We were lucky to catch up with Michala Richardson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Michala, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

My parents introduced me to art when I was little, each Saturday morning I would sit in front of the TV watching cartoons. Seeing how the characters were drawn made me want to draw them; I would find any paper that I could get my hands on.

When my mom found out about it she and my dad decided to buy me a sketch book, that way I didn’t have to use the papers were used for their business. But sadly the book was filled within a day and they had to buy me another one, make a long story short they created an art monster and had to keep buying sketch books to quench its hunger.

Fast forwarded to middle school, still love to draw but now I graduated from watching cartoons to anime and reading manga. During this time Summer Break was around the corner, my dad surprised me by letting me attend to summer classes at CCAD and the rest is history.

looking back at it now my parents knew that I would turn my hobby into a career one day and is still; continuing to support me to this day. I am very grateful to have them as my parents and will pay them back by making that dream into a reality.

Michala, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

The works that I provide are inspired African anime art style and drawings that could be used for children’s book. When it comes to making art I would ask to see if there’s any changes that can make the art piece look better.

The first thing that I would do before getting into my art project is to find some inspiration. The process begins is by looking up references, the main tool that is used often is Pinterest, when in doubt Pinterest is the way to go.
The next step is making quick thumbnails normally there would be five to seven sketches.

This way the ideas are already down on paper, I don’t put details on thumbnails right away until the remaining top four or three have been selected. Once the final thumbnail has been selected and detailed it will be uploaded to Clip Studio Paint, which is used to make the final.

When the art is in progress I will let the clients know the status of the art so far, once the drawing is fully complete I will take a picture of the drawing and will send it to the client to see it. If they love it, I would put my signature on it and will send it to the client via email.

Afterwards I would post the latest commission on my social media and thanking them for commissioning me.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My goal is to make my hobby into a career, it has been a dream of mine ever since I was a child. Well, that and getting a chance to visiting Japan just to get the experience. The other thing that I would like to do when get in my field is to help my mo, my sister making their own children’s book and getting it published.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

There is one show that I still remember to this very day, Avatar: the last air bender. For this reason the show describes the main character must master all elements and defeat the main threat once and for all.

But in the show it doesn’t only show the main characters growth but other characters as well. The struggles that they had to endure until they reached their goals. How they had to achieve it is by working together and to always keep up with training to improve their skills.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaenovakat/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michala-richardson-091194b9/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/KaeNovakat