We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jennifer Salaberry (aka Azuukichan) a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jennifer, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

After many years of difficult work, a lot of effort, sweat and tears, I can say that I can currently make a full-time living from my creative work. I don’t remember exactly the date I wanted to work on my art, but I think it was around 16 years old (I’m 38 now). It wasn’t good at all. It was a difficult time to stand out, because at our time, having access to the internet and finding resources was very limited. When I was eight years old, my grandfather gave me books on anatomy, drawing, perspective, etc., but I didn’t pay attention to him, since what I wanted to do was manga and I didn’t associate it with it yet hahahaha

I really loved Japan for its music (I adore singing in japanese), not just for the manga. Here we only saw Captain Tsubasa, Sailor Moon and little else, it was not a country with many foreign drawings and it was difficult to have references. But one day I started copying what I saw on TV. I recorded the episodes on a video tape and watched it over and over again, until the video tape broke hahaha

It wasn’t until the advent of the internet that I had more access to everything, and even then, it was very limited due to my lack of creative understanding. It was all analogue, paper, ink. pens, etc. I started to understand things when I met Devianart. These were my beginnings of uploading work to the network and I discovered artists that today don’t seem like a big deal to me, but at the time, they were gods to me. I think that if it hadn’t been for those artists, my ambition to want to be an artist wouldn’t have been as strong. It was then when I wanted to work as a mangaka in Japan.

Yes, I think around the age of 15, back in 2001.
But really, I felt like I was wasting a lot of time. I didn’t learn as I should, I didn’t pay attention to what I should pay attention to in order to learn. I had a lot of problems in my childhood and adolescence and my drawing and practicing times were more times to let off steam than to focus on improving. I left home early, at 17 years old, and everything became even more complicated for me. I had to leave school and look for a job. It wasn’t until years later that I became interested again in wanting to work on my art.
In 2008 I decided to enter the local arts school and study illustration. But it was a failure. Again, I had a negative work environment and I didn’t feel comfortable, so I quit. I decided to study arts on my own again, but this time seriously.

At that time, I was dating a boy and we got married in 2011. It was the most creative part of me, even though we didn’t have much, I had a space for my work and that motivated me to grow, although the more I knew, the smaller I felt. . I went through a very big depression and discovered that I was pregnant. On March 13, 2012, my first son, Allan, was born.

I focused on her upbringing, although it was not an easy pregnancy (I spent weeks in the hospital because I wanted to be born much earlier than normal) and my depression increased. My desires to be a good cartoonist and become an artist in Japan depressed me a lot, and now I had to face the reality that I would never be able to do that, because I had much more important things first. Also, the idea that the younger you start working on this, the more you learn and the more opportunities you can have was something that tormented me, I was already a little older and the doors were slowly closing on me.
After my son was born, we moved to another country and it didn’t go well. I could not overcome my depression and decided to separate from my husband and return to my country with my one-year-old son. I embarked on a tough road to mental recovery alone, although I received a lot of help from my mother. I began to get up and overcome the great pain I was going through in those moments. I decided music was an impossible dream, so I walked away from it. To this day, it still hurts not to be a singer, but it hurts less now. But I never gave up drawing, it was the only thing I had left.

The years passed and in 2017 I met my official and current partner. We moved in together very quickly and he gave me the definitive support to be able to focus on my art. It wasn’t until 2018 that I got my first official job offer. It was to make the designs of some characters from a video game, with their respective scenes. It was with Ddreams that I started working in the world of drawing (officially). It was a very hard year, full of insecurities but a lot of work that helped me constantly improve.

We launched The Angel Inn, a visual novel for adults. My first official job. Quickly, he contacted me to do a second job, dedicated to an RPG this time, Dungeon Dreams 2, the second volume of one of his best games. There I did have work, a lot. It allowed me to improve a lot, focus on the industry, learn better techniques and I had the pressure to work constantly, that made me grow a lot, both as an artist and as a person. It gave me a lot of confidence and it was shown in the love of the work. It was a success, many people loved the game and the art. I was excited and delighted.

After a brief break, it was not until October 2023 that I started doing work for private clients, except for Ddreams. The Vgen platform was founded, almost entirely dedicated to the Vtuber world (virtual characters capable of following and tracking the movements of real people through a camera, for the streamer world). I didn’t expect to get so much work from one year to the next. I continued working with Ddreams on new novels and projects, but commissions with clients took up almost all of my time.

I saved a lot of money and we decided to move. Furthermore, in 2023 my second daughter, Carolina, was born. And my happiness was almost complete. I had to continue fighting for my family, get all the work I can and a decent home. In May 2024 we moved to another city and currently, I support my house, my family, pay my bills and freelance with my artist earnings. I have worked with more than 500 Vtubers and the number increases every day. I am very happy to be able to work like this, from home. Although the effort is enormous and sometimes I want to rest and spend more time with my family.

I think that if I had focused on my art, my personal growth, and become a stronger person, I could have made other decisions. I could have grown up and had more motivation. But we learn from mistakes, the past is a lesson that teaches us how to walk the future.

But I definitely wish I had had the courage to focus on myself, ignore all the problems and fight for what I wanted in a complete and authoritative way, and not put fulfilling for others before making myself happy.

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.

Well, my main driving force is to make illustrations of other people’s characters, Vtubers, who want to have their own character or who already have one and want to see their characters perform any situation they love, such as wearing a wedding dress, relaxing in a warm hot bath or celebrating your birthday. Vtuber is a world that has grown very quickly, at exorbitant speeds in a short time and has expanded a world that few had access to, anyone can be. Investing in this world is very expensive (art is a luxury) and sometimes it depends on the quality of what you buy so that many viewers take you into account. So every day, the Vtubers grow more and there is more demand for the illustrations I make.

I think I differentiate myself in that I admire each client, I treat them with care and closeness, because I admire their determination to want to fulfill their dreams. I remember each client, each design and I respect them. I think my closeness makes me understand exactly what they want. I have rarely corrected a job, I always reach out to them directly and it shows in the clients’ reaction. I feel very proud to be able to have that closeness and to give them what they deserve.

My drawing style is not very different from the Japanese professionals, although I still have a lot to improve, obviously, hahahaha. But since it is personal, I give it a lot of love and many say that my art has “light”, as if the characters really had soul. I want to emphasize that in my work, and make it shine. Although I constantly have many changes and improvements, my works will always be alive, because I want my hope in them to be alive.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The clients. Without a doubt, seeing that they are happy with each job done, that their dreams are closer to being fulfilled is something that fills me with satisfaction and joy. It’s what pushes me more every day to want to be more professional.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I would have liked to have better learning resources. Because I came to the digital age very late (there were no Wacom tablets or anything before I turned 20), I had few digital resources to improve my work. I wish I had had YouTube full of tutorials, Colossus courses (a great learning page), manga galleries like Pixiv, which inspired me a lot, and connections with the world, like X or Instagram. Without a doubt, I wish I had had it all much earlier, like this generation hahahaha

Contact Info:

• Website: https://vgen.co/azuukichan
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/azuukichan.art
• Twitter: https://www.x.com/azuukichan

Image Credits

Art credits by Azuukichan. All rights reserved.