Projeto
World Sketching Tour
O projecto World Sketching Tour teve início em Março de 2012, quando decidi viajar pelos 5 continentes. A singularidade de desenhar a viagem o era descobrir o mundo enquanto o desenhava e também conhecer os Urban Sketchers. Desde então, nunca mais parei a viagem e o projecto despertou o entusiasmo de milhares de fãs, a atenção da imprensa em todo o mundo e as parcerias internacionais de marcas. Viajei para a Europa, Ásia, Oceânia, América do Sul, e África. Viajei para a Europa, Ásia, Oceânia, América do Sul, e África.
Autor
Luís Simões
O meu nome é Luís Simões, nasci em Lisboa, Portugal. Sou licenciado em design visual e fui motion designer durante 9 anos. Sou observador e uso a memória visual como se fosse a minha bússola. Quando saio, prefiro deixar a minha máquina fotográfica em casa e trazer um sketchbook para rabiscar. Não tenho preferência naquilo que mais gosto de desenhar, mas sou frequentemente atraído pelas vistas arquitectónicas pitorescas e complexas.
Em 2012 comecei a World Sketching Tour e, desde então, esse tem sido o meu estilo de vida. Mais intenso, mais para os outros, mais aberto sobre como olhar e julgar. A digressão fez-me sair de rotinas e lugares seguros, que muitas vezes me deixam dormente a ver a vida passar lentamente. O desenho despertou a minha curiosidade para
Namorada
Anisa Subekti
O meu nome é Anisa Subekti, e nasci em Surabaya, Indonésia. Licenciei-me em Ciências do Desporto e trabalhei em hotéis como personal trainer, em Bali. Tirei um curso de Yoga, dei aulas, e no meu tempo livre adorava viajar.
A minha vida era bastante simples até conhecer o Luís na sua viagem em Bali. Em 2016 decidimos continuar juntos o projecto
A História do World Sketching Tour
2012
March
Project Started
I left Lisbon by camper with my parents who, during my preparation, decided to join the trip through Europe.
September to December
A different Chistmas
After 9 months of traveling with my parents and the fact that we are in the south of France – “close” to home – my parents decided to go to Portugal to spend Christmas and I continued hitchhiking around Europe during the following months.
2013
January to May
Reunion and goodbye
It felt good to travel alone for a while and meet my parents again. We did a few more months of travel in southern Europe and then I traveled to Turkey alone. Here the only certainty is that I wouldn’t have a return date and would be completely on my own. The journey was now beginning, leaving the comfort of my parents, cultures that were familiar to me, and a caravan that I called home. We crossed Italy, Croatia, Poland, Bosnia, Switzerland, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, and the Czech Republic.
June
Taksim Square demonstrations
My first time sketching a demonstration. My sketchbook is loaded with a historical moment for Turkey that I lived very closely. I hope one day to look at the drawings and know then that Turkey has found its peace.
June
Trans–Mongolian Railway journey
One of the most interesting train trips I’ve experienced, from the first moment the train whistle to leave San Petersburg, Russia, crossing Mongolia, until seeing the name of my final destination: Beijing, China. All that is strange on the first night: the lack of space and privacy of the dormitory, the little communication between the other local travelers, the instant food, the monotony sound of the rails… all this makes me want to repeat another 10 days on a train as soon as I know it’s over.
July
Mongolia
The wide nature of Mongolia is something magnetizing and that definitely made me realize that I was also conceived to live in the wild. Living the profound nomadism was, without a doubt, a simplified realization of my being.
August to October
China
By train and hitchhiking, I crossed all of China from Beijing to Kashgar and then back to Shanghai. This country has so much culture that has spicy food! 3 months were enough to become an emotional rolling stone and don’t be affect (so much) by the rudeness of the people.
November
Japan
Undoubtedly, Japan was the safest and relaxing, and organized place I ever been. There’s nothing I’ve seen like before and the biggest challenge is to accept how different it is from the western world.
December
South Korea
I believe for a while now, good moments of the trip, me and what really happens in my life is what I’m searching now on my sketches. South Korea was wonderful and great in all ways possible but unfortunately, my book got stolen when I when to Barcelona the month after…
2014
January to October
Hong Kong
First time I got a paid job as a sketcher was in Hong Kong. Was my second time being in a demonstration and that gave me a chance to have exclusive interviews around the world. This was also my first long break.
November to January
India
On a bar in Mumbai, India, chatting with a french guy I met on that same night he tells me “the best way to know India is by motorbike” …and that’s what I did. I got a 1985-year-old LML Vespa and started to fix it peace by peace. Besides the possibilities of sketching anywhere, I wanted I also learned mechanics and electrics because every now and then the bike would give a problem!
