t stopped creating considering that.
How has your exercise changed in excess of time?
I have genuinely fine-tuned the art supplies that I use. I have found my preferred brush pens, high-quality liners, and erasers, and I really don’t stray from them! I’ve been employing Strathmore paper from the get started, nevertheless!
What is your favourite piece of art that you’ve made? Why?
This is these a hard issue mainly because I feel so related to all of my drawings! I think my favorite has to be this West Philadelphia Victorian property. It definitely pushed my boundaries of what I imagined I was capable of executing, and it finished up far better than I could have hoped for.
What’s the finest piece of artwork information you’ve been specified?
To scan each individual drawing I do, in each the outline and whole-coloration variations!
What is a single artwork suggestion/approach you can share with us that you discover actually practical?
Do every little thing in pencil 1st!! I draw my whole property drawings entirely in pencil initially and then go in with my micron pens and brush pens. This allows me to lower mistakes, and to make confident every little thing is hunting very good right before it receives finalized.
Do you have any secret ideas or methods you use to salvage a piece when you make a error?
I have a few of tips I constantly use: I use white plastic erasers to erase the toughest dark pencil marks that are tricky to get rid of, and I normally continue to keep a white gel pen close by to “erase” any stray brush pen marks from a lighter location of my drawing.
What is your favored Strathmore paper? Why?
Fingers down, the Strathmore Bristol paper pads. The paper is so clean and my brush pens glide right on. It also is forgiving for significant-handed pencil users like me!
What forms of colors are you drawn to for your art and why?
I really like any bright colours that are naturally observed in character and make my drawings pop. Pinks, purples, and reds for bouquets, blue or environmentally friendly entrance doorways, and a gorgeous brick red coloration for homes.
Who are your largest influences?
My operate is extremely unique from his, but I’ve often been a lover of Claude Monet. His landscapes transportation me to an additional globe and deliver me a feeling of tranquility. I primarily love his waterscapes and backyard paintings.
What’s the most common art-similar issue you get from your followers?
Do you do the job off of pictures, or do you sit in entrance of the setting up you are drawing? I operate off of images! Each individual piece will take me several, many hours. I sit at house, with my cat on my lap, and do the job off of photographs as my references. This also enables me to attract houses and buildings in any portion of the planet, not just in Philadelphia.
Internet site/social media backlinks:
Instagram: ArtByAliciaL
Facebook: ArtByAliciaL
Etsy: ArtByAliciaL
