In early 2016 I began development on my children’s book, Bubbles and Shakes. This project is very close to my heart because when I was making this work I was going through a pretty tough time. I was dealing with depression and anxiety. I was still in the middle of my immigration process to the United States and simultaneously trying to find a career path for myself as an artist. During this time, I did not have employment authorization and so I was not able to work for any studios. There was quite a bit to deal with. But working on this story kept me sane and going.
My writing partner and the designer of the book, Anjali helped me put the whole book together. We released it on amazon in spring 2018. The story is about the difficulties that one faces navigating through life. Life is uncertain, full of surprises and more so full of opinions, which can create within us a lot of fear, anxiety, and self-doubt. This story is about rising above that fear and choosing to engage fully with life. All the characters in the story are based on real people I have encountered in my life (I am not gonna name names!) and every single the illustration in the book is hand-drawn, traditionally inked and colored using watercolors. It was a lot of work…thank god it’s over!
Sketches
Here are some preliminary tonal sketches that I made before starting the final watercolored illustration:
Comic Strips
I've been frequently using the characters from Bubbles & Shakes in comic strips, story beats and illustrations:
