Illustrations with Vibrant Colours
A self-taught freelance artist from Buenos Aires, Argentina, currently living in the UK is the exotic 32-year-old Sofia Bonati, also known as Soffronia. Sofia is going to introduce us to her artworks, as well as the great passion for illustration, painting and design.
Tell us more about your professional career – how did you get into drawing and painting? Did you have any special training to become an artist? And have there been any role models that inspired you down the line to develop your talent?
All my family is either an artist or work in creative environments, so I grew up surrounded by art books, pencils and paintbrushes. I attended art school for 6 months in Buenos Aires, and also took classes on graphic design. I only started taking illustration seriously when I moved to the U.K.
How has the Latino background you come from influenced your artwork? Would you say it is more colorful and expressive comparing to most European artists? And how would you describe your approach to art and design in general? How has it evolved over the years?
I don’t feel my art is greatly inspired by Latin-American art movements. My personality isn’t extroversive, so it doesn’t fit the Latin-American stereotype as well. The main thing for me is to produce pieces that are beautiful and that the colours in it are in some kind of harmony. I love colours, so most of the time when I start a piece I plan to put a lot of vibrant colours in it, although sometimes it ends up with just a few different pastel tones.
Apart from having improved my drawings skills, the women I used to draw where more cartoonish and 2-dimensional.
Most of your illustrations are attention-grabbing portraits of different women who all have been given a name. Are they depictions of someone specific or just a result of your imagination? What is the symbolic meaning behind your creative thoughts? Do you ever follow any trends or suggestions from others?
Most of them are a result of my imagination, bits and pieces of other women put together. I like to give them names so I can a trigger in the viewer the need to imagine a story behind their existence. The name allows them to transcend the artwork and they are not a drawing or painting of something, but of someone.
Where do you take ideas for your artwork from? What does an illustration start with and what tools do you use to create it? Is your working environment also important, in order to express yourself fully?
It’s important for me to always be working on something. I feel that one piece calls for the next one. The Internet is a great place to find an inspiration, either from other artists or from pictures. It can either be some color combination I like, a photo of an animal or the body position of a person that start me thinking on how could I translate that onto a full artwork.
What do you enjoy most about your profession and why do you think you love drawing? Can you imagine yourself doing something else instead of it?
I am a thesis away from getting a geology diploma, so I definitely thought I would be doing something else when I finished school. I love to create and to see how a blank sheet of paper evolves to something moving and beautiful.
What is the most valuable lesson you have learned during your professional life? Do you have any specific career goals you want to achieve in the near future?
In order to improve you need to draw, draw and keep drawing. Even if you aren’t inspired, it’s better to copy, or practice, or play with colours than to just wait until you have an idea.
I’d love to exhibit my work in London or any gallery in the world. Also, I’d love to illustrate a book, create drawings of the characters for the stories.
