Frangipani and The Magical Letter!

My book has a name! and a cover! and its finally going out of my hands and into the press this weekend.

I think im going to miss Samina and Skinny terribly, they were such good company these past few weeks!

Ive discovered ( through a dear friend) some pretty lovely indian blogs and been poring through them - feeling completely overwhelmed, and now I think I really need to stop being so lazy and do more! People can be so awesomely creative.

This here is my very very own frangi pani plant. Ive never owned a plant before and its soo beautiful and is flowering so beautifully (touchwood) that Im absolutely in love with it. My green thumb is anything but, so im really hoping it stays happy ! The other plant i bought, a beautiful bird of paradise one, has gone through a hard time and looks like a corpse. But its magically reopened one leaf ! So i have hopes for that one too, Ive been trying to talk it out of its gloom.. maybe it worked :)

Skinny Scribbles!

I've really had a hard time keeping this leetle bit of excitement from all of you, but Im doing a childrens book with Scholastic :D And as you know, I have reallly been wanting to do one, so Im thrilled to bits to be covered in ink and paint drowning in a gorgeous story about a little girl called Samina and an envelope child called Skinny Scribbles and their whole adventure. Its funny, it makes you go aww sometimes and I love how dreamy the whole story is. It goes into production in April me thinks, I will let you know when its out!

So yes, I love it  and I love illustrating it. Its also in black and white! Im so used to spending hours with my colours that its a refreshing change to play with black and white again. I hope you like it !! Here are a few illustrations from the book :)

Im also off for a very exciting sounding trip to Bikaner, to be part of the Kabir yatra ! check out kabiryatra.org. Hoping to be filled with Sufi wisdom and all the love they sing about. So Ill see you next in March! much love.

In the Mailbox!

I got mail yesterday!! And most exciting mail too!! I had designed a cover for Scholastic India some time back, and forgot all about it until I recieved the books yesterday!! Its the first time anything Ive done has been published, and it was fun to recieve it in the mail, but the coolest bit is my name in the back :D I do love recieving mail, Im not sure what excited me more - the books or just seeing something in the mailbox :)

The book itself is lovely, beautiful illustrations by Reshma Barve, and cool experiments by Arvind Gupta. Its a fun book, and full of little tidbits of information!

The other bit of news is that Ive finally put up some of my work on behance (an online portfolio site). Would love for you to visit it and like or comment on the work Ive put up there! And if you have a portfolio on Behance, do add me !! www.behance.net/amritanambiar

Its the weekend already, I sense this years going to fly by even faster than the last. sigh. Have yourselves a good weekend :)