Born and raised in the north of Sweden, Hanna Karlzon has gone through life with a pencil in her hand. Hanna finds her inspiration in history and nature and often adds dreamlike elements to her drawings. The last few years she has created a range of colouring books that have gained success around the globe, depicting magical strong characters including jewellery, flowers and animals.
How long have you been illustrating and what made you start?
I have been drawing my whole life, art was my favourite subject in school, and I do actually have an art teacher degree but somehow I ended up starting my own business in 2013 and have been working full-time with that ever since. My original business idea was to sew and screen print clothes with my own hand drawn designs but after a year or so I dropped the sewing bit and focused solely on the drawing part and that evolved into posters, pattern design and after a while, colouring books. I released my first colouring book in Sweden in spring 2015.
Where do you get your inspiration?
I’m a history nerd so I get lot of inspiration from looking back in history on fashion, art, interior design etc. But I also find inspiration in the nature around me here in the north of Sweden where I live.
Where is your favourite place to illustrate?
Since drawing is my full-time job I mostly do it at my office, where I can focus, and when Im at home I try to not think about work and instead spend time with my family. So I actually seldom draw at my free time. I wish I could answer my favourite place to draw is at this romantic site by the sea or something like that haha, but no, I must say its in my tiny attic office.
What are your illustrating/colouring material essentials?
All I need for my drawings is: a mechanical pencil, a fine liner (mostly sized 0,2), and a white paper. I draw everything by hand, thats what I prefer. (But I do scan my illustrations to be able to make books etc). And yes, I also love a good sketchbook for scribbling down my ideas. I mostly use Moleskin sketchbooks, they are great!
What’s the piece of work that you’re most proud of or enjoyed doing the most?
Actually I seldom think about the work I have done, Im more focused on what work Im about to do, but besides being proud of my coloring books I must say that Im really happy with the 1000 piece puzzles I have made in collaboration with Ravensburger, especially the latest one I have made, with a water theme. It was so much fun to draw!
