How did you become an artist?

Since I was a little girl, I found relief through manga, books and videogames as an escape from reality problems. My little brother has a disease called Dystonia, he can't talk, he can't moves, and when we were younger I used to tell him a lot of stories as a distraction from all the pain. It wasn't an easy situation, so I started finding a huge comfort by imagining worlds, characters and all. One day I thought: "what if out there there are some people in the same situation as my family? I'd like to help them even just a little bit."

Later on, when I was around 11 years old, I discovered the manga of my favorite Videogame (the legend of Zelda). The answer of my wishes came from it. I instantly loved the worlds I was discovering, And the world around me was changing forms through my eyes: everything was so brilliant and magical, it may sound strange, but I can say that manga and art in general gave me a new light to my life.

Where do you get inspiration?

I take inspirations from the real life: from my experiences, from the people who catches my attention, from History, from what I feel. I watch/ listen a lot of documentaries from different perspectives to have a bigger point of view of everything. I try to read as much as possible and I like to talk with people and listening their opinions or experiences. I also spend a lot of time studying my favorite artists.

My favorites shoujo artists are Yuu Watase, Arina Tanemura and Yoko Maki. Arina Tanemura in particular played an important role during my path, so I feel really affectionate to her works. As for shounen manga, my favorite mangaka are Hideaki Sorachi, Akira Himekawa and Koyoharu Gotouge.

What’s your hardware setup?

Well, since I'm not into computers at all (I mean, I don't understand anything but the things related to drawing ahaha), I can say that I use a customed built PC (my oder brother and my sister in law assembled it for me) with Windows 10, and the tablet I use Is a Huion GT 221pro.

I also use a tablet device (a Windows Surface) to work when I'm not at home or when I just need to be more comfortable (with the tablet I can be on the sofa for example, and my legs are really grateful to be comfortable too ahah).

What do you like best about Clip Studio Paint?

The best thing in CSP to me is the freedom you have: you can edit your brushes and your setup like you want, and that allows to try new things and new styles.
Personally, since I work with CSP I can say to have learned A LOT. I draw things I had never imagined I could draw before... and I like that! I mean, I feel comfortable doing stuff I was terrified even thinking, ahaha!

How long does it take you to make a single illustration?

Usually to finish an illustration it takes me something like... from 3 days to 5 days, that depends from the difficulty of the work.

For manga pages it usually takes me from 1 to 2 days (sketching, inking and then screentones.) for a single page.

Would you consider Clip Studio Paint an industry tool?

Absolutely yes! And it's definitely the best tool I ever used in my opinion.

Would you like to promote some recent project?

Yes, thank you for the opportunity! At the moment I'm working on my first manga: its title is Scarlet Soul and it is a Shoujo Fantasy, and you can read it in French (Pubblished by H2T Editions, which is my main publisher), in English (by Tokyopop) and in Italian (by Shockdom).

Volume 1 and 2 are already available, and now I'm working on the third one.
Sadly, since in the last few months I had some very serious health problems I had to stop to work for a long time, but now I'm feeling waaaay better, I'm more energetic and I'm drawing more than ever!

Where can we follow your work?

I post my works on Instagram, which is the place I'm most active, on Twitter, on Pixiv and very soon I'm going to open my Patreon! You can find me by searching the name Kira_Yukishiro_!

*** Kira is doing a #Giveaway with us! Reach her post on Instagram, follow her, follow @graphixly and leave a comment. Winners of Clip Studio Paint Pro will be announced on March 29, good luck! ***