Explore Hannah's work: hannahlipseyartist.co.uk | IG: hannahlipsey_
[Watch the full interview below]
Today, Hannah is known for her hyperrealistic colored pencil drawings, particularly her fascination with shiny objects, reflections, and the challenge of making something look almost impossible to have been drawn by hand.
We sat down with Hannah to talk about finding your artistic niche, building a business around originals and prints, figuring things out without a roadmap, and why sometimes the biggest step toward making art a career is simply deciding to start.
When did your creative journey begin? Take us back a little bit.
When I was a kid, I was that cliché thing where it was like, "What are you going to be?" And I was like, "I'm going to be an artist." But I didn't really mean it. I just knew even from an early age that I was kind of good at art. It's the only thing I enjoyed during school.
But, you know, life happens. And when it came to like, okay, what are you actually going to do as a career? I was like, well, you can't really be an artist. That's not a career. I come from a family of teachers, and my mom was very much like, you need to go to university. And I was like, well, the only thing I'm good at is art, so I guess I'll become an art teacher because what else do you do with an art degree?
So I did the art degree, but did not become a teacher because I realized I wasn't quite that sure I wanted to work with children after doing some work experience in different schools. I flitted around just doing normal jobs. I worked as a waitress, I was a manager of a pet shop, and I ended up working as a teaching assistant in a primary school.
I still did nothing with art after university. Then, I think it was 2017 or 2018, I was working as a teaching assistant and I was just bored one day. I grabbed some pencils, just some cheap pencils from the shop, and I was like, "I'm going to see if I can draw realistically," because it's not something I'd properly tried before.
I got a picture of my niece, who was like two or three at the time, and I started drawing it. And I was like, "It's alright." Then we moved to America because my husband's job seconded him there for two years. He was basically like, if you move to America with me then you don't have to work for two years. I was like, interesting, that sounds fun.
So we moved to South Carolina, and I basically didn't have a job. So I was like, right, well, I may as well do some more drawing. I started painting again and I had two Instagrams going. I had a painting one and a drawing one where I was basically just drawing in graphite, celebrities, random stuff, because I didn't really know what to draw.
They ended up being quite good quite quickly. So I was just posting and then I started getting people asking, "Will you do this? Can I pay you to do this? Can I pay you to do that?" But because I didn't have a work visa, I couldn't take payments. So for those two years I just did them here and there for friends and things like that. Then we moved back to the UK in 2020 during COVID. When I moved back, the school I was working at previously was shut and they said, "Look, we want you back as soon as we can."
And I was like, "Okay, well actually I'm just going to buy this little art thing and just see how that goes first, but if it doesn't work out, I'll let you know." As soon as I got back, I just said, "Commissions open." I had Instagram and Facebook and a few hundred people, nothing major, and just straight away I went full-time basically. I was lucky that I had my husband to rely on if it didn't work out. He was kind of like, take a year, see how it goes. Luckily, it went quite well quite quickly.
I definitely wasn't taking a really high amount for the drawings, but I was getting booked up quite quickly to the point where I started increasing my prices. And quite quickly it was making more than I was making at my previous job. So yeah, that's kind of how it started.
When did you switch from taking commissions to doing your own pieces?
Basically what I did, so I was doing the pet portraits and I was like, this is fine to make money from doing art, but it just didn't really feel like what I wanted to do. But I didn't know what I wanted to do still. All I knew was that when I drew portraits, especially of dogs and stuff, the bit I enjoyed most was drawing the color or the detail on the collar or the texture of a material, like not the actual dog or the person. It was the materials and especially things that are shiny.
Because when people see things that are shiny, they're kind of confused by them. They're like, "Is that shiny? What am I looking at?" I just happened to be in a shop called HomeSense. There was this little bottle opener on the shelf. He was just on a shelf and I walked past it and I was like, "He's really cool. I'm going to draw him."
I literally the next day started a new Instagram and started drawing it. I don't even know why. I didn't plan it. It just kind of happened. If I'd never come across him, I'm always thinking, would I have done what I'm doing? I have no idea. So I just started drawing it and sharing the progress. It took a long time because I was going from drawing little drawings and I was like, I'm going to do this massive drawing.
Then basically after about six months I released prints and a bunch of originals. I sent it out to my tiny, tiny email list that I had and the small following on Instagram and someone bought one straight away. Then I sold a load of prints and I was like, "Hold on, I'm ready."
Over the next six months, I took less and less commissions. I didn't stop bam, straight away. I just kind of took a few less so that I could work on this stuff more and then gradually transition. So by the time I stopped taking commissions, this was my full-time stuff.
