It is our delight to present another ‘Uncommon’ artist- Karen Aruba!
She excels at Art Journal illustrations, documenting different aspects of her travel experiences through her visuals. A most inspiring artist is Karen! She has a unique way of presenting the world around her with her amazing creativity and fantastic visuals.If a picture is worth a thousand words, an art journal can show travel lovers thousands of words of how amazing a trip can be in just a minute. Based in Hong Kong, the artist Karen devoted her free time for illustrations related to travel theme
Read more to find out as Team TUB caught up with this beautiful mind…
In her interview with The Uncommon Box, she says,“The most inspiring thing in the trip is to create an art journal – you can share with people wherever you go and whatever you experience, all are combined into one comprehensive picture everyday.”
Having grown up with a love of drawing as small kid, most of her drawing process is self-taught, Karen prefers hand-drawn visualization. In her last trip in Japan, she decided to embark on a challenge with an art journey by travelling to Osaka, Kyoto and Arima. She started the illustration once she kicked off the flight journey.
Karen has much to say about the art of noticing:
To appreciate life, one must learn the art of noticing. In fact, life is remarkable, with new things to be discovered every day and every moment. With sketchbook on hand, I am ready to take note and draw anything that crosses my path. . “Drawing keeps my mind from wandering,” she said.
Sketching then became a daily ritual in her journey. She tried to capture everything interested and made full use of her time no matter she was having a meal, travelling or even taking a short break at cafe. It’s her way of noticing her surroundings and staying focused.
A multi-tasking day, playing and drawing together is never easy. Karen made full use of the time to draw the artwork while she was at Universal Studio. That’s also a lot of fun to draw Japanese food as the food are colorful, small pieces but cute. She added some descriptions like the price and a map to enrich the picture.
The Art journal is very popular in western countries but not too much in Asia. Grateful for her travel companion who kindly tolerated her compulsive drawing habits, Karen had amassed a collection of illustrations in different styles. Because of her knack for noticing and taking photographs, she has captured many happy memories in the trip.
Creativity: Drawing inspiration from cross-curricular sources
To cultivate creativity and keep ideas fresh, Karen found inspiration from a variety of sources and various elements in nature. She spent a lot of time exploring magazines, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest boards for ideas.
In fact, one does not have to draw many things in the trip – sometimes a map of itinerary is an interesting idea. Karen sketched the map of Kyoto to record where she traveled, which included the cycling routes , and the walking tour.
A driving map is another good idea to show Arima’s hot spring… pencil sketch and watercolor delivered the best effect to reflect the relaxing environment.
Never giving up to draw whenever there was a short break.
“It was very exciting indeed to see a group of friends who appreciate my drawings. I publish one piece of illustration online everyday. It really motivates me to finish the illustrations day by day. Even when I return home, I manage to finish the last drawing with a beautiful night scene”, Karen said.
Karen’s advice :
Try an art journal in your next adventure which will add a lot of fun to the trip. What you have to bring is some simple drawing materials like watercolor, ink pens, maps, pencils, camera and a sketchbook.
‘Draw life to happiness. Paint lives in color’ is Karen’s value to share with people who appreciate art.
Apart from art journal, Karen also draws creative art with products such as carry-all-pouches, throw pillows, tote bag, laptop sleeves, phone cases available at few online stores Society6, Etsy and Pinkoi.
If you are interested in Karen Aruba’s products, please visit her online store
We are deeply grateful to Karen for being generous with her art and time to share her journey with us. We wish her all the very best for her endeavors.
(This article was written with inputs from Karen herself)
We encourage all kind of talented piece of work whether it’s a writeup’s, articles, poems, sketches, doodling, painting, food styling or about fashion or travelling or photography.
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