Hi! My name is Elias Sounas (Ηλίας Σούνας), Illustrator/Designer from Athens, Greece. I love creating whimsical illustrations with monsters & cute characters. .:Available for commissions:. Contact: sounas [@] gmail.com

Category: Interviews


:::Sounas artwork featured on Astute Graphics blog:::

Big news!
Astute Graphics blog is featuring my work today for using their handy plug-ins in Illustrator.
You can read some info here:

bit.ly/sounasTexturino

That’s so great!

  • BrexitResults_sounas
  • Brexit_01_sounas

:::Brexit illustration featured on Envato blog:::

My last year Brexit illustration  is being featured today on Envato blog post named “Politics Through the Eyes of 12 Artists”.
The post features various artists from around the world, who had created recently political illustrations.

https://design.tutsplus.com/articles/art-and-politics–cms-28315

You can also read a short description for my Brexit illustration”Free from chains”:

“This is a political illustration I created for the Brexit event, which I highly applaud and support. The illustration is based on a famous Prometheus legend, the titan who was captured by Zeus and the eagle who ate his liver.

In my version, the eagle represents the high German state (politicians), which destroys European nations due to its aggressive financial behavior. Through Brexit, Great Britain (depicted as Athena), snaps her slavery chains to claim her freedom against her suppressor, the EU/German bureaucracy.”

  • CountryManners_UK_sounas
  • CommuterStress02_sounas
  • SlowTime2_sounas
  • TotemIsland_sounas
  • StarWarsWalker_sounas

:::Sounas featured on EnvatoTuts+:::

I have been recently featured on EnvatoTuts+ in the international artist series posts along with some nice fellow Greek designers.
You can read more here:
https://design.tutsplus.com/articles/international-artist-feature-greece–cms-28312

  • SounasA
  • GreekTutsInterview_Sounas

Συνέντευξη στο Greektuts.gr

Ένα μεγάλο ευχαριστώ στον Παναγιώτη Γρηγορόπουλο για την τιμή να φιλοξενήσει μια ενδιαφέρουσα -νομίζω- συνέντευξη μου, την οποία μπορείτε να διαβάσετε στην σελίδα Greektuts.net.

  • sounasdesign2
  • sounasdesign_pads
  • sounasdesign
  • sounasdesign1

Sounas timeout interview on Dribbble

Dribble recently featured an interview of me in their TimeOut section  and you can read more here:

http://blog.dribbble.com/post/34700653894/timeout-with-ilias-sounas

 

:::Full interview of Ilias Sounas in Digital Brush korean magazine:::

This is the full interview I had in Digital Brush issue 8. DB is a korean magazine for graphic design, illustration and digital arts in general. The article was named Work or Art and hosted interviews from 6 artists in the world. DB also included 9 pieces of my artwork.

 

1. Are you more of a heavy producer(meaning you make a lot of work) or a careful producer(meaning you spend quite some time in one work)?

I spend a sufficient time on any work every time, so there’s a satisfying result no doubt. It’s more important to have a perfect finished project than many mediocre works. But as always, I have to stick to certain deadlines, which sometimes don’t allow for as much experimentation as I would like because time is not always enough. In a kind of way, I’ m trying to “develop skills” to produce works fast, but without compromising the overall quality and detail.

2. How much time do you spend for your own work compared to client work?

Normally, a designer/illustrator spends more time on his/her own work but that doesn’t mean is an absolute rule. I likespending enough time, so the resulting image impress me in the way I want. I enjoy the process of building up my illustrations without having an obvious pressure for the commercial use of it. Unfortunately, if I’m extremely busy with client works, there’s no time for my personal projects.

 

3. Is your approach to self-initiated work different to client work?

I wouldn’t say so. The overall approach is the same but in case of self-initiated works I don’t have to worry for deadlines of course! Besides, I like creating images that I would love to see around and the same applies for my client works.

 

Συνέντευξη στο MyAegean.gr (interview)

MyAegean is a very nice portal from Aegean University. The students have recently asked for an interview about my designs & workflow analysis. So, after a while my recent interview has been posted in MyAegean website and it contains a lot of useful comments about my artwork (you can read the full post but it’s available in greek only). It’s an honour for me to be asked for an onterview, so I’d like to thank Yannis Apostolopoulos from Aegean University.

