Sonia Leong

Sonia Leong (born May 7, 1982) is a freelance comic artist, illustrator and member of Sweatdrop Studios, who took 2nd place in the first Rising Stars of Manga United Kingdom & Ireland Competition.

Biography
Leong was born in Malaysia and lived in Thailand from 1989 to 2000. She then attended University of Warwick, Economics and Politics BSc (Hons) from 2000 to 2003, and currently resides in Cambridge, UK, regularly attending UK anime conventions, representing Sweatdrop Studios.

Her works with Sweatdrop include 'Once Upon a Time...'; 'Cyborg Butterfly'; 'Satan's Amazon'; 'Murder on the Dancefloor' for the 'Sugardrops' anthology; 'Return to Chenezzar' for 'Pink is for Girls'; 'Model Behaviour' for 'Drop Dead Monstrous'; 'Hero' for 'Talking to Strangers'; 'The Snow Queen' for 'Telling Tales', and 'Love Stuffing'. Leong is the Art Director for the 'Aya.Takeo' webcomic; commissioned by Prentice Associates and now published by Sweatdrop Studios across three volumes.

Her competition achievements include 2nd place Winner in the first Tokyopop Rising Stars of Manga United Kingdom & Ireland Competition; Winner in NEO Magazine's 2005 Manga Competition and being Joint Judge for the Character Design category of the International Manga and Anime Festival (IMAF).

She illustrated an adaptation of William Shakespeare's 'Romeo & Juliet' for Self Made Hero which has since been listed in the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) '2008 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers' and 'Best Books for Young Adults 2008'.

Leong collaborated on Wacom's Manga campaign which appeared in major German magazines using her art to promote the wildly successful 'Pimp My Character' contest featured in the German publication Animania; her work also featured on the Wacom website in an article promoting the use of Wacom in the creation of manga.

She was the Head Contributor to 'Draw Manga' by Sweatdrop Studios from New Holland Publishers (UK) Ltd and headed the conceptual art and design of the Collectable card game 'Herocard Cyberspace' from Tablestar Games. Her work appears in several instructional art books such as '500 Manga Characters' by Sweatdrop Studios from Ilex; 'Drawing Manga' by Selina Dean; 'Manga Clip Art' by Hayden Scott-Baron,'50 Manga Babes to Draw and Paint' by Chi Hang Li. and 'Super Cute Chibis to Draw and Paint' by Joanna Zhou.

She contributed a chapter towards 'Tori Amos' Comic Book Tattoo' a 480 page anthology published by Image Comics. She also illustrated a chapter for Tokyopop's 'DOMO: The Manga', an anthology starring the popular Japanese television mascot Domo (NHK). She illustrated the 'Manga Life' series of self-help books for Infinite Ideas.

Her work has appeared in 'Popcorn', a British movie directed by Darren Paul Fisher, starring Jack Ryder (EastEnders) and Jodie Albert (Hollyoaks). Her illustrations were also used on the set of Channel 4's award-winning British sitcom 'The IT Crowd' in series 3.

Leong's work in children's publishing includes illustrating the choose-your-own-adventure style 'I, Hero' series by Steve Skidmore and Steve Barrow (The Two Steves) for Hachette; the 'Girls FC' series by Helena Pielichaty for Walker Books; and 'Ninja: First Mission' by Chris Bradford of Young Samurai fame.