Hannah Lipsey’s art practice never fails to leave our wonderful EDiT. community in awe. Her meticulously crafted artworks, created entirely with colored pencil, captivate with stunning realism and a masterful grasp of light and texture. Hannah’s fascination with reflective surfaces and glossy textures shines through in each piece, drawing viewers into a world of intricate detail and vibrant depth. We had the pleasure of being able to take a deep dive into Hannah’s creative journey, the inspirations behind her work, and the pivotal role social media and artistic community have played in the evolution of her practice.

Hannah’s art practice has taken off in the last five years, and she now has a thriving art career and is known for her hyper-realistic pencil drawings. Before that, she was focused on a career in communication and teaching. Being an artist never felt like it was a real possibility.

Although art has always been a part of Hannah’s life, in her early professional life, she trained as a communication support worker and then as a teaching assistant. Her love of drawing gradually made it back into her life as a hobby, and she set up an Instagram account sharing portraits of celebrities and opening a commission process. She found that people liked her work, and it was also this foray into social media that showed her artists making a living online, and made the idea of being a working artist into a real and tangible path.

Starting her artistic journey using graphite, it was when she shifted to coloured pencil that she truly found her voice. She says of her skill, “It’s not years of practice, it’s a natural ability”. And, as difficult to comprehend as that might be for those of us who want to think this is years of development and learning, finding that instinctive space for her artmaking to unfold from has been an exciting and expansive space for Hannah. It’s this natural ability that makes Hannah’s work feel so effortless and authentic, and adds freedom and playfulness to her highly detailed reflective works.

From 2018 to 2020, she spent time in the U.S., and when she returned, she started building up a social media and opened up portrait commissions in 2020. While commissions were rewarding and allowed her to make a living, she felt limited.“It was awesome doing it for a job, but it wasn’t the art I wanted to do,” she admits. The work that truly excites her is the one that involves reflections, gloss, and light, a careful balance between light and dark.

Hannah’s foray into social media, and the growing community she was becoming part of showed her that there was a way to create the art she wanted and make a living out of it. She was empowered to continue to push her practice, and reach the place she is at today.

It may not be surprising that as a child Hannah wanted to be a magician. She just loved that “WOW reaction”, and it’s what she wants from her art now, to stop people in their tracks and make them wonder “How did she do that?”.

Hannah’s studio is in her home, something she enjoys because of its flexibility. “I’m up at 6:30 am and drawing by 7 am” she says. Her studio is super neat and organised. This is part of her creative process and how she gets her best work. Hannah is just as organised when it comes to her materials. Using Polychromos pencils so she can get that super sharp point, Caran D’ache Luminance and Pablos so she can play with different textures and saturation levels.

Hannah works from photographs, and getting the right photo is a huge part of the process. She will take dozens of photos in order to get the right one, and will then work for six hours straight, a true crime podcast for company (music is too distracting for her process).  

Hannah’s online community has provided the grounding for the artist she is today, and the feedback she has needed in order to develop. But she lives for the responses she gets to her artwork in real life, and loves watching people trying to figure out what she has done. It’s Hannah’s sharp eye, her natural skill, and her commitment to a vision that continues to push her practice forward; creating work that not only captures attention, but holds it.

Hannah Lipsey’s work reminds us that a creative journey can be guided by curiosity, connection and a willingness to trust the process. Through the control she has of her coloured pencils and her fascination with light and reflection, she creates drawings that trick the eye and invite the moment of wonder she has always chased.