If you ever come across Spanish woman travelling the world with a sketchbook, with some pencils, brushes and some watercolors, know that it is Alicia Aradilla. She left a well-paying job at Samsung as an illustrator and graphic designer, packed her life in a backpack in May and decided to travel the world with her journalist / photographer boyfriend, Sergio Alonso. What Alicia didn’t know then was that her magical watercolor strokes were about to make her a social media sensation.
As she began recreating historical places and monumental settings on her canvas, her followers on Instagram grew to 21.9K. From Barcelona to Japan, from Macau in China to Yangon in Myanmar, this artist travels the world and creates relics of her own.
InUth spoke to this ‘sketcher of the world’ as she likes to call herself. Excerpts:
Nowadays people travel very fast, tourists go from one place to another taking a lot of pictures that maybe they will never see again. I like to speak with the locals and enjoy the view. And then I prefer to sit down and take my time to sketch. My travel book has all the moments that I want to remember, it is where I can visit all the places again. It is the souvenir I give myself whenever I travel to a new place.
Q. What is the one thing that inspires you to paint a scene?
Sometimes it is the light, or it can even be a strange food flavour that I have just tried out, sometimes it is the history behind a building that draws me to it, sometimes the colors are breath-taking or a special moment that I want to cherish forever. It is difficult to describe why I choose one thing, I look for an attractive composition, something that makes the country unique and I try to capture it in my own special travel diaries.
Alicia started sketching in black and white five years ago, she took to water colours some 2 years ago on a trip to Morocco and she hasn’t looked back since then.
Q. Your advice to other Instagram artists.
The best advice I think it’s to practice every day and not be afraid to share all your drawings, even those you think there aren’t so good, don’t be afraid to let your virtual family help you to improve! Pick up a pen/pencil/brush instead, you will learn to make decisions, something which is lost with the undo tool in graphic designing. You can’t omit the pleasure of drawing with your own hands, it is the best reward, trust me!
Alicia has travelled many countries and has mostly covered Asia. A peek at some of her most gorgeous pieces:
Would you like breakfast in Japan?
A post shared by Alicia Aradilla (@a.aradilla) on
Or lunch in Yangon, Myanmar
A post shared by Alicia Aradilla (@a.aradilla) on
Or maybe some tea in Malaysia’s Bharat Tea Valley would do?
A post shared by Alicia Aradilla (@a.aradilla) on
Perhaps a visit to the Ruins of St. Paul in Macao, China
A post shared by Alicia Aradilla (@a.aradilla) on
Or a walk in the Pagodas in Bagan, Myanmar
A post shared by Alicia Aradilla (@a.aradilla) on
Or a vist to a Casino in China
A post shared by Alicia Aradilla (@a.aradilla) on
Take a walk with her down a street in Hong Kong
Or a swim at Phi Phi Island in Thailand
A post shared by Alicia Aradilla (@a.aradilla) on
Or visit the iconic Ten Thousand Buddhas Pagoda
A post shared by Alicia Aradilla (@a.aradilla) on
Also Read: One couple, 80 countries, two ‘Bruised Passports’ and a drool-worthy Instagram profile
You can follow her interesting travels through her videos that will take you behind the scenes of the sketches she paints:
A post shared by Alicia Aradilla (@a.aradilla) on
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