Today we’d like to introduce you to Sara Richard.
Hi Sara, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’ve been drawing forever. I often say that art is my first language because as a conversational rambler, drawing out what I’m trying to explain sometimes goes a bit faster. I can remember drawing a full ocean scene complete with orcas, sharks, dolphins, and seals on my childhood bedroom walls. I also remember earning lots of key-shaped awards in the Scholastic Art Awards during High School. The biggest win came from earning a toy sculpting job with Hasbro after I graduated from college (Columbus College of art and Design). For a couple years, I sculpted tiny people and dinosaurs from fragile wax with dental picks and melting pen tools. I sculpted characters from Jurassic Park, GI Joe, Marvel, Star Wars, and Littlest Pet Shop.
It was a couple years after starting with Hasbro (working in a communal woodshop in a corporate building) that I realized that sort of situation wasn’t for me. I had seen what Artist Alleys at comic conventions offered instead: freedom to draw what I wanted instead of what licenses and IP dictated. To make a pretty good living by exploring my own artistic illustration style and take a break from sculpting (My first experience of burnout was very sculpting-related) AND set my own hours as a freelancer was a big win. I used to hang glide, so 9-5 M-F was not working out for me if there was a perfect flying day.
Years of figuring out how to survive as a constantly relocating freelance artist, how to market myself, how to navigate freelance taxes, insurance, ordering supplies, I found that conventions were becoming less about the art and more about who had the most popular licensed characters represented at their table. I was over the appeal of spending time drawing popular characters that weren’t my creations. Luckily, I had other outlets to show my work with. Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles has displayed my pop culture-centric original paintings for the last 5 years or so, and I have started working on illustrating projects with Simon & Schuster.
I had found myself getting burnt out again on the sheer amount of work a comic book artist has to take on. I had earned a place as a comic cover artist for IDW Comics, Oni Press, Marvel, and DC Comics to name a few. But the levels of pay vs. the work associated with the pay was situated in two different realities. With hardcover and softcover book illustration and a with a specified artistic wheelhouse established with S&S, I was beginning to illustrate my own takes of Mythological figures for multiple mythology guides and related illustrations, and I even pitched and sold a Tarot Set called “Midnight Magic: A Tarot Deck of Mushrooms” to Simon & Schuster. That’s where I am today! I’m focusing on my voice in my art, developing my style, and exploring darker subject matter in my art. (I collect and admire funerary art and antiques). I still do some comic art projects here and there and attend comic conventions, but much less frequently so I can focus and create the best art, I can contribute to this world. AND most importantly, financially support myself via my own artistic vision.
When I’m not actively creating art, I also voluntarily clean forgotten gravestones with my mom as part of The Graveside Ladies (@the_graveside_ladies on IG), mushroom hunting or reading about plants, crystals, dead stuff or long-lost occult knowledge.
Past awards include nominations for Best Publication for Young Readers for my book Kitty & Dino (Yen Press) and two Ringo Award nominations for Best Cover Artist and Best Original Graphic Novel for The Ghost, The Owl (Action Lab Entertainment)
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
At first, I had a bit of resistance in the comic book industry because my style was not the traditional “Comic book style.” I painted all my work by hand and embraced a more fine art sense (inspired by art nouveau and art deco aesthetics) with the licensed work I illustrated.
I remember an editor from IDW telling me, “I’m not sure how we will market you.” After a few years from that review, I had done about 30 My Little Pony Covers for IDW Publishing (albeit with a different editor). I had figured out how I could be marketed (I did a lot of the collector exclusive covers), and at a convention, I left a signed Pony comic I had illustrated the cover for on the editor’s table with a big old heart drawn on it. 🙂 Felt pretty good.
In my illustration work, I found most of my challenges coming in the last few years. The goal of publishers to maximize sales is causing them to prioritize focusing on artists and authors with massive internet followings. I’ve had a few pitches lately completely shut down because the author I wanted to work with (who was an expert in the material) was not an Instagram or TikTok celebrity and was told as much. It’s a trend I’m hoping lightens up as I fear a lot of creativity is being quashed because of sales numbers and a little less legwork on the side of the publishers. But then again, isn’t that the eternal working creative’s struggle?
