posted on 29 Jan 2019

An Interview with Poonam Mistry

The Letterpress Project has asked authors and illustrators to think about what has inspired them as artists, what their favourite books are and how they relate to their audience - we've also asked them if they themselves are book collectors.

We are delighted to present an exclusive interview with the illustrator, Poonam Mistry. Poonam is a freelance illustrator living in the UK and graduated in 2010 with a degree in Graphic Design and Illustration at the University of Hertfordshire. Her style incorporates her love of nature and her Indian roots and explores the relationships between pattern, shapes and colour. Poonam’s upbringing and childhood have heavily influenced her work, in particular being surrounded by Indian fabrics, Kalamkari textiles, Madhubani paintings and hand painted ornaments. These patterns and intricate details are featured heavily in her style of work. She loves folklore tales and stories of Hindu Gods and Goddesses and these have been a rich source of inspiration in a number of her illustrations. Poonam’s work is drawn by hand with black ink before she uses computer software to add colour and adjust the composition of her illustrations. 

You can visit her website on this link to see more about her and examples of her fabulous artwork

You can read what she had to tell us on the link below:

Interview_PM_answers.pdf