2015
January | February
Sri Lanka
I was 45 days in Sri Lanka surrounded by beautiful people, that kept on smiling back at me. I wrote a whole experience on how the country moved after the civil war and the tsunami of 2004 – still not published.
March | April | May
India
Sketching in India was quite uncomfortable, even for someone that doesn’t mind people staring at what we do. The problem was in many times the focus becomes the people around and not so much the subject of sketching. It’s barely impossible to have a peaceful moment to sketch unless we climb a mountain… and even then I did found some monkeys!
June
Thailand
Besides all the beautiful places, Pai, in Thailand, was a place where I did a long nature and cultural trekking and met the opium farmers and how they live.
July
Singapore
These two friends were my companions during my sketching tour in Singapore. Heanu (on the left side) is a Korean and it was starting his tour around South East Asia and sketching too. Tony (on the right) is a Singaporean Urban Sketcher artist that helped us wandering around the city and find good spots to sketch and eat.
August
Myanmar
Never thought of going to Myanmar but I’m quite glad I did. Back then it was a very undeveloped country with lots of temples and culture. Difficult to go out of the main attractions since it’s not ready for tourism.
September
Singapore, Malaysia
I continued the journey with Heanu and we ended up meeting more people in Malaysia that hosted us and made our days memorable.
October | November
Thailand
I will never forget the day some cookies traped me on a trip that could have made me lose my life. Also in the wrong country to happen, Thailand… If I tell you the story you wouldn’t believe that it was all by an accident.
December
The Philipines
The Philippines A life lesson to learn. They said they were visiting the city. One of them asked me if I wanted to follow them on their little tour around the town. They seemed so friendly and nice. You wouldn’t suspect they had bad intentions. These were the people o drugged and robbed me in Manila.
2016
January | February
Indonesia
Indonesia gave back my confidence to travel in trust people, after the incident in The Philippines. The warm welcome from the Urban Sketchers from Java and Bali was everything I could ever ask.
February
Australia
Australia is a vast and large country in which I didn’t explore at all. I was only in Sidney and Melbourne for 2 months and the reason for that it’s because my mind wanted to go back to Bali where I met Anisa.
March | April
New Zealand
In New Zealand, I celebrate the fourth year on the road with an inspirational couple traveling by bicycle on the road to the unknown. Their free spirit in a free natural country made me wonder if I could do the same one day.
May to November
Indonesia
The best I ever received from my World Sketching Tour was Anisa. This was my second long pause on the tour to get to know her and find some “home” feeling.
December
Portugal
My parents and Anisa in Portugal after 4 years on the road. This photo was an epic moment for me and finally, we would spend our Christmas together.
2017
January | July
Portugal
The time has come, our first time together on an adventure and by bicycles in South America. This was our last photo before packing everything and fly to Colombia and start our epic journey there.
August to December
Colombia
They say together we go far and it’s true. World Sketching Tour never had so much production in the years before. We did an e-book, made a documentary, and wrote blog posts… while we were doing a cycle tour for the first time!
2018
January to April
Ecuador
Our first time crossing borders by bicycle was from Colombia to Ecuador. Here we started to learn how important is to know what we want to do while sharing the journey with other travelers. Know more about the journey with our e-book.
May to September
Peru
The best of efforts, for the best views. That’s how we will remember Peru on our bicycles.
October to December
Bolivia
This was the most difficult country to cross by bicycle. Also because we wanted to see the most beautiful landscapes that Bolivia has to offer. For that reason, we spend 3 months exploring and being mesmerized by what we experienced – read more on our e-book. We will never forget our end of the year of 2018!
2019
August
Brazil
After our tour in South America, we run a sketchbook raffles lottery to fund our next tour in Africa. After that, we did a stopover in Brazil before heading to Namibia and start our journey on African soil.
September to November
Namibia
The driest and hottest country we ever been, where water was our most wanted need. In Namibia, Luís almost fainted with dehydration… you can read all the journey on our e-book.
December
Indonesia
We started to feel wrong with our travel once Anisa’s mom went to the hospital due to cancer. After pausing the journey when went to Indonesia for Anisa’s mom’s funeral. The relationship got stronger in these moments, where we both need each other to move on.
2020
January to March
Angola
Luís was super excited by going to a country with Portugal descendent. It was more than 2 years had left Portugal. The mixed culture between Angola and Portugal was priceless. The kindness and sympathy we received were behond our expectations.
April until now
Portugal
Due to Corona Virus, we decided to suspend our travels.
Parcerias e Colaborações