What do you find most satisfying about creating these reflective, hyperrealistic pieces?
When I was younger, my other thing was like, "I'm going to be a magician." I used to always come in with a different trick every day to school, like a card trick or something that I'd learned. Then I decided I was a very, very small child and my hands were too small to do all the sleight of hand and it really annoyed me. So I was like, I can't be a magician because my hands are too small.
But I love that sense of awe. You know, when someone is like, "Oh my god, how do you do that?" And I do think that realism is also along the same lines. Not for everybody, but obviously a lot of reactions are like, "Oh my god, how do you do that?"
The amount of comments I get where they say, "What pencils do you use? How do you make it shiny?" I'm like, no, the pencils aren't shiny. It's just the illusion from the light and dark and it looks shiny. I just love that.
I tried moving away from shiny stuff. I was like, "Well, I can't just do shiny stuff." This was at the beginning. And I tried doing some other textures and I was like, it's fine, but it doesn't really interest me. Whereas, as soon as something is shiny and you can get just the right reflections, the right lighting, it takes a lot of photos to get the right one.
You really have to play around with getting the light on the object. I've discovered that what you need is a strong light source from one side and the darkness of the room from the other. I always take it on my window sill because it means you get the highlight and then the darkness of the room making it look really 3D.
At the beginning, I'm not joking, I would take 500 photos to get just the right photo. I'd be scrolling between three or four different photos, going to my husband, "Well, which one?" He's like, "They look exactly the same." I'm like, "No, they don't." There'll be this slight difference and you move a millimeter and the whole reflection of me changes and everything else. I've got it down a bit better now. It doesn't take me quite as long depending on the object. But yeah, it's a bit of a process.
Where do you find your shiny objects?
At first I was like, right, how am I going to find these shiny objects? I was typing in things like electroplated shiny animal, electroplated gold, all these different keywords to try and make these objects appear that were not just ceramic, they were actually reflective.
The thing is, it was quite limiting because finding ones that were already shiny that I liked and that were the right colors I wanted to do, there weren't actually that many of them out there. So this is another reason why at the beginning I was like, maybe I need to move away from shiny things. It's going to become a point where I just don't have enough objects to work from.
I did a little bit more research and I found a company that's about an hour from where I live and they can electroplate. So now it's kind of opened up to being so many more opportunities because as long as it's hard and smooth, I can make it shiny.
My next plan is to start creating my own designs and getting them printed. I downloaded a program where you can create your own designs and then get them printed. I was like, oh my god, then I can make something fully original. My issue is I'm not very good at designing. I always can't envision what I want. I know when I see it. It's like when you're after a dress for a wedding and you don't know what you want but you'll just know when you see it. That's me and shiny objects.
So I've had a little play around, but it's also quite tricky to get the hang of. I'm hoping over time I'll get better and maybe be able to design something really cool. But at the moment I am still relying on things other people have made.
You work with both originals and prints. How do you decide which pieces to make available as prints?
The reason I do most of them is because it's actually really hard to know what's going to sell. You might think you know what's going to sell, but the amount of times I'm like, "Oh, this is going to be a good one," and it just doesn't sell, or vice versa. So I'm like, well, if I don't do prints of all of them, I might miss one that would actually have been really successful. So I do try to do most of them.
At the moment I'm doing a series of smaller ones because I'm doing a fair in October. I'm doing some smaller drawings which I'm just going to keep as originals because they're small. I just thought, well, you know, it gives it a bit more value if it's like you could only buy the original and not the print.
But normally I don't do small drawings because the cost of shipping a drawing internationally when it's framed in glass and things is so high that it wouldn't make sense to the value. This is why I normally do large pieces because I never know if it's going to be in the UK or abroad, to make that cost be able to be absorbed within the price of the original basically.
It's just me. I've got no one to ask about this stuff. I don't have someone that I know that has been doing this. So it's all just been a sort of steady learning curve and sort of winging it. And now I've been doing it three or four years now. So, I've just kind of got into a rhythm of do this, do that, do the prints, like um and I have all my suppliers all sorted. At first I was kind of looking at other artists like, okay, well, they sell them for about that sort of price.
At first I did print runs of a hundred, I think it was. And then I decided actually I think it might be better to do a print run of 50 and sell out rather than have a hundred and always have prints available. It's that thing where you do kind of want to create a little bit of demand. I don't do like a limited time drop or anything like that. But the really popular ones do sell out, so then I get people being like, "Oh, are you going to do another one like this?" And then they're sort of waiting for it.