Anxiety issues have, of course, ramped up in the last few years while trying to survive as a freelance artist during a pandemic and post-pandemic world; another extreme round of burnout and a rough case of COVID this spring and early summer left me completely artistically drained. I’m coming back with a new round of inspiration and gusto; I’m so excited for the ideas I have bubbling up again.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a freelance illustrator and more recently, a writer. I like to take a socially morbid or dark subject matter and give it a relatable kindness or sweetness as I believe that not everything in the shadows is made of bad intentions. I find the balance Guillermo de Toro strikes with his horrifying but relatable cursed ghosts the perfect balance of horror and fairy tale I try to strive for in my own creations. I love drawing bugs, frogs, owls; “witchy things” is what I hear most from my patrons. I am fascinated with the #DeathPositivity movement, which is relatable to the Victorian sentiment of Memento Mori (“Remember Death”) to honor those who have passed and to remind the living of our mortality so that we may appreciate life. I use a lot of Victorian Funerary imagery in my work; it really speaks to my heart about using art as a memorial exercise.
Comic work I am known for is about 100 covers and illustrations for IDW’s My Little Pony Comic Series. I’ve also done covers for Rick and Morty, Deadpool, DeadMan, even covers for Littlest Pet Shop and Jem and the Holograms (two very nostalgic properties from my childhood). I also illustrated a Tarot set for DC Comics (out of print Justice League Tarot Card Set). I’ve also written and illustrated several short stories for John Carpenter’s Tales For A HalloweeNight comic series.
Illustration work I’m known for is the Midnight Magic Tarot Deck of Mushrooms, The Dead Hand Book by Source Point Press, The Ghost, The Owl (a completely hand-painted graphic novel). For Simon and Schuster, I illustrated the recent guides to Greek Mythology, Norse Mythology, Women of Mythology, several oracle card sets, and coloring books, including an unofficial Bridgerton coloring book!
I’m proud of my own first completely written and illustrated book, “The Dead Hand Book.” This book was sort of my way of honoring my favorite short story authors and illustrators, such as Edward Gorey, Stephan Gammell (artist of the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series), and my distant cousin, Edgar Allen Poe. It was my pandemic sanity project, as soon as everything shut down, I began to stay busy by writing, illustrating, and selling the book to a publisher all in about a year. There’s a little bit of my soul in that book, and I was so happy to experience an unchained, 100% pure Sara, no editor interference published book, a thing not many people get to experience.
I’m also extremely proud of Midnight Magic: A Tarot Deck of Mushrooms, which was the hardest project I’ve ever created. I pitched and sold the project to Adam’s Media, an imprint of Simon &Schuster, and went on to write the guidebook and illustrate the 78 mushroom cards in about half a year. There are so many hidden gems within the illustrations to relate to the original Rider Waite cards they’re modeled after (just with mushrooms!) and personal illustrated stories throughout the set.
I feel my style, which was originally conceived by my love of Art Nouveau line work, has really helped me stand out. I like to paint in layers and transparencies, capturing wind patterns, mists swirling, and spirits hiding within the piece. I like to think I’m illustrating the mycelium of the piece (the interwoven webbing that all mushrooms have for sustenance and connection with their environment). Composition, style, and material that I’ve studied about from topics in natural history, occult history, folklore, and music history are all baked into each piece I create.
With my writing, I like to pen open-ended (usually horror) short stories. Like in my book, “The Dead Hand Book,” I will give the story just enough detail for the reader to come up with their own ending or image of “the monster.” I like to bring readers passively INTO my stories. I’ve found you’ll never write anything scarier than what a reader can come up with in their own mind.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
For anyone who wants to be a freelance artist, I’m going to tell you it’s not an easy gig. Rather it’s a never-ending professional life of gigs. There are no set hours; you’re ALWAYS working, promoting, brainstorming, drawing, being your own publicist, manager, travel agent, tax guy, etc. IT’S HARD. But, if you truly believe you have something the world needs to see and have something you want to contribute to humankind, there isn’t another job you’d rather have.
Take care of your drawing arm, for the love of all that is holy. I went through a period of tendonitis so bad I couldn’t pick up a pencil, and it scared the hell out of me. After a bunch of physical therapy and a ton of acupuncture needles, it subsided. But now I’m on a quest to warn all budding artists to take care of your tools. Also, TAKE BUSINESS CLASSES OR A BUSINESS COURSE. I wish so badly that I had done this in college. I learned by proxy on how to run my own business, but I definitely made rookie mistakes that could’ve been caught early had I made myself take a “boring business class.”
Also, trends are always changing; even if someone tells you they “don’t know how to market you,” use that as creative fuel. It really is a great motivator! It feels so good when you reach the secondary goal of proving them wrong but, MOST importantly, to see what you can accomplish! Holding the tangible end product of a project is one of the most fulfilling things a working artist can experience.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.SaraRichard.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sararichardart/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheArtOfSaraRichard/
- Other: https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Sara-Richard/178646725
