Artistic Inspiration on the Danube

Writer and illustrator Angela Staehling located her creative inspiration with us this previous April aboard Coronary heart of the Danube: Bavaria to Budapest – and chronicled her journey in a collection of illustrations, perfectly capturing the essence of the river cruise in her art! She shared her story with us in a recent job interview:

Q & A with Angela

Q. It looks like this is your to start with time traveling with Tauck, how did you listen to about us?

A. My partner is a travel agent and knows that Tauck has normally been one particular of the foremost makes in luxurious travel. A Tauck river cruise has been on our bucket record for yrs, and hopefully this will be the initially of a lot of far more Tauck trips to occur.

Q. You have a playful, eye-catching, design of artwork – can you convey to us how you explain it?

A. My art fashion has changed pretty a bit about the decades. I have been creating home décor and present products for over 20 yrs and my design and style has advanced from ultra-realistic to a extra fun, colourful representation. These days, I take pleasure in illustrating in a considerably looser design with bold, vivid colors. Whilst a great deal of my art has a consistent design and style, I do do the job in a range of mediums and other variations. I also perform with various consumers on project-based mostly art and my variations will modify to satisfy their wants.

Q. Why did you select to journey with us on The Coronary heart of the Danube river cruise?

A. With so many tour possibilities in Europe, we made a decision to start out with one of the staples, that getting The Coronary heart of the Danube. Even though Munich, Vienna, and Budapest are a handful of of our preferred cities, we under no circumstances experienced a opportunity to examine some of the more compact towns alongside the river. We knew that Tauck’s many excursion choices and tour guideline connections would let us embrace the location in a far more personal way.

Q. You have been obviously encouraged by what you saw cruising alongside the Danube, can you tell us a bit about the emotions you had and what inspired you to sit down and develop Whilst you have been traveling?

A. I carefully savored our Danube cruise as there were being so lots of picturesque cities and pastoral landscapes from which to gather inspiration. The enjoyable speed of the trip permitted me to carve out time to illustrate whilst having fun with the views. Many moments, I would go for a stroll and discover the tiny villages with our tour team, or even on your own, taking quite a few photographs along the way. I would even go for a bicycle experience with just one of the on-board bikes to soak in as considerably of the countryside as doable together our quite a few stops. Although I wasn’t anticipating to get as considerably illustration finished even though touring as I did, I was delighted to squeeze in a several renderings while on board. Of system, I took quite a few pics to use as reference for upcoming illustrations when I’m at house.

Q. We noticed you ended up employing a distinctive sort of pen for your river cruise do the job, is that your common medium, and if you have a lot more, what’s your beloved?

A. I obtained a wide range of paint markers from Blick Art Materials before our journey. I commonly function with liquid acrylic paints back again dwelling, but realized that liquid paints would be tough to travel with. I needed to obtain an art medium that would be less difficult to tote about, nevertheless have the similar opaque design and style that I am used to performing in. I acquired a selection of marker shades and measurements from Posca and Molotow brands and was quite pleased with the similarity in look to true paints.

Q. Do you frequently just take your operate on the highway with you and generate whilst you travel?

A. I do test and consider a sketchbook with me any time I vacation. Nevertheless, it is not normally simple to obtain the time to illustrate though traveling. The most effective instances for me to illustrate whilst touring are ordinarily when I’m commuting, this kind of as on a aircraft, practice, or boat, in this scenario. If we have downtime at a hotel, or other accommodation, I will try out to illustrate a area from our travels.

Q. The place will you vacation up coming?

A. We have a spouse and children excursion this summer time to Iceland, Copenhagen, and Sweden. We are touring with an additional loved ones and are hoping to visit other good friends who dwell in the space.

Q. Have you usually been an artist? Or is this anything that arrived to you afterwards in daily life?

A. I have usually loved illustrating ever considering that I was a baby. I acquired my diploma in Graphic Layout from the University of Illinois and labored in quite a few promoting agencies out of faculty. Just after about five decades functioning as an artwork director, I shifted my job to portray murals in peoples’ homes and businesses. I also designed commissioned artwork and would provide first paintings in local retailers. Soon later on, I found the world of artwork licensing, in which I would build models and license my artwork to house decor makers. These manufacturers produce products and solutions these as dinnerware, stationery, wall artwork, and textiles, and provide to vendors all over the entire world. I keep on to perform with these makers nowadays to license my art on these property decor products. Similarly, I produce and market some of my individual merchandise by means of my website and Etsy Shop.

Q. You have just composed and illustrated a guide “How to Pet a Cat” is that your initially? Notify us about that method.

A. “How to Pet a Cat” is my second e-book. My initial e book is named, “Happy Houseplants”. I have a really like for cats, plants, and of training course, travel. So writing and illustrating a guide about these subjects is a desire come genuine for me! It only looks fitting that I do the job on some travel publications before long – that is my would like! The system of creating and illustrating a e-book is certainly a function of art in alone. There is a whole lot of time and investigate that goes into the composing, as very well as developing the artwork. I was fortuitous to collaborate with one particular of the leading publishers of greatest-offering reward and art guides, Chronicle Books. My How to Pet a Cat guide is now accessible by way of most on the web and brick and mortar stores, including Barnes & Noble, Focus on, and Amazon.

Q. How can people see and come across out more about your artwork?

A. You can see my operate on my internet site, AngelaStaehling.com and Etsy Store please really do not be reluctant to access out by my web page below, or my electronic mail at: angela@angelastaehling.com

Angela can also be found on Instagram and Facebook