This past weekend was Pokemon illustrator Mina Nakai’s exhibition called Daydream in NYC (Friday - Sunday). I was very grateful for the opportunity to visit the gallery and purchase some items from the event.
On Saturday and Sunday I went to the venue to meet Mina and take a look at the gallery.
One of the first painting near the door that caught my eye was The “Burning Heart Penguin” as it looked very unique as your seeing the perspective of inside the penguin rather than just the outside appearance.
When asking about the “Burning Heart penguin”, Mina said she got her inspiration from the book Penguin Lost by Andrey Kurkov.
I also bought a few sketched cards and these two were my favorites as I owned a Beagle and a Dachshund. Anytime I see art related to these breeds, I try to pick somthing up.
I was able to ask some questions about Mina Nakai’s career and future goals. Here are some of the responses,
Q&A responses:
Q: When did you become a professional artist?
A: She said around 12 years ago after graduating from college. This is where she started freelance work illustrating for book covers and other things.
Q: What other States/cities would you like to visit in the United States?
A: Seattle, San Francisco, and Texas
Q: What is your process when drawing illustrations for Pokemon cards, do you practice?
A: She said shes does a few practice sketches before illustraing for the actual card. A lot of the practice comes from sketching animals.
Q: How would you describe yourself?
A: “Capybara with two legs”, she said she’s been told that she is like a capybara and that she would love to create a Manga about one
Q: Who was your favorite pokemon to illustrate?
A: Grubbin since she likes to illustrate plants
Q: Within your profession is there a goal you would want to reach?
A: She really respects Yoshitaka Amano and he is someone she would like to be like. He creates fine art and she wants to be able to do that as well.
Here are some photos of the event and some items I picked up:
Overall it was an amazing event and I really believe it couldn’t have been done better (besides having less rainy weather).
Hopefully some forum members were able to attend! If you did, how your experience?