Federico Salis paints bold, glossy women who refuse to be looked at the usual way

The women in Federico Salis's illustrations don't need your admiration or approval. They turn their backs on you at the pool or drive off in a flashy convertible without even a second glance. They hold a martini behind a slab of golden hair, or hide behind flame-lensed sunglasses. They are sensual, full-figured and rendered in gloriously glossy, saturated colour. And they are completely unbothered by the fact that you might be watching them.

Federico's confident, voluptuous female figures are painted with the high-shine finish of vintage advertising and tattoo flash. But there's often a twist: a face melts into a stack of curves or a woman becomes a fish, her shoal swimming across a patterned sea. Retro pin-up is a source of inspiration, but Federico lets colour do much of the work, too.

"I'm an extremely emotional person, and in some ways I have a dark and gothic soul," he tells Creative Boom. "I love mystery, and I feel attracted to shadows. But when I draw, colour naturally emerges." Those saturated tones, he says, let him "express all the different shades of our emotions" and "bring light to things that are sometimes difficult to explain with words".

Federico studied 3D Effects for Performance and Fashion at the London College of Fashion, and he chose it because it frightened him a little. "It felt completely new to me. It pushed me outside my comfort zone," he says. There was something else in the decision, too: a way of sidestepping the comparison that can paralyse anyone arriving in the art world. "Maybe I was also afraid of being judged for the way I drew. Doing something different removed that measuring scale."

"It almost felt like everyone around me understood what I was meant to do before I did," he continues. "Only in recent years have I realised that I was the only one who didn't believe it was possible." No single moment tipped illustration from a side interest into a career. It was just a slow process of self-discovery, and eventually a decision he repeated to himself until it stuck. "It became a daily mantra. Drawing is what I want to do with my life."

There's a deliberate stillness in the work, too. Even the woman in the convertible, mid-drive with the wheel blurred under her hands, feels suspended rather than rushing. Federico likes, in his words, to "suspend time" – to create moments that feel almost like slow motion. "We live in a reality that moves at the speed of light," he says, "and perhaps my work is an attempt to pause for a moment and reconnect with ourselves." People often assume that choreographed quality comes from his performance background, but he is not so sure. "Not as much as people might think. I believe it's more connected to a need to slow things down."

The sea is a common theme, too. Federico grew up on Sardinia, which explains why many of his pieces feature water. "For us, the sea is everything," he says. "It heals, regenerates and gives you perspective." Now based in Milan and living away from the coast, he keeps painting it. "In a way, painting water is my way of returning home."

He is generous about what each city gave him. London, he says, shaped him "through years of constantly living in survival mode"; Milan gave him "the opportunity to apply everything I had learned" and the room to put himself out there. But he resists crediting geography too heavily. "I don't think it's only about the city you live in. What matters more is the relationship you have with yourself and with the environment around you."

There's no rigid process. "I don't really search for ideas," he says. "Very often they come from the music I'm listening to while I'm working," he explains. "Sometimes I imagine the illustration together with its soundtrack, and that soundtrack eventually becomes the title. I've always been drawn to titles that sound like bold statements."

He knows a piece is finished, he says, "when I feel there is nothing left to add". Though he admits he's impatient to already think about the next one.

In an industry he considers "incredibly saturated and fast", he seems genuinely unbothered about the effort of staying visible. "Right now, I'm trying to protect my wellbeing. I don't want to spend my life chasing everything. I simply want to keep making work that feels honest to me." He has also had to learn to value his own work rather than judge it harshly. "Every piece is unique. If something doesn't receive attention from others, I know it has at least received attention from the person who created it. And sometimes, that's enough."

What's next? Painting with larger formats and different materials. He eventually hopes to combine illustration with animation and moving images. "I feel like I'm still discovering myself," he says, "and I don't want to limit where that curiosity might lead me."

For anyone who has had a similar path into illustration: "Don't compare yourself too much to others. You are you. Not every journey has to be linear. Sometimes taking the long way around allows you to discover something that a straight road could never teach you."