Character Design & Concept Art

Sophia Mannion Boilesen is an illustrator who specializes in character design and concept art. She currently lives in Kansas City, Missouri, but she has roots in Lincoln, Nebraska.

She graduated from Lincoln Southeast High School and the Arts & Humanities Focus program in May of 2020. She graduated with a BFA in Illustration from the Kansas City Art Institute in May of 2026.

She works with a wide range of mediums, including digital art, graphite, watercolor, acrylic, and ink.

Her current portfolio includes creating and designing characters based on different ships in history, like the Titanic, Andrea Doria, and Mary Rose. She is inspired by the character design and background atmosphere of Dragon Ball, Arcane, Danganronpa, Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail, and Wuthering Waves.

She is inspired by these pieces of media in how each character has a distinct silhouette, how their stories can be seen in their designs, and how they fit into their environment.

Using the knowledge she gets from studying these, the characters that Sophia creates represent the individual stories of each ship and the passengers that once sailed on them in their heyday.

She is a self-described history nerd who enjoys wandering around museums for fun and going on long research rabbit holes about anything that catches her interest.

When not researching ships, natural disasters, period-typical fashion, or creating art, she can be found writing stories stemming from real-life experiences and history.