母亲

“当我在成长时，我的家人搬到了很多地方，但我们最终落在明尼苏达州，我花了大多数童年。我在明尼苏达大学进行大学进行平面设计，然后为明尼阿波利斯设计代理工作10年。其中有一些十年的时间在波士顿和旧金山常备。该机构的创意总监对我来说有一个非常大的影响力。他教会了我如何创造性地推动自己，发展我的审美。超越，我学到了这么多about working with clients, art directing, print production, collaboration, and project management. I got to work with some really great, talented, and fun people and I’m forever grateful for that experience."

“当我在设计机构工作时，我做了一些插图和表面设计，但大多数是品牌，包装，店内标牌和促销等图形设计。我三年前留下了全职工作，专注于我的插图实践。我仍然做一些自由设计工作，但慢慢地转向越来越多的插图工作。“

an online shop where I sell my work." ">

“现在的书籍插图只是我的业务的一个方面。我也做了表面样式图，编辑类，并且有在线商店我在哪里卖掉工作。“

online shop.">

Meenal的这么多漂亮的印刷品在线商店。

和更多！

Priya Dreams of Marigolds & Masala, which was released in 2019.">

Meenal持有她的第二本书，Priya梦见万寿菊和马萨拉，这是在2019年发布的。

她可爱的工作室助理。

Neela Goes to San Francisco, in 2012 but didn’t publish it widely until a few years later. That initial version was only intended for my niece, Neela, as a gift to her after she visited me in San Francisco. I wanted her to have a memory of visiting me as she grew up and I loved reading to her, so a book seemed like a good present. The first time I read it to her I was blown away by her complete delight in seeing a character in a book that resembled her. Neela’s reaction made me think more about how powerful imagery is for kids and how important it is for them to see themselves reflected in the imagery and stories around them. Growing up I didn’t have books where I could see myself in and I think having that would have been powerful."

Artwork by Ana Leovy.">

“我开始了第一个孩子的书，Neela去旧金山，2012年，但直到几年后没有广泛发布它。初始版本只适用于我的侄女Neela，作为在旧金山访问我后给她的礼物。当她长大时，我希望她有纪念来访，我喜欢读给她，所以一本书似乎是一个好礼物。我第一次向她读到她，我被完全快乐地吹走了，看到一个像她一样的书中的角色。Neela的反应让我想到了一些关于孩子们为孩子们有多强大的意思，并且他们认为自己有多重要，以便他们认为自己反映在图像周围的图像和故事中。成长我没有书在哪里可以看到自己，我认为有那么强大。“

Ana Leovy的艺术品。

Artwork by Lab Partners.">

“我也非常喜欢像尽可能多的单词一样说出的挑战，然后让这些话和图像一起玩耍，以说出更多的故事。有这家很多惊人的艺术家和作者，我大大尊重are total pros at this. It’s a challenging art form and I’m still learning."

Lab Partners的艺术品。

到处都是小艺术。

“I live in San Francisco and my studio is a small room tucked in the very back of my home. Though I tend to spread out to other parts depending on what I’m doing and I have boxes of my books spread throughout my home."

“The room that I do most of my work in has a lot of windows so the sunshine streams in. That’s my favorite thing about it! I love that I can see trees through the window from my desk and that I can see the fog roll in over the neighborhood as the weather changes throughout the day."

只是众多五颜六色的工作室装饰。

Moleskine sketchbooks, a variety of pencils, an iPad, Micron pens, an Apple Pencil, round and flat paintbrushes, Holbein acryla gouache, a Wacom tablet, Tombow markers, my laptop, monitor, and xacto blade."">

“这是传统艺术用品和数字供应的混合：Moleskine.SketchBooks，各种铅笔，一个iPad.那微米钢笔，p苹果铅笔，圆形和平面画笔，Holbein Acryla Goucha.， 一种Wacom平板电脑那Tombow标记，我的笔记本电脑，显示器和XACTO刀片。“

Case for Making that I love. They make the most wonderful handmade watercolors and have a whole bunch of other art supply goodies. A couple other local ones that I love are FLAX Art & Design and Mendel’s Art Supply." ">

