Behind Maren Duaas Art you find the Oslo based illustrator Maren Duaas.
I was born in 1997, and come from a small place called Hølen in Vestby, Norway. I am currently based in Oslo. From my tiny home office in my apartment at Carl Berner, I work as a freelance illustrator.
I started drawing as a child, and drawing has always been my favorite thing to do. In my early teens, my drawing hobby became a bit more serious, and I started focusing on actually getting good at it.
In 2015, I became a student at Einar Granum School of Fine Art. Here I attended the first year with a foundation program in various techniques and understanding of materials, before choosing to specialize in drawing in my second and final year. These two years helped me evolve a lot as an artist, and I got to experiment with different techniques. By the time I graduated, my work had become full of color, and I fell in love with thick, black outlines and watercolor.
After years of experimenting, I found my illustration style in digital art.
I spent the year of 2018 as a tattoo apprentice, and decided to buy an iPad to draw tattoo designs on. This iPad turned out to be so much fun to draw on that I started drawing exclusively on that. I fell in love with digital art - it was an absolutely fantastic tool that made it so much easier to experiment with techniques to further develop my style!
In 2019 I decided I wanted to be an illustrator for a living, and I started studying illustration at Kristiania University College. There I worked with illustrations for advertising, comics, books, posters, computer games, animation and packaging, among other things. The program combined theoretical teaching with practical assignments, both in the form of own projects and assignments from real customers, which was a great way to learn how the business works. I also learned digital softwares such as Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator.
After finishing my two years at Kristiania in 2021 I started my sole proprietorship - Maren Duaas Art & Illustration, and here we are!
Want to work together?
Upcoming market dates
I try to attend physical markets regularly to get a chance to show off my work and to meet both customers and other creatives. If you come by my table at any market, you will find a selection of my prints, greeting cards, stickers, mugs, tote bags etc.
I will keep you updated on my upcoming market dates here, and would love for you to come by sometime!