So it's building that little bit of exclusivity where it's not like, "Oh my gosh, I need to buy it right now," but you kind of need to think about it.
How do you think about ownership when someone commissions a piece from you?
If someone did want to own the copyright of that piece, then it's double the price because then it covers the amount I could make from the print run.
So if they want to technically own the copyright and not have me produce it, I would double the price. Whereas if it's a commission of someone that comes to me with a completely random idea that I would never have done and it's kind of their thing and they said don't do prints, I'd be like, that's fine.
Do you think that there's something someone would notice if they bought an original versus a print?
The only difference, especially because the people I use for prints are so good that I'm like, it literally looks identical to the original. The only difference you can tell is on the surface of a colored pencil drawing when you look at it from the side and the light hits it, it reflects off it. So, it's got like a waxy sheen because the the pencils are all oil and wax. So, because I layer it so densely from where the light hits on it a certain way, you can see that sheen of oil. Whereas on a print is completely matte. So, you can technically see the difference, but at just glancing and just looking at it straight on, you would not have a clue, which is crazy really.
One of the issues I've kind of run into is when I've done fairs and I've been there in person, I've got my work on the wall. The first one I did, people were loving it, really impressed, but a lot of people were just walking past and I could see them glance and just walk straight past. Basically it turned out a lot of people just thought they were digital or photos. They didn't really understand what it was because although to me they're so obvious that they're drawings, I guess at a glance when you walk past and make that initial judgment, they could be photos or digital images or something.
I was losing 50% of people walking past just because they weren't even caring. So the next year I put under my stand a massive sign that said "colored pencil artist" or something. And the difference was hilarious. I would literally watch people walk, they'd glance, they'd read the thing and then literally double take and walk back and come.
Otherwise, they would have just walked straight past because they just didn't think they were drawings. So it is like, you do lose people in that way that they think that it's just a print or a photo or something.
When we spoke, you told me that the transition into making art your career felt quite natural for you. Were there any strategies or mindsets that made that transition easier?
I'm a very positive person and I always have been. I just have that outlook. I saw other people doing it online and so because when I first started as a hobby I wasn't even thinking about it. I didn't even have Instagram. I think I just had Facebook at the time. It wasn't until I moved to America that I sort of downloaded Instagram and I was like, these people are doing this as a job. These artists are just making their money from Instagram. I'm like, well, if they can do it, I can do it.
I knew my work was good enough and I was like, I just need to put the effort in. We are all slaves to the algorithm and, to be honest, Instagram at the moment for me, my reach is terrible. I don't know what it wants anymore. It used to be amazing for me.
But Facebook is my best platform. I get most of my traffic, engagement, reach, sales from Facebook. Instagram is the one people go to to look at your work, to be like, "Oh, do you have an Instagram?" But Facebook for me is the platform that's the best seller.
I just did a lot of research at the beginning. I was looking at why my stuff wasn't getting that much reach. Like, okay, what do I need to do? I was looking at other artists and thinking, right, they got this many thousand views for that video, so what is it that they're doing that I'm not? And I don't want to sit there making reels and doing whatever, but unfortunately in this day and age, that's what you have to do. You have to embrace it because it's free advertising. Where else could you reach all these people in the world? You have to try and look at it positively and not get too caught up in it because at the end of the day, you can't control it. You can put all your effort in and you can't control sometimes how things go.
So I just think, try to be a bit light-hearted with it. Don't agonize over it because then if it doesn't go well, you feel so frustrated. It's like, okay, well, I'll put some effort in and if it goes well, great. And if it doesn't, it didn't work that time. You have to keep putting it out there because that's the most important thing. Whether it gets a million views or 10,000 or 1,000, there will be someone in there that you might capture that then is a buyer later on.
Also, I do get a lot of people messaging me and asking me similar things, like, "How did you make this work?" Or they're like, "What can I do?" I look at their Instagram and in the first two seconds I'm like, well, there's five things you could change already.
The amount of artists out there, they're like, "Well, I'm putting my stuff on. I'm consistent." And I'll go on their Instagram and yeah, they've got these lovely finished photos of their artwork. There's nothing in their bio. There's no information on how to buy it. I think, well, are you a hobby artist? Are you even selling your work? I don't know what your prices are. You don't have a website. I don't even know what you look like. And that is important because I know a lot of people don't want to show themselves. But when you're in a world of seeing stuff online all the time, I'll see someone's artwork and it might be amazing, but when I go to their profile, if I can't see a picture, I can't remember who they are.
