We were lucky to catch up with Emma Wiklund recently and have shared our conversation below.

Emma, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I have always loved to draw, but in my early 20’s I stoped doing it regularly. I focused on getting a ”real” job, I studied sociology at university, got married, had two kids and the years just went by. Then the pandemic hit the world and I wanted a new hobby to occupy my time when I was stuck at home so I started drawing again. I began posting my illustrations on Instagram just for fun and I found a community of wonderful people who loved the same thing I did and I understood there acctually was a market for the kind of illustrations I made. I took a bunch of online courses and it was when I did the Illustrate Children’s Books course by Make Art That Sells that I realized that maybe my art was good enough, that maybe I could do this professionally. They showed my illustrations (out of several hundred students) as ready to send to editors and art directors. That gave me the confidence boost I needed. So I send my portfolio to all the children’s books publishers in Sweden that I could find and a few months later I signed my first two contracts. I’ve hade four books published this year with illustrations by me and more comming next year.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I live in the northern part of Sweden with my husband and two kids. I have a part time dayjob as an administrator wich work very well in combination with illustrating. I mostly focus on illustrations for picture books for children, but I have done other kinds of illustrations too. I made a cover for a notebook, illustrations to be printed on yoga mats for kids among other things. But children’s books are my absolute favourite.

I have always loved drawing cute stuff, often animals in a non-realistic way. Even as a kid I was inspired by the illustrations in picture books and comics. I also love books so to be able to combine my two biggest passions – books and illustration is a real joy. I want to help more kids find their love for books, to use my illustrations to make the reading experience more enjoyable.

For me it is a lot easier to illustrate if I get some sort of prompt, text has always made my creativity spark to life. It can be something as simple as a word or it can be a whole manusctipt of a book. I think that is why children’s books suites me so well.

Something that is also very important to me is that the characters in my illustrations show a lot of diversity. I want all kids to be able to find books with characters they can identify with. I always try to include different kind of skintones, disabilities and to be body positive. It is also very important to me to not get stuck in old gender roles.

I work only digitally now, I use an iPad pro and the app Procreate for all my illustrations. It gives me versitility in where and when I’m able to work. As an example, I illustrate on the bus on my way to the office, it’s a bit bumpy at times but it works surprisingly well. It allows me to produce a big amount of work in a fairly short time even if I have my other job and a family to consider.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The process of drawing is in itself very rewarding for me, it’s a sort of relaxation and it doesn’t really feel like a job to me. But to hear that other people also are enjoying my work that is a hard feeling to beat. It can be when I manage to convey the vision of an author that they are pleased with. Or when a child who’s read (or hade a book read to them) with illustrations by me lets me know how much they enjoyed it.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Instagram have been a huge part of my realization that I even could make a career out of illustrating in the first place. The algorithms today is hard to keep up with and it really isn’t as easy to get a big following in social media today as it maybe was a few years ago. It’s been tough on most creatives. I have really found a wonderful and supportive community that have brought me a lot of joy. I have also gotten a couple of my illustration jobs through Instagram.

Something I have found that works well is consistency, it doesn’t have to be a post every day but it can be two or three posts every week at the same days so your followers knows what to expect. Try to interact with your followers, reply to comments and comment on others. Another great way to reach new followers is to participate in popular drawing challenges, there are a lot of them that recurs every year like Inktober or Folktaleweek.

Mostly I would recommend to do what works for you and try not to focus to much on the number of followers. You can be a very successful illustrator with a low number of followers but it is important to have a social media precense. It is a way for possible clients to find your work.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.emmawiklundillustrator.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/emmawiklund_art
• Twitter: twitter.com/emmawiklund_art