“有一家名叫的小型本地商店制作案例我爱。他们制作了最美妙的手工水彩画，并拥有一大堆其他艺术品的好东西。几个我喜欢的地方其他地方亚麻艺术与设计和孟德尔的艺术供应。“

选择正确的色调。

一幅画......也是一道可爱的陶瓷油漆盘。

“我试图在一周内保持定期的日间时间，因为我喜欢例程。我通常在早上7:30左右开始，并尝试在下午6:00左右缠绕，几个短暂的休息时间，早些时候休息一下，休息一下与我的狗一起散步，Dosa。如果需要，我会在晚上工作，但尽量不要习惯习惯。我倾向于在早上做我最好的工作而不是晚上，而我需要休息。如果我过载自己然后工作会涓涓细流到周末。“

“It varies depending on what I’m working on. For books, it’s a really long process for me to find the story and it can be a bit of a rollercoaster of highs and lows. I’ve found that it helps me to make dedicated time to free write about anything without editing. This ends up being a mix of journaling about what’s happening around me, writing down a memory, simple observations, writing a little poem, or something silly. I’ve learned that it’s too forced for me to sit down and say 'I’m going to try to write a children’s book.' If I do it that way, I generally hate all my ideas or my mind goes blank. But if I let myself write and write and write regularly without the pressure that it has to be a book, then sometimes within all of that the seeds of a story forms."

“For the illustration end of it, whether it’s for a book or something else, I always start with a rough pencil sketch. Sometimes it’s so rough that no one but me would know what it is. And then I trace over that rough sketch over and over again while refining it and adding details each time. After I have an outline that I’m happy with I start to add color. Working with color is my favorite part!"

鞭打xacto刀。

Neela Goes to San Francisco was independently self-published. At that point I was working at a design agency full-time. I was really focused on that job and had no idea how the publishing world worked or any connections in it. So, keeping this book as a small personal project made the most sense. With my design background I was able to do all the layout design, production, and felt comfortable working with printers. I did a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds for printing the book and was completely humbled by people willing to put their money towards it." ">

“Neela去旧金山独立自我发表。此时我正在全职的设计代理工作。我真的专注于这份工作，不知道出版世界如何工作或任何联系。因此，将本书视为一个小型个人项目最有意义。使用我的设计背景，我能够完成所有布局设计，生产，感觉舒适地使用打印机。我做了一个踢球运动员，以提高印刷这本书的资金，并完全被愿意把钱投向它的人才谦卑。“

“After the book was printed, I learned a lot about how the book world works during the process of trying to get it into stores. The biggest thing I learned is that it’s incredibly difficult to get a book in bookstores unless it is in traditional book distribution channels. I was really fortunate to have some receptive local shop owners who were willing to take my book in. It’s still selling around town and I feel really grateful for those partnerships."

Tech-y 2020工具的交易。

“I think kids are oftentimes more open-minded than adults. Perhaps because they’ve had less time to be influenced by what our society determines to be the right or wrong way to be. Maybe this allows them to see more delight in more places."

“I’m definitely still learning how to do this. I try to observe and imagine how kids see the world. I try to be open-minded. I want kids to know that they have power to influence the world around them even in small ways that can be meaningful, so I try to let them have agency through the story. For illustration, my style and what I’m drawn to seems naturally kid-oriented. So, I guess I’m just making what I love to make."

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. In my mind I loved the staggered flaps and holes and flipping through it over and over again. As an adult I love great design, so I still love the simple yet thoughtful use of the pages in that book. The other two that I remember are Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle." ">

“我只记得一对夫妇，也许是因为我仍然有原始副本，我的思绪让回忆成为爱他们。我想我喜欢非常饥饿的毛毛虫由埃里克卡勒。在我看来，我喜欢交错的襟翼和孔，并一遍又一遍地翻转它。作为一个成年人，我喜欢伟大的设计，所以我仍然喜欢那本书中的简单而周到的页面。另外两个我记得是野外的地方由莫里斯仙达和皱纹及时由Madeleine L'Engle。“

包裹订单。

在作者的个人书架上偷看。

“Ha, well, I’m not sure that I’ve had a big break. I look at it more like a slow building process of learning a lot through making books and art. I still have a lot to learn and am looking forward to hopefully traditionally publishing one day."