Later on, I'm like, who was that artist?
I can't attach a face or a name to it because I don't know who they are. It's just a picture among pink pictures. So you need to have yourself, even if it's a picture of you behind. You need a human presence in there. You can't just have an image on a digital platform.
People want to know the artist behind it as much as you could have the most amazing artwork, but people are investing in you as a person as well and they kind of want to know what you look like.
What role have galleries played in your career?
I have a gallery in London called Edit. They've got a place in Covent Garden and Greenwich. They've got really good visibility and they've got an amazing online presence.
Most importantly, the lady that runs it is just amazing. When she first approached me, I'd had one experience with a gallery before and it didn't really work out. They weren't really my vibe and my work didn't really fit amongst the gallery.
So when this gallery approached me, I was kind of like, oh, I don't know if I want to do another gallery. I'm not sure it's right for me. And I was selling everything direct myself anyway. But when she called me, I was like, "Go on, I'll have a phone call." You know when you just instantly get a good vibe from someone? I just thought, I really like her.
And that was a year and a half ago. And I absolutely love them. They always take a load of my pieces to the Hong Kong Affordable Art Fair and they're about to take them to New York as well. And on their site, they've sold a good bunch of my stuff. I have two other galleries that are more local that I've just started working with.
For me, it's not so much to sell through galleries, it kind of is that kind of thing where when you're working with a gallery, you just look a bit more professional and reputable. And it's really nice for people because at the end of the day, when they're buying my pieces, most of the time all they've seen is a little Instagram picture of it, which baffles my mind.
Some people want to see them in real life. Because I just work from my spare bedroom at home, I don't have a studio people can come over to. So if people in the UK ask, I can say, "Oh, well, if you're in London, go to this gallery and you can see my work in person."
And then they can either buy it there or, once they've seen it in real life, they might buy something from me because they've seen the quality. They know I'm real. So it is that legitimacy that I think a gallery does bring that is really, really useful. I will continue working with a gallery, but I only give less than 10% of my pieces to them because I want to predominantly sell myself because where the money is.
You also participate in art fairs. What have those experiences taught you?
The other art fair which I do in London, they have them all over the world. You probably know, there's one in October. I've done it twice. This will be my third year. And I do just see it as a marketing expense. The first year I was like, okay, it's a bit of an investment. It's a good chunk of money up front and I was like, oh god, this is a bit scary.
But at the end of the day I'll see it as marketing, and if I don't make any money back it's fine because how many thousands of people are walking through that door?
The first year I didn't sell any originals, but I did sell enough prints to cover my cost. So I was like, amazing. I gave out probably 500 business cards and from that I also got a commission which was like a really big piece. So although technically I didn't sell anything there, I have got someone that's now buying my work that might not have found me if they had not gone to that show.
Then the next year, two people that saw me the previous year came back to buy a drawing. Some people just want to buy it in real life. Then I sold basically all my pieces last year. It was crazy. You never know who's walking through that door.
And it's so fun doing stuff in person because online you can get very disconnected with everyone saying, "Oh my gosh, your work's amazing. I love it." Whereas when you've got people in person staring at your work and looking at you and going, "Oh my god, this is amazing. You did this." It gives you a proper little boost. Those four days are knackering, but they're the best, the most fun four days. I'd definitely recommend it if anyone was thinking about it.
What is something you wish someone had told you when you were an emerging artist?
I would probably say just keep going. There are moments we all have doubt.
Although it was relatively easy for me, even now some months you're thinking, oh my gosh, I've not really sold much this month. I'm never going to make money. You go into this mindset, I'm never going to sell anything again. It's really like this, so you kind of have to keep telling yourself it will be fine. Trust the process.
I know it's really cliché to just say that, like be consistent and trust the process, but you kind of do have to do that. And also don't listen to negativity because there's always negativity online. I've got to the point now where I'm just like, "Delete, block." It doesn't even affect me. But at the beginning I would get so angry and like, I can't believe they're saying that. I want to confront them and tell them they're wrong. You kind of do have to just try and ignore it as much as you can. You can be the best artist in the whole world and someone's not going to like it. Or you can be charging a certain amount and someone's going to say it's too expensive. There's always that going on and you kind of do have to just try and ignore it as much as you can.
Favorite artists we should keep an eye on?
An artist called Danielle Verbeeten. Her work is downstairs actually. I've got like three of her prints. Her work is she's a pastel artist, like pastel pencils. And when I say they look like photos, I'm like, it's the most incredible thing you've ever seen.
