With the rise of visual online platforms like Instagram has come a global explosion in African art and African artistic expression, including digital illustration.

pan-African sat down with the talented young Lusaka-based digital illustrator Mike Creative FX, aka Mike Chuluka, to find out what he loves about creating digital art, and the advantages of being an African artist from Zambia.

You are an African artist whose craft is realistic digital art – what do you enjoy most about the digital creative process?

I like it because it lets me express myself freely, and you don’t have to spend much time or many resources on it. As somebody who loves Africa, I love black skin, so digital art gives me that opportunity to express myself, and I mostly enjoy doing portraits that reflect this.

When was the moment that you realised you preferred making digital illustration to more traditional kinds of art?

It started some years back; I was 18, and when I started university I didn’t have much money or time to invest in traditional art. Then I discovered that with digital art you don’t need special materials – I just use apps like Autodesk SketchBook and MediBang. It gives me the opportunity to do what I love.

What is your favourite work, and why?

My favourite work is one I did just a few months back, of some children who are smiling with an elephant behind them. I love that one because I myself am a happy person, and so I was able to bring out that joy in the artwork. The elephant was just because of the wild animals found in Africa – and I’m a fan of elephants!

What does your art mean to you?

I make art from my heart. I used to do it just to kill some time, but now I’m making art that really speaks out. Something that, once people see it, they will be able to either understand or have their own interpretation of.

I made an advert featuring the house of an African woman… women are always at the forefront in taking care of their families, so I wanted to show appreciation of that. Women hide their struggles in their smiles, and even if they have their problems, they are always smiling. In this advert, as much as this lady is working hard, she is still smiling, and she’s happy. This is the sort of stuff I want to go into.

What artistic projects are you working on right now?

I’m planning on releasing a short magazine with about 10 or 20 articles in it with things that I’ve experienced myself and seen friends and people close to me go through. It is a project that will be finished quite soon.

How do you view the wider role of artists in society today?

Artists play a huge role in everything, in all aspects of life! If you go outside right now, you see advertising and billboards for example, and that came from artists.

Because of the pandemic, here in Zambia there are now many billboards emphasising handwashing, social distancing and so on. That was all the work of artists, so we have a vital role in informing and educating people.

What advice would you give to other young and upcoming African creatives?

I would advise everyone, including myself, to remember this one statement I found: “Everyone is an artist when they are young.” It’s after that point to continue, once they grow up. You have to keep on pushing, keep on experimenting with a variety of art [materials] because here in Zambia, there isn’t much respect for digital art compared to other artforms.

You just have to keep on pushing, no matter what negativity comes your way. You must continue to do what you love.

What do you love most about being from Zambia?

Zambia is amazing, it’s a free country, and you’re free to explore things. And being one of the first digital artists from Zambia, my business is just starting to grow, so being someone who is one of the first to try it out is important to me because over the next five or ten years, if God allows, people will be looking back and saying “Ok, that used to be Mike Creative FX” at some point.

This is a small country. There is just a tiny amount of people doing this kind of thing so it’s an advantage for me, and that is what I love about Zambia.

Visit Mike Creative FX and his digital artwork by visiting his Facebook and Instagram.