Sonia Leong

Sonia Leong is a professional comic artist and illustrator specialising in the Anime/Manga style. Her first graphic novel was Manga Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet (SelfMadeHero). Her awards include Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) 2008 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Reader and Best Books for Young Adults 2008 for Romeo and Juliet ; Winner in Tokyopop's UK Rising Stars of Manga competition (2005/06) and Winner in NEO Magazine's 2005 Manga Competition. She designed the official Catgirl mascot for Wacom-Europe's Manga campaign. Her artwork features prominently in the British movie, Popcorn (2007). She contributed to Comic Book Tattoo (Image Comics), Tales inspired by the musician Tori Amos. She has been involved in various art books, most notably as Lead Artist for the book Draw Manga by Sweatdrop Studios, the leading UK comic collaborative. She is a core member of the group and her works with Sweatdrop include Once Upon a Time..., Cyborg Butterfly and Satan's Amazon; she is also in the anthologies Sugardrops, Pink is for Girls and Drop Dead Monstrous.
Currently Sonia is working with Infinite Ideas on the Manga Life series of self-help comic books, the first two titles being Find True Love and Be Creative. She is the artist for Aya.Takeo, a full-colour comic published weekly online from April 2007-2010.
Sonia works in a variety of mediums including watercolour, pen and ink, screentone, alcohol colour markers, pencils and computer software. She has exhibited artwork in the Kyoto International Manga Museum, London County Hall, London Cartoon Museum, Japanese Embassy and the Manchester URBIS Centre and provided product demonstrations (on behalf of Copic, Letraset and Wacom).