She does these gorgeous sort of still life. She's just sort of moved away. She's kind of like me. Started off doing wildlife and portraits and she's just now sort of on the turn trying some different stuff. She does a drawing of like a blanket with a cup of tea and biscuits and a cozy feel about it.
And then she's doing some really contemporary ones at the moment. She's doing a party plate of the '90s, where you've got like party rings, sausages on sticks, party hats, and paper plates. It's really nostalgic and feel-good, but you just can't understand how incredible her drawings are. I just think she's the most talented artist I've seen in like, yeah, they're incredible.
And then another artist which is very different is James Daly. He's an Australian artist and he does portraits with very massive brush strokes and thick smudges of paint. So it's kind of abstract but they also have a realism vibe to them. They're really cool and his use of color is really, really good as well. I feel like he's just sort of started and I'm like, his stuff's awesome.
Those are the two that I love at the moment.
Key Insights
1. Sometimes the path to becoming a full-time artist starts with realizing that it is actually possible.
Hannah didn't have a five-year plan to become a professional artist. In fact, for years she believed the opposite. She had internalized the idea that being an artist wasn't a realistic career, even though art was the thing she had always been naturally drawn to. Her turning point came when she started seeing other artists online making a living from their work and eventually experienced it herself through commissions. Once she saw that people were willing to pay for her work, the idea became tangible. That shift matters. Sometimes the biggest barrier isn't necessarily the ability to make the work. It's being able to imagine that the work can support a career.
2. Your niche doesn't always have to be invented. Sometimes you discover it by paying attention to what you naturally enjoy.
Hannah didn't sit down and decide she was going to become known for hyperrealistic drawings of shiny objects. She discovered it by noticing what she enjoyed most about her earlier work. When drawing pet portraits, she found herself more interested in the collar, the materials, the textures, and particularly anything reflective.
That curiosity eventually became the foundation of her practice. Her story is a reminder that developing an artistic identity can come from paying attention to the details you repeatedly find yourself drawn toward, rather than trying to force yourself into a particular style because you think it is marketable.
3. There isn't always a perfect blueprint for building an art career.
One of the most honest parts of Hannah's story is how often she describes herself as "winging it." She didn't have someone teaching her how many prints to make, what to charge, how to handle originals, how to approach galleries, or how to structure her business. She experimented.
She initially produced larger print runs, then changed them. She tested different prices. She learned how shipping affected the size of her originals. She gradually built relationships with suppliers and galleries.
Over time, those experiments became a system. Sometimes the process is simply making a decision, seeing what happens, learning from it, and adjusting.
4. Great artwork still needs to be seen, understood, and connected to a person.
Hannah makes an important distinction between creating good work and making sure people understand what they're looking at.
Her experience at art fairs showed her that people could literally walk past her drawings because they thought they were photographs or digital images. Adding a simple sign identifying her as a colored pencil artist changed how people interacted with the work.
The same principle applies online.
An artist can have beautiful work, but if someone doesn't know who made it, how to buy it, where to find more, or what the artist is about, the opportunity can disappear.
For Hannah, the artist's presence matters too. People aren't only connecting with an image. They're connecting with the person behind it.
5. Different revenue channels can serve different purposes.
Hannah's business isn't built around one single way of making money. She has originals, prints, commissions, galleries, online sales, and in-person art fairs. Each serves a slightly different purpose.
Prints make her work more accessible. Originals create a different level of value and ownership. Galleries give her work physical visibility and credibility. Art fairs create opportunities for people to experience the work in person and can lead to future sales and commissions.
The lesson isn't that every artist needs to do all of these things. It's that an art career can become more sustainable when artists think beyond a single product or sales channel and understand what role each opportunity plays in their larger business.
6. You can't control the algorithm, but you can control whether you keep showing up.
Hannah is very candid about the frustration of social media. A platform that once worked well for her no longer gives her the same reach, while Facebook has become a stronger source of traffic, engagement, and sales.
Instead of treating those changes as a reason to stop, she focuses on what she can control: continuing to create, researching what works, experimenting with content, and putting her work out there.
Her perspective is particularly relevant for artists because visibility doesn't always translate immediately into sales. As Hannah puts it, whether something gets a million views, 10,000, or 1,000, there may still be someone watching who eventually becomes a buyer. The work doesn't have to go viral every time. It has to keep finding its people.
📢 Check Out the Full Interview
Watch the full interview with Hannah Lipsey below or youtube @ainahcommunity
Explore Hannah's work: hannahlipseyartist.co.uk | IG: hannahlipsey_
