Adrienna Sousa

She/Her

Adrienna, an illustrator based in Toronto, specializes in narrative and book illustrations. She embraces traditional and digital media to create captivating visual narratives. Many art forms, techniques, and bold colour palettes have influenced her artistic journey, drawing inspiration from classic and scientific book illustrations. Embracing experimentation, Adrienna is passionate about sharing intricate worlds and tales, using the surprises each piece brings. Often finding inspiration in her surroundings and creative process, she enjoys each piece’s process, happy accidents, hidden details, and whimsical adventures.

The Psychology of Birds

Embarking through this book, the reader becomes immersed in the story as if stumbling upon an abandoned journal from the scientist’s perspective. The Psychology of Birds is an immersive storybook that follows a scientist’s surreal exhibition through the Amazon, uncovering his paranoia and scientific findings. The book contains interactive elements such as feathers and dried plants, coinciding with scientific illustrations drawn by the author. The text is hand-bound to create a withered and disregarded state.

Realm of the Sacred Fountain Bloom

This artwork explores world-building and character exploration, using a limited colour palette and watercolour gouache to depict a dynamic and magical realm. Flower goddesses and their subjects inhabit separate yet connected domains around a central blooming fountain. Inspired by whimsical floral atmospheres, the piece illustrates five flower types’ character designs, laying the foundation for a continuing visual narrative.

The City of Octavia

In this world-building project, Octavia Portia Tejedora, the demigod daughter of Arachne, inspires a surreal realm teetered between mountains above the unknown. Inhabitants live in spider-shaped tunnels, revering Octavia, the once-mortal weaver cursed by Athena to become the first spider. As night falls, the arachnids swarm the mountain, weaving and rebuilding the condemned webs. Rendered digitally in a traditional style, the mountain and interior angles evoke a surreal, rough ambiance.

“The Juniper Tree”—Folk Tales Reimagined

Folk Tales Reimagined explores the lesser-known Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale of “The Juniper Tree,” blending intricate illustrations with timeless storytelling. It combines traditional watercolour and ink with interactive pop-up illustrations, offering a tactile and immersive experience. Using traditional folk art inspiration, the project adds a whimsical spin to the Grimm Brothers’ tale while preserving the classic story.

Found Objects

This found objects project illustrates the story of the lamp and its origin. The tryptic is designed digitally with a limited colour palette and centres around a found decorative plastic lamp with dead batteries. The journey from its world to mine spirals through an organic city where the lamp is a disregarded light source, leaving the post to grow a new lamp seed in its place.