(the following post is in greek)
————————————————
Η φοιτητική διαδικτυακή πύλη my.aegean.gr πρόσφατα δημοσίευσε συνέντευξη μου που είχα παραχωρήσει τους υπεύθυνους της Πύλης με ενδιαφέροντα ζητήματα προς συζήτηση. Υπάρχει αν’αλυση της φιλοσοφίας των έργων, τεχνικών που εφαρμόζω και γενικότερα πρόκειται για μια ανοικτή συζήτηση που είχα σχετικά με τον δρόμο που έχω ακολουθήσει μέχρι στιγμής. Με τιμάει ιδιαίτερα το γεγονός που μου ζητήθηκε να παραχωρήσω συνέντευξη και σε αυτό το σημείο θα ήθελα να ευχαριστήσω τον Γιάννη Αποστολόπουλο, φοιτητή του Πανεπιστημίου Αιγαίου που μου έκανε αυτή την πρόταση.
Πέρα από τις δικές μου αναλύσεις και σκέψεις, επισκεφθείτε την πύλη του πανεπιστημίου για πολλά άλλα ενδιαφέροντα θέματα, μια και όλοι οι ιθύνοντες της σελίδας έχουν αφιερώσει τον χρόνο τους για ένα πολύ καλό αποτέλεσμα, με πολύ μεράκι και πάθος για όλους τους φοιτητές.
Συγχαρητήρια σε όλους!
Απόσπασμα από συνέντευξη:

[…myAEGEAN: Είστε γενικώς ένας πολυάσχολος άνθρωπος; Πώς θα χαρακτηρίζατε τον εαυτό σας και με τι αντικείμενα ασχολείστε, στον επαγγελματικό σας χώρο;

ΗΛΙΑΣ ΣΟΥΝΑΣ: Πράγματι ο χρόνος που καταναλώνω για τα σχέδια μου, τις δουλειές μου και την προσωπική μου εκπαίδευση παράλληλα, είναι αρκετά μεγάλος καθημερινά, με αποτέλεσμα να είμαι διαρκώς απασχολημένος με τον έναν ή με τον άλλο τρόπο. Θα έλεγα ότι δεν εφησυχάζω σχεδόν ποτέ. Εκτός βέβαια από τις φορές που χαλαρώνω με φίλους. Δυστυχώς πλέον τον περισσότερο χρόνο τον περνάω μπροστά από τον υπολογιστή, σε αντίθεση με παλαιότερα χρόνια που ήταν σίγουρα πιο ξένοιαστα. Σαν επαγγελματική ιδιότητα θα έλεγα ότι με αντιπροσωπεύει ο τίτλος του σχεδιαστή, εικονογράφου και animator. Ασχολούμαι και έχω ασχοληθεί με ένα μεγάλο φάσμα της ψηφιακής τέχνης (γραφιστική, video, web design κτλ), αλλά ο κύριος τομέας παραμένει πάντα η

:::Ilias Sounas in WebDesigner magazine issue 145:::

I have received the latest issue of Web Designer magazine, which hosts a full page interview presenting my thoughts behind the creation of Space Alone flash animation, now a part of >FlashTv website, too.
You can read the full interview in WebDesigner magazine issue 145 with the main header saying: “Ancient greek philosophy is given a modern-day spin in our latest animation from Flash man Ilias Sounas”. Nice! And there’s a full video with the animation included in the DVD.
By the way, Web Designer magazine has great tutorials about flash, dreamweaver, photoshop, php relating to web design as always. And it comes from UK of course!

Full interview:

“Everyone is looking for a friend. Even in space…” Watch the allegoric eternal journey of beings driven by their natural instinct to find other people to communicate. Even though its end is not always positive, the final encounter creates something special: memories.

Q1: Where did you find the inspiration behind SPACE ALONE?

A1: Space Alone’s true inspiration comes from ancient greek philosophical theory that humans are social beings and always try to find friends driven by their nature (Aristotle). Based on this belief I had the idea of depicting this very human instinct in an allegoric animation about loneliness and friendship set in a space environment. I strongly believe that there are two kinds of people: those who are looking for friends throughout their lives (represented as a programmed robot in Space Alone film) and those who are just waiting “on their planet” for others to get in touch. Sometimes though, friends can’t always be together and after their paths are separated (for various reasons like death), their memories are what is left. So the yellow creature of the film is the true Space Alone character living with memories (the pile of chips) of all the friends he has encountered so far.

 

Q2: What tools and techniques did you use in the creation of the piece?

A2: Space Alone approach was entirely digital. Flash was the main tool for the composition of different characters and backgrounds. I drew roughly all the frames of the characters’ motion, which I exported