ARTIST SPOTLIGHT - SONNYDRAWS

Yorkshire based illustrator and Print Social campaigner Sonny (@sonnydraws) is a digital illustrator and painter, best known for her unique portraitures. Sonny sat down with us to chat about her art practice, tokens of her childhood, and her picture book style collages.

My name’s Sonny, I’m an illustrator from Yorkshire. I started making digital art in 2018 after previously being a painter - decided to get an ipad and just went from there!

Ever since I was little I would always draw people. My favorite thing to do was like, any days out my family had, I would draw us all doing that together, just as a way to document what we were up to and something to remember. That’s all I ever did as a kid - I was always the kid that sat in the corner drawing. There was never any other option for me. It carried on from there - there’s something I find interesting about people. Every person I draw is so different, so every piece is a challenge.

When I draw portraits and move onto the background or the clothing, instead of spending a lot of time making really intricate illustrations, I take things I already have, like my own clothes, and scan them in and use that. It sort of just blooms from there and becomes a collage. Most of the technical stuff in my artwork is from my own home.

Now I tend to focus on musicians. I’ll hear a song or see them and I'll just get that, like, flame, that gives me the inspiration to draw that person. Like previously, I might not be interested in a particular musician, but then I’ll see one image or hear one song and be like “Right, I need to draw them”. The idea will just come into my head and I have to do it. I’ll usually draw something they have worn but use my own fabrics and style to create that look for them.

I always say that I wake up and decide who I am on that day, so I have a lot of different things to suit the many Sonny’s I am. A lot of people describe my artwork as looking quite clownish, or like a ‘picture book’, so I suppose colors and stuff like that is my main style.

I will say, just always do what you want to do. Like when I was at university, tutors were trying to influence my work and change it, but since I left I have fully become who I want to be and make what I want to make, and that’s the best thing you can do. I think it was important for critique and feedback, making friends and understanding the illustration community. It’s nice to have that behind me; I’m glad I did it, but I still think I could've ended up where I am without that step.