Meet Karina Moreno | Comic Artist and Illustrator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Karina Moreno and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Karina, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
Art is my prerequisite for existing. I cannot live without creating. I suppose you could say I’ve always been an artist, even when I was a small child. Of course back then, I wasn’t a good artist. But it didn’t matter – it made me happy every time I picked up the pencil.

I first started thinking of art as a career back in high school. Inspired by anime and manga, I was constantly practicing by copying screencaps or trying to create my own characters. I learned a more traditional way of art from my high school art teacher whom I will always be grateful to. Going into the University of Arizona to study Illustration is where I learned how to create artwork for clients. However, even then I didn’t really grasp the full extent of being an “artist.”

It wasn’t until 2017, after not creating for about 2 years after graduating college, did I take my situation into my own hands. An artistic career isn’t something that you are given. It must be built, and therefore every artist has their own path. For me, I knew I was an illustrator – someone who creates art that has a background narrative. In the end, I abandoned my traditional realistic style ingrained in me by college and went back to what makes me happy – anime, manga, characters, and stories. And that’s how I’ve built my career.

Currently, my career has many avenues. It’s not one singular thing, and it’s certainly not just about drawing all day. I am my own social media manager, my own video editor, an art streamer on Twitch, a freelance illustrator, a personal commission artist, etc. I have been attending comic and anime conventions since 2017. I’ve built an online shop which grows every year. I started my passion project – my webcomic Wild Rose – which has allowed me to go to larger comic conventions favoring comic creators and authors. It may be scary and overwhelming to do literally everything but in the end, the absolute freedom of creating has always been my calling.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I create character illustrations with watercolor, pen and ink, mixed media, and digital art. Because of my traditional art background, it seeps into everything I create even in my digital art. I believe it gives it a unique flair. I create work that is either full color and saturation, or black and white with an accent color. Nothing in between for me! I am Mexican-American woman from Tucson, so recently on focusing on diversity – representing people of color, women, and the lgbtqia+ community.

The project I have been the most excited about, as I’ve mentioned before, is my webcomic Wild Rose! It’s all of the above in diversity (poc, women, lgbtqia+). It’s a 1001 Nights inspired fantasy story, full of stories of revenge, friendship, romance, magic and djinn, and everything I find self-indulgent. This project is personal to me. When I first started my career, I started to feel stagnant. At the time, I didn’t have any personal work and was solely creating artwork that I thought would sell. I learned the importance of having your soul in your work, so I decided to purse an old dream I thought I long abandoned – creating a comic. It’s been extremely difficult. It’s the most difficult project I’ve ever worked on. But I’ve never been happier. I believe people resonate with this and see the passion I put into it, so even though it’s not exactly self-sufficient at the moment, my comic has opened up many avenues for potential clients, convention opportunities, and meeting awesome people! It’s also opened up inspiration for future comic projects as well.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I absolutely love Tucson! I was a military brat but I moved here when I was 12. When people think of the desert, they think of sand dunes and scarcity. However, the Sonoran Desert is nothing but! Because of that, the first place we’d go is the Arizona Desert Museum to see all the wonderful wildlife! We would hang out at Gate’s Pass to watch the sunset as well. Tucson is full of good eats, so we could go to the southside and get Mexican food (there’s really no bad place to go). For other food, there’s Raijin Ramen, Sa-Ing Thai food at Rita Ranch, Lindy’s on 4th, and Sher-e-Punjab! 4th Avenue is awesome – there’s so much to eat, see and do! &Gallery on 4th Ave is Tucson’s weird gallery and absolute must for art lovers. I have my art there too! Of course there’s Mt. Lemmon – I love staying at a cabin up there in the fall to see the leaves changing!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My partner, Luis Borboa, has been by my side ever since I started my career. He has always been by my side at every comic convention and never fails to provide me support. He is my “hypeman”, salesman, editor, and general rock. At conventions when someone sees my artwork and is excited about it, he can make them even more excited (and subsequently have them buy something). I definitely could not have made the jump into my art career without his energy and support. I am forever grateful to have him in my life. My parents are deserve a shout-out: they’ve always been supportive of my artistic journey and have never discouraged me to do anything else.
Last but not least, my found-family deserves every bit of appreciation from me. Without the help of any of these people, I wouldn’t be the person I am today.

Website: https://www.karina-moreno.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karinamorenoart/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/karinamorenoart

Other: Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/karinamorenoart Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/karinamorenoart/ Webcomic: http://wildrosecomic.com/ Webtoons: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/wild-rose/list?title_no=656266