Making PASHMINA was one of the hardest things I’ve done in my career so far. To wake up to read a professional review of it in the School Library Journal (a starred one, none the less) is a feeling I cannot describe.
I am so very excited to share PASHMINA with you – we’re less than a month away from it’s release!
Thank you for your support, always.
I am thrilled to be included in this article on NPR today.
We’re deep in prep for San Diego Comicon – every year it sneaks up on me. I can’t believe it’s next week! I will have a table at O-14 in Small Press. I will also be speaking on multiple panels. I hope to see you at the show!
If you’re in the Bay this weekend, my work will be available at the SF Etsy Pop Up in Ghiradelli Square. There will be dozens of local artists selling there, please stop by!
Lastly, I have added all my Pashmina tour dates to my events page! I’m excited to meet folks while I travel around the country this fall!
That’s all from me – I hope you have a great week!
This is a panel from Pashmina. The word shabash means congratulations in Hindi. Beta is the word for son/daughter. Around our house we’re always saying shabash to our daughter – and I imagine my mom saying this to me as I embark on my trip to New York tomorrow for Book Expo America.
The trip will mark a lot of firsts – my first author trip to promote Pashmina, first publisher luncheon with other authors, first round of interviews and meetings for Pashmina. Among many of those firsts – I will see and hold my book for the first time at my first book signing (advance copies, the book still releases on October 3rd).
It’s about to become very real and I am very excited (and nervous, too!)
Do you remember the first positive representation of your home country? The lead character in my debut, PASHMINA, Priyanka is introduced to India in one of my favorite pages. I will be sharing a few sneak peeks before its release in October.
I remember inking this page not sure if I could convey what I wanted – but when I added color it came together.
I hope you have a happy weekend!
We have put a lot of cards on sale, including our two remaining Mother’s day cards.
Also, I am happy and humbled that Pashmina was included in Teen Vogue’s list “8 YA Books with Powerful Stories about being South Asian.”
An artist career is one that cannot be charted or replicated – it has its own flow. As I sat down to draw today I remembered deciding years ago to reduce my daily drawings to weekly. I was nervous that it would impact my income and that I would lose the audience I had worked so hard to build. Stopping was necessary though – I needed to complete Pashmina.
I went from producing a finished illustration 4-5 times a week to once a week. I posted older images to keep connecting with people, but as Pashmina took my focus I reduced those posts as well. Now I find myself unconcerned with this irregularity. My career has flowed into new territory.
No longer do I attempt to create daily illustrations – often times I sacrificed the quality of the image for quantity. Pashmina is done and I’ve begun thumbnailing my second book, Jukebox. It demands my focus as well. I may not be creating illustrations every day, but I am creating daily. The opportunity to create longer narratives – to make books – is one I’ve dreamt of since I was little. Both disciplines are worthwhile – but for now, my heart is in comics. I will be traveling throughout the year to promote Pashmina – in April I’ll be at the Cleveland Museum of Art and in Juneau for the Alaska Mini Con. The opportunities to create illustrations in addition to my other projects and travel will be minimal.
But somedays, like today, I miss my daily drawings. So I stop. I draw. And I continue to follow the flow.
I’m driving up to Seattle for Emerald City Comicon. It’s my favorite show of the year and I’m happy that Everyday Love Art will be sharing booth 409 with Unicorn Crafts! I will have prints, cards, magnets, original watercolors and canvas prints – if you’re in Seattle please come by and say hello.
This year I will also be promoting my debut graphic novel, Pashmina. I will be on FIVE PANELS (eeeks!) with some amazing authors like G. Wilow Wilson and Gene Yang.
Hope to see you there!
I’m super excited to share the cover of my debut graphic novel, Pashmina, with you! It was shared with a host of other great covers on Entertainment Weekly.
Have a great weekend!
I returned from San Diego Comicon on Monday and commenced 10-12 hour workdays to complete Pashmina. The convention was my best ever, not because of sales (honestly, they dip every year) rather is was the feeling of being ushered into the greater comics world. Meeting editors, journalists, and librarians – I’ve worked on Pashmina for 4 years and even though Fall 2017 feels far away, it’s closer than I’ve ever been to sharing this book with everyone. I’m nervous but also thrilled.
Plus, I’m almost finished! My deadline is in 2 weeks! My favorite phrase currently is “After Pashmina is done…” I have stacks of books to read, groups of friends to see and trips I am looking forward to enjoying with my family. Oh, and after a multi-year hiatus, sometime in late August I will begin to create & share NEW illustrations ^_^
Meanwhile, we have an overstock of prints due to some shops we work with shuttering their doors. There are lots of prints on sale on our online shop!
That’s all from me – back to coloring Pashmina. Have a lovely weekend!
i’m super excited to share my newly refreshed website* with you (it’s been a long and arduous process and i’m SO happy it’s finally over)! we have new greeting cards, and for the launch a bunch of my mini wood burnings are on sale and our newest product – rubber stamps! we’re taking the bulk of the rubber stamps with us to san diego comicon next week but i wanted to offer a few of each design online.