Neela Goes to San Francisco.">

看看Meenal第一本书里面的插图，Neela去旧金山。

Plant Peeps collection with Cloud9 Fabrics. ">

在Meenal的新人偷看植物偷看收集与云9织物。

Priya Dreams of Marigolds & Masala is about a girl growing up in the United States and learning about her family’s heritage from her Babi Ba (grandmother). It’s about taking pride in your heritage and the power of sharing your traditions with others."">

“Priya梦见万寿菊和马萨拉关于一个女孩在美国成长，并从她的巴布巴（祖母）了解她家庭的遗产。这是为了为你的遗产和与他人分享传统的力量。“

“这是一个成年人第一次和父母一起前往印度的灵感。我一直想看到我的家人来自父母的国家，所以这对我来说是一个非常特别的旅行。印度是一个完整的-Sensory Place，我受到了人们，颜色，模式，食物和声音的启发。我也被熟悉的经历令人熟悉，同时，其他人感觉非常外国。这是日常的东西我在那里看到了我对我来说这么熟悉，因为他们是我日常家庭生活的一部分成长。我被这种意义上的人类联系感到了安慰 - 这些人在世界各地的一半中途做出了一系列的方式。Even though I had this sense of being so different and sometimes lonely growing up in a community that didn’t have much diversity, all along there were all these people who understood all those things. That’s comforting to me. It took a long time to unearth this story and a lot of deep reflection. All of this unpacking of my experience felt like a really honest jumping off point for this story."

“I hope that this book makes kids feel seen or offers them a glimpse into an experience they aren’t familiar with. I hope all kids see that they can make a meaningful difference in someone else’s life through their actions, big or small. And I absolutely think children’s books are for adults, too. It’s not necessarily a consideration but I think adults can gain as much as the kids they are reading the books to. It has been interesting to hear the reactions of both adults and kids to this book. I’ve been surprised that a lot of adults have told me that it made them teary or cry. It was an emotional process to make this book, so perhaps the emotion is evident and strikes a chord for people who can relate to the story or know someone who can relate. I didn’t realize until I was an adult that seeing myself in a story as a kid could have had a great impact on me. I think others are realizing that too and hopefully that means we are all making an effort to diversify what we expose ourselves and the kids in our lives to through books and other media."

“练习你的艺术形式是否写作，说明或两者。奉献自己尽可能多地制作自己。知道你不会喜欢你所做的一切，但这并不意味着你不应该继续尝试。”

“I love the abundance of plants and trees all year round. There’s some California magic in the earth here that produces the most beautiful and inspiring flora! I also love the architecture and the incredibly supportive small business community here. Small businesses supporting small businesses is the best!"

Ragazza (the Bianca pizza is so good), plantain tacos at Little Chihuahua, tea leaf salad at Mandalay, and cornmeal cherry scones from Arizmendi Bakery. My favorite shops are Rare Device and Tantrum for gifts, Green Apple Books and The Booksmith for books, and Case for Making for art supplies." ">

“我喜欢徒步旅行在斯图戈山，长时间散步在金门公园和植物园。为食物，我喜欢木材火披萨r（Bianca Pizza是如此之好），帕斯坦炸玉米饼Little Chihuahua.，茶叶沙拉在曼德勒和玉米玛樱桃烤饼arizmendi面包店。我最喜欢的商店是稀有设备和发脾气为了礼物，绿色苹果书籍和书籍对于书籍，和制作案例用于艺术用品。“

What Color is My Hijab? by Hudda Ibrahim and working on illustrations for the lovely folks at Bravery Magazine. Beyond book illustration and editorial work, my Plant Peeps collection with Cloud9 Fabrics recently launched! I’ve always loved making patterns and am looking forward to illustrating more patterns this year." ">

“我目前正在完成插图我的hijab是什么颜色的？经过哈德达易卜拉欣并在可爱的人员中致力于插图勇敢的杂志。除了书籍插图和编辑工作，我的植物偷看收集与云9织物最近推出！我一直喜欢制作模式，并期待今年的更多模式。“

最甜美的自制柴。

Instagram.">

有关Meenal和她的工作，请务必跟随她Instagram.。