Julia Sarda: new design for old stories

Julia Sarda is an illustrator from Barcelona who is best known for her work for children’s books. Julia’s father was an artist, so drawing is her closest thing to being a child.

An important milestone in her career was the work of a colorist in the studio, which collaborated with Disney and Pixar. According to the artist, it was difficult in this industry to maintain a high quality of work at the right place. Therefore, after parting with the studio, the artist did not regret: books for her are a much more pleasant and easy way to create.

Julia Sarda is now known as an excellent illustrator: she has designed books such as “Alice in Wonderland”, “The Wizard of Oz”, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”.
As you can see, the artist is not afraid of cult works, which were decorated by world-famous masters.

She tries to bring something of her own into world-famous fairy tales and stories, draws characters of different types and nationalities, and her artistic interests can vary from intricate steampunk to strict graphics.

The heroes of her work are both cute monsters and ordinary people. Or not quite ordinary: the original characters of Julia Sard are always recognizable.

The artist for the illustrations for the book “The Treasures of the Barracuda” by Lianos Campos won the prestigious award – Premio El Barco de Vapor (“Steam Boat Award”) in 2014. Recent events include participation in the illustrators’ contest. Julia draws the chamber works, but she doesn’t smell the epic scale. At one time she was creating characters for the iPhone/iPad application – a game with a fantasy plot, mysterious and partly frightening atmosphere.

In her interview, she shared how she worked on the illustration:
– Usually, I start by drawing characters. That’s what I find very funny, and it also gives me the opportunity to immediately understand and imagine what kind of people they will be – all with no restrictions on composition and the consistency of images in history.
I “play” with them, and in the process, I understand the special tone of the book – this is exactly what I achieve in the illustration of the work. After that, it is much easier to work with the “scenery” of the book.