Biography
Catarina Sobral

Catarina Sobral (Coimbra, 1985) is a Portuguese children’s books author and illustrator. After studying Graphic Design in Aveiro, she graduated in Illustration and started publishing picture books and working as a freelance illustrator. She has kept a connection with graphic art though, from her design background, which has punctuated her work since the very beginning. While she does not attain to just one technique, her preference falls almost always on a limited palette of colours, and she explores mixing textures and patterns in full rich and bidimensional images. Also experienced in printmaking and film animation, she has illustrated thirteen books since 2011, published in eleven different languages. Her illustrations are a regular presence in editorial illustration, album covers and posters. Her work has been commended by the magazine 3x3, the White Ravens catalogue, and exhibited both in solo and group shows. In 2011, she was awarded a Special Mention of the Portuguese National Illustration Award for her first book, Grêve. The following year, she was selected for the Exhibition of Portugal as Guest of Honour Country at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and her second book, Achimpa, was awarded the Best Children's Book prize by the Portuguese Authors' Society and the Best Picture Book Illustration prize by the Amadora BD - International Comics Festival. In 2014, the illustrations for the book O Meu Avô were selected for the Bologna Illustrators Exhibition and she was the Award winner of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair - Fundación SM International Award for Illustration. In 2015, in addition to the economic prize of this award, she published a children’s picture book with Ediciones SM La sirena y los gigantes enamorados -which was presented during 2015 Bologna- Children’s Book Fair where the original illustrations of this title were exhibited.