Hailing from the artistic city of Florance, Italy, Sylwia Bomba is a young and talented artist. She has been involved in several projects at Pixar and Disney in the past years. She was also a drawing and painting instructor at AnimSchool where she taught students how to draw and paint digitally. Recently we got a chance to interview her about her art and any advice she had for artists around the world.
Sylwia, tell us about yourself and your journey to becoming an artist.

At the age of 15, I moved to Italy and started studying in Italian High School. Being in a country with such long history of art inspired me even more. I wanted to learn everything about art but it was hard in the beginning: I had to learn a totally new language. It was a struggle to find myself an accepted place after being a stranger in the society. But I was determined that even if I had to lose many things in my life - I would do so because, for me, my passion for arts defines my whole life. So I kept going on.
The most important thing we all need to remember is to never lose our faith. There will always be something to complain about, there will always be someone who won't like what we do - but we need to pursue it as hard as we can! Dealing with setbacks and failures, using them as a learning opportunity to push ourselves more, learn more and discover more is the only way to move forward and be successful.
Looking at your portfolio I cannot help but feel the emotions you are able to pour in each of your paintings. The portraits are full of personalities and emotions. How are you able to do that? How do you make portraits seem relatable in this age of photography and selfies?

Time has changed but people can't change that much. We still are emotional beings and we feed our curiosity with interesting stories. We love to see what someone is doing, what he is eating and how he is changing his life. People in the past used paintings as an instrument to tell us their stories. A good painting should tell you a story or arouse emotions in your heart and bring life to your memories. In fact, Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.
What I enjoy the most when I view your portfolio and your blog is the variety of media you employ to paint your paintings. There are oil paintings on canvases and then digital paintings as well. How do you manage to work with both media?
What’s the best and worst aspect of both media and do you miss ctrl+z when you paint on canvas?
I am always impressed by the lighting and colors of your art pieces. It is a very difficult thing to do. We at AnimSchool also offer a 3D lighting course. What advice would you like to give to the students of that class which would help them get a better sense of lighting and colors in their work as well.
![]() |
A painting demo by Sylwia in AnimSchool class |
You taught an art class before at AnimSchool. How was that experience?
I've seen so many AnimSchool graduates achieving great successes on their career path, working for big studios. It's an honor to be a drawing instructor for AnimSchool and meet so many great people. I'm thankful for it!
I see that you have also animated few shots. In your experience, how does knowing fine arts helped you in animation?
I'm not proud of this short animation - it was my first 3D exercise Animation I've done. But thank you for mentioning about it. While learning Fine Arts you need to feel the flow of the pose, you need to understand deeply the anatomy and how it works. You learn the mechanics of the muscles and most importantly your aesthetic eye perceives the world differently. Our perception expands horizons of our vision and allows us to put a higher meaning and value into our work. The more styles we learn, the more biographies we read, the faster we find our own style and vision.
Malcolm Animation - Sylwia Bomba from Wanderer Bomba on Vimeo.
If you have to advise someone who is just starting in the field of painting, what would your advice be? What is the most important principle/rule that they have to nail before moving ahead?
Follow your idols, read biographies of old masters, learn different styles and techniques. Sometimes to understand our purpose better, we need to study other people’s life. First steps are always the most difficult but remember all of them lead you toward your future success.
The humility of an artist has a meaningful value. Nowadays is very rare to meet young and humble artists. Being humble doesn't mean thinking you are bad at drawing. It means you know your value; you know who you are but you are always ready to learn more from others.
Thank you, Sylwia for the interview.
Sylwia's blog's link: http://wandererbomba.blogspot.com/
Hire Java Developers in india
ReplyDelete