Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Alicia Levantini, and I’m a self-taught pen & ink illustrator dwelling in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I do personalized home and constructing drawings as very well as generate stationery and prints of my do the job.
Why do you do what you do?
I’ve normally been a lover of Philadelphia’s charming row residences and of strolling close to the town admiring them. Above quarantine, I started out to draw Philadelphia stoops in my neighborhood, and as shortly as I posted them on-line, I had a extended waitlist for me to attract other people’s stoops and houses! What begun out as a quarantine pastime has turned into my whole-time occupation. I experience so lucky to do what I do!
You use so several vivid shades, do you have any that you favor?
I absolutely like when I’m capable to make a blooming window flower box or yard landscape in my customized residence drawings! I appreciate when there are splashes of pinks, purples, and reds in the illustrations. I also swoon over a colorful entrance door – I believe blue is my beloved to attract!
What evokes your art?
My enjoy of charming architecture, and developing sensible-wanting, to-scale, drawings – all though incorporating vivid colors and fine traces.
How and when did you get into art?
I’ve been a creator given that I was aged adequate to hold a paintbrush. My dad and mom say that on my first day of preschool, I walked as a result of the doorway and proper up to the easels! I have not stopped producing considering the fact that.
How has your observe altered around time?
I have seriously great-tuned the art provides that I use. I have uncovered my favourite 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, however!
What’s your most loved piece of artwork that you’ve made? Why?
This is such a rough issue due to the fact I feel so connected to all of my drawings! I imagine my beloved has to be this West Philadelphia Victorian house. It truly pushed my boundaries of what I considered I was able of executing, and it ended up far better than I could have hoped for.
What is the best piece of artwork tips you’ve been supplied?
To scan just about every drawing I do, in the two the define and whole-shade variations!
What’s one particular art tip/strategy you can share with us that you find really beneficial?
Do anything in pencil very first!! I draw my overall house drawings completely in pencil to start with and then go in with my micron pens and brush pens. This allows me to decrease blunders, and to make positive every thing is hunting fantastic right before it receives finalized.
Do you have any secret tips or approaches you use to salvage a piece when you make a miscalculation?
I have a few of methods I generally use: I use white plastic erasers to erase the hardest dim pencil marks that are hard to get rid of, and I often maintain a white gel pen nearby to “erase” any stray brush pen marks from a lighter region of my drawing.
What is your favorite Strathmore paper? Why?
Palms down, the Strathmore Bristol paper pads. The paper is so clean and my brush pens glide proper on. It also is forgiving for heavy-handed pencil buyers like me!
What styles of colors are you drawn to for your art and why?
I appreciate any dazzling hues that are naturally identified in mother nature and make my drawings pop. Pinks, purples, and reds for flowers, blue or green entrance doors, and a wonderful brick red coloration for residences.
Who are your greatest influences?
My do the job is pretty unique from his, but I’ve usually been a lover of Claude Monet. His landscapes transport me to a further globe and convey me a experience of tranquility. I particularly like his waterscapes and backyard paintings.
What’s the most typical art-relevant problem you get from your followers?
Do you get the job done off of images, or do you sit in entrance of the setting up you’re drawing? I operate off of images! Each and every piece normally takes me a lot of, quite a few hours. I sit at house, with my cat on my lap, and operate off of pics as my references. This also lets me to draw properties and buildings in any section of the globe, not just in Philadelphia.
Website/social media backlinks:
Instagram: ArtByAliciaL
Fb: ArtByAliciaL
Etsy: ArtByAliciaL
