Meet Sabrinna Bautista | Animation Artist & Illustrator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sabrinna Bautista and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sabrinna, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, but my mother and her family hail from rural El Salvador. Though I’ve been abandoned and estranged from my German-American father and grew up an only child to a single mother, I grew up close to my extended family on my mother’s side. I could mention plenty of memories with them, but I would make this interview way too long. Just know, my family understood the motto, “it takes a village to raise a child.”

I remember struggling with my speech due to a speech sound disorder, which means I had trouble saying certain sounds and words passed a developmentally appropriate age. I had ear infections a lot as a child (I loved to swim in public pools and listen to music with earbuds), and I’m sure it interfered with my ability to form speech and speak properly. Luckily, my mom noticed, and got involved; she was going to college at the time and collected comic books, so along with phonics games and being pulled out of class for speech therapy, she let me read her Spiderman comics and go with her to her college classes. Because of her encouragement to learn how to communicate ideas, I wrote my own stories, created comics, made paper and sock puppets, and became active in play with my cousins.

Several movies and shows I tell people have changed my life are almost entirely animated. I loved “Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Toy Story,” “The Iron Giant,” “Sailor Moon,” “Samurai Jack,” “Avatar: The Last Airbender”… I’ll never forget the feeling I felt when I first watched “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” I wondered if cartoons could ever live with people and how that would work in real life. (I know it was a ridiculous thought, but I was six years old when I first saw that movie, okay?) Though I’m an adult and I understand that’s impossible, I think that thought planted something in my head: I knew I want to be in animation. I’m incredibly lucky that my mom and family encouraged me to follow this passion as well!

I’ll end this segment by giving major props to my mom for being so involved in my life and encouraging me to be the person I am today. I wouldn’t be so creative, eccentric, and thoughtful in speech if it weren’t for her.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I draw inspiration from various sources to create art. I feel like I have a diverse set of interests – I love horror monsters, crypids, and sci-fi creatures; but I also love fantasy, like fairies, sirens, odd-looking plants, and Dungeons and Dragons. (In case you were wondering, my character is a Tiefling Bard!) I made a couple of pieces that were inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, for example. My desire for more Salvadoran representation in the arts fuels me to draw inspiration from my culture and to celebrate it, and that inspiration can come from a story my great-grandma would tell, or well-known and respected Salvadoran artists like Fernando Llort.

I have a need to tell a story symbolically within my art, whether it’s a personal piece or a political piece; I don’t want my art to be taken at face value, but I want the audience to be able to engage with it. I want my art to have a message when analyzed. However, that’s not really easy. That’s why I dive into hours of research and rough drafting before I can even start a piece. This is why I gravitate towards visual development and character design positions in the animation industry; these positions encourage visual storytelling about a place or a person through meticulous planning and effective design.

When I was going through the doors of California State University, Northridge, I was confident that the hard animation work and creativity were going to pay off once I graduated. However, I graduated with my Bachelor of Arts in 2020 – I think we know what happened to the world that year. My graduation ceremony was canceled due to COVID-19, and I was bitter about it for a while. I felt like that hard work was thrown out the window, and I was unsure of where I’d go, especially when I worked in a variety of jobs in retail and the restaurant industry. However. I was determined – I visually developed and ultimately animated a music video for the heavy metal band Despite Loyalty, and got started on my passion project Zilch, a story of a nihilist superhero who navigates her bleak world with her skateboard, yo-yo made with a meteorite, and precognition powers in order to save it. I’ve been writing and artistically developing this story for seven years, and although I’m not quite ready to talk about it yet, I’m planning on publishing the project on Kickstarter in the near future!

I want the world to know that my art and animations are stories, too. I feel like so many people think that art is created for art’s sake, but everything about art, even architecture, tells a bigger story than we realize. I developed that philosophy within my own art from the moment I found out I wasn’t the best speaker, and in my view, I believe it’s a powerful way to send a message to the world. I would like to make a greater impact though the arts in that way.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I always have positive memories at the beach – Santa Monica, Venice, Zuma, you name it. The beach is a must. Assuming my best friend likes roller coasters, I would say Six Flags Magic Mountain will be somewhere on the intinerary, but if my friend is open to something more worldly, I’d love to go museum hopping, either to LACMA, the Getty Center, or even the Getty Villa, if they want that feel of being in an older time. I love roller skating, and though it hurts my heart to see Skateland gone, I find relief knowing Moonlight Rollerway is still alive and kicking and would be open to teaching my friend to skate. I consider myself an adventurous eater, but Doomie’s Home Cookin’ used to be my stomping ground for belly-popping vegan eats, and Lum-Kaa-Naad in Northridge is my go-to restaurant for a diverse fleet of Thai cuisine, so I’d love to take them there. Though I love goth music, I’m a punk at heart and have the music permanently tattooed on my heart, so I would take them down to a somewhat historical bar tour in the Troubador, The Smell, Whisky A Go-Go, Rainbow Bar and Grill, somewhere that can get you jumping and exciting!

… Remember when I said I have a diverse set of interests? This is what I mean.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There is a lot of people I’d love to give a shoutout to. First and foremost, I’d like to give a shoutout to my stepdad as well as my mother, who helped me find myself, and who gave me the honor to watch her grow, learn, and discover her passions as well. I’d like to give a shoutout to my family as well. They always knew I was a strange child and a quirky adult. Instead of suppressing my interests, I thank them for encouraging me to be myself.

One organization I need to give my shoutout to is LatinX in Animation. I have never felt in sync and so in tune with another group before, one where I feel welcome, one in which there is no hierarchy or elitism because everyone shares a common goal – uplifting the Latino community in the animation world, protect each other from exploitation of employers and discrimination, and stand in solidarity with other underrepresented groups whose dreams are within the creative world.

Website: https://sabrinna-bautista.weebly.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abrinnasay/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabrinna-bautista/

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@abrinnasay

Image Credits
All art featured has been created by Sabrinna Bautista and can be found in her portfolio and/or social media.