Helping Denver/Boulder Suck Less: Illustrator Shannon Bonatakis

She’s a designer in Denver by day. But she rules the night in Boulder as an illustrator. Shannon Bonatakis majored in illustration at Columbus College of Art & Design, graduating in 2004.

While you’re asleep safe in bed, she glides between personal paintings for gallery showings and commercial illustration — mostly in the realm of children’s publishing. Thank the sweet lord she doesn’t need much sleep because the results of her late-night artistry are sent from on high.

Her style is dreamy, wonderful, feminine and sexy (even the work for the children’s publications). The characters she creates, after all that’s what her work is intently focused on, make us curious, draw us near and tell us a candid tale of human emotion. We love the feeling they give us.

Shannon’s current website is in limbo, but in the interim you can poke around her blog — which she updates quite often with her latest sketches and completed works. She’s an enthusiast for the internet, vegetarianism, stout beer, kitties, can tell you anything you might find yourself needing to know about Harry Potter, and is an animated film in waiting. Welcome to our list of Recommended Talent. We’re so very glad you’re here.

Thanks to JoyEngine for many of these images.