Meeting the artists - Karina Manucharyan

During our trip to Kraków, Poland, we have met an Armenian illustrator who currently lives and works in Kraków, Karina Manucharyan. You can find her website right here.


  Although born and raised in Armenia, she finished her university in Moscow, Russia. She applied to be a designer, but she became enhanced by the illustrative part of the creative field.

Though she admitted that it was hard to find a job in her field when she came back to Armenia, she was able to start a job at the Armenian Cosmopolitan, where she stayed for 3 years, during which she also created books, however, it turned stagnant, which prompted her to try new thing and experiment with her work and style.


 That's how she found herself enchanted with botanical illustration.

 Most of Karina Manucharyan's work comes from self-initiated projects and experimenting with various plants.

She said that it's good when you have something to fall back on, like a day job, as it allows for steady income, while on the side you can create projects and works for yourself and what happens in most illustrator's cases, an online shop or a crowdfunding page for a project.

Notes from the O&A with Karina Manucharyan:

+ What is your process of creating work?

- Start with the research - collect and collage images for the main idea.
Sketch out other ideas and scan them in. Overlay colours in Photoshop to see how it will look and screenshot it. Then start on the actual hand made image.

+ Did the move to Poland affect your style and work in any way?

- The move was based on the decision taken with her husband, as he got moved to Poland due to his job. She lives here since 3 years and so far it was a good decision. She is learning the language as it provides her with new stimulants and motivation for work.

+ You seem to draw only hands, why?

-Doesn't like drawing full bodies, instead focuses on hand. Uses her own hands as models and photographs them in different positions in order to be able to draw from them. She creates numerous sketches to build up referencing material.

 + How do you make you corrections within your works?

- Tries to eliminate mistakes at the sketching stage. This way she is able to correct them before starting on a painting.