We look at the world once in childhood. The rest is memory.
                                                         ~ Louise Gluck

IBBY

 

I've been told that this is the first time that IBBY - International Board of Books for Young People has included countries from the Far East i.e. the non-whitey-whitey countries. So, Parag Reads was asked to send a choice of some of the best picture-books of 2025 from India in the categories of illustration, writing and translation from which IBBY would nominate what they thought was was the best in each category to be featured in the IBBY Honours List . There was a formidable collection of books sent from India for the illustration category created by some of my very talented colleagues, the very best in the land, so I must say I was very surprised to find that my book MOMMIES was the only book to be nominated by IBBY in the illustration category from India for the IBBY Honours List.

 I suspect that making it to the IBBY honours list has some prestige associated with it because half my colleagues heartily congratulated me and the other half of my colleagues did not. I commiserate wholly with those who did not. I am not even a part of the Indian Children's book world. I decided to make a children's book during the pandemic in order to give myself something constructive to do and lo and behold, my book makes it to 2 dPictus 100 best nominations and now this IBBY thing, these international mentions which I know so many of my colleagues would trade a kidney for. Had I been in my twenties I would have been elated, but these days, when I don't even care about such things, these accolades have landed on my lap. Also, to rub in this particular nomination further, apart from the fact that I was the only Indian illustrator whose work was chosen by IBBY, this also makes me the first Indian illustrator to get featured in the IBBY Honours list. It looks like there are some post-menopausal women who cannot help themselves. 

I cannot ignore the irony of this ceremony being held in Canada. Many years ago, in despair that I would never have the opportunity to make a beautiful children's book like the kind I had seen in distant lands, I decided to go live in Canada, Montreal, distant enough, in the hopes that through all kinds of permutations and combinations of fate, I would end up making a decent looking picture book, hard bound and nicely printed. It turned out that I had to return to India to make that happen and now, this year, the ceremony gets held in Ottawa, just a little off the mark from Montreal. 

Do these nominations change one's life? Given how stodgy and tight-arsed international publishers tend to be towards non-white illustrators (they probably barely consider us human), they are hardly going to come knocking at my door asking me to illustrate anything for them just because I made it to the IBBY Honours list. And Indian publishers? From what I have seen, it is the same old tired pillars of the children's book world (writers who know nothing about what constitutes good illustration), constantly exploiting illustrators with their sad justifications of rate card and budget coupled with puerile stories, bad printing and plenty of passive aggression. At the IBBY ceremony in Ottawa, I am told that the illustrators will be given a "diploma". Pray, what am I to do with a diploma? Fan myself from the fumes of the wildfires?  If I had been given a cash prize large bottle of Maple syrup, that would have frankly made me far happier.

So yes, back to the IBBY thing, it won't actually change anything for me like bringing me interesting work and adequate resources to do such work if any, so I am not quite sure what the elation on social media is all about. I have deactivated my Instagram accounts and frankly my life is so much the better for it.

An Essay About Beauty, Line and the Body

 

Please read this excellent essay about the language of lines written by Carol Blaizy D'Souza.

I am honored that it features so much of my work. 

Read the essay HERE

"In the pastel drawings that serve as illustrations for the book, Sebastian uses colour, light and shadow to such great effect that one is moved beyond words at the tenderness a body can evoke. In one illustration where a young girl’s bare body is depicted—only her right breast, its mauve nipple and parts of her right palm lit, the rest of her body in shadow, a suggestion—the command the artist exerts on her craft is fully evident."

From the Exhibition Catalogue

 

I chanced on the pages from the exhibition catalogue while searching for something on my computer, so I thought I'd post it here.

The exhibition in question, BECOMING, was a celebration of 130 years of Indian illustrators held at India International Centre, in New Delhi, last year.

IBBY Honours List

 

So my second picture book MOMMIES has been selected for the IBBY Honours List. 

Sometime earlier, my publisher called and we had a conversation that went something like this -

R: Priya, congratulations, MOMMIES has been selected for the IBBY Honours List and you are the only illustrator from India whose book has been selected in the Illustration category!

Me: Oh, okay

R: (mildly exasperated) Priya, do you even know what IBBY is?
Me: Well, I've seen the name here and there.
R: (incredulous) Priya, can you Google and read what IBBY is all about? It is such an honour to be selected for this!

So I did Google and read up about IBBY. I've learnt that it stands for the International Board of Books for Young People. Apparently it is a very coveted honour to have one's book selected in the categories of Writer, Translator and Illustrator, not to mention the only one to be selected in a particular category.

This book MOMMIES has won several awards and honours:

FICCI Award for best picture book 2024

Publishing Next award for best picture book 2025
DPictus 100 Outstanding Picturebooks for 2024 and 2025

Parag Honours List 2025

and now this, India's selection for illustration for the IBBY Honours List.

Twenty years ago, when I first bought my apartment, created a studio and began working seriously and consistently on my art, if I had ever been told that I would illustrate two books, one published by Seagull Books (an award in itself), and chosen to be published by them solely because of the quality of my illustrations, I thought it would have ended there. That was enough of an achievement for me to end my professional life with. However, I made a second book, and it was the recipient of DPictus 100 Best twice and much to my surprise, an IBBY Honours list. 

Twenty years ago, after the deaths of my parents, I was pretty much written off by extended family, community and society as that oddball woman doing that illustration stuff, whatever it was, instead of getting married. Ten years ago when I returned from Montreal, most of the people I was acquainted with expected me to end up as a kind of paraplegic, someone to be commiserated with and entirely dismissed. So, in retrospect, it seems to me that if there is one other thing that is as immensely satisfying as having these two books on my bookshelf,  it has been in proving my naysayers wrong. 

I am reminded of this poem that I came across by The Fallen Poet -

What a privilege it is to be overwhelmed by a life I once prayed for.

What a privilege it is to become a version of myself I once thought was impossible.

What a privilege it is to still believe in good things.

What a privilege it is to grow into someone I used to need.

What a privilege it is to become softer in a world that tried to harden me.

What a privilege it is to no longer beg for love that should have been freely given.

What a privilege it is to finally be proud of the person I'm becoming.

If you knew what was going to happen, if you knew everything that was going to happen next - if you knew in advance the consequences of your own actions - you'd be doomed. You'd be ruined as God. You'd be a stone. You'd never eat or drink or laugh or get out of bed in the morning. You'd never love anyone ever again. You'd never dare to.

~ Margaret Atwood.

AN EXHIBITION

 

Sometime in April 2025, Richa Jha, publisher, Pickle Yolk Books , curated a massive exhibition of Indian Children's Illustrators at India International Centre in Delhi. This exhibition, titled BECOMING, was created to celebrate 130 years of Indian illustration. What was so joyful and heartening to me was that my first book Is It The Same For You?  written by Neha Singh, illustrated by me, Priya Sebastian, and published by Seagull Books, got the much overdue attention it deserved, a kind of resurrection after getting published just before the pandemic in 2020 after which the world came to a standstill. Illustrations from this book were blown up into huge installation pages and placed in the centre of the exhibition resulting in a renewed interest in the book.

Here is Richa talking about this book. Her wonderful words about my illustrations truly warms my heart.

Also, Archana Atri, editor at Pickle Yolk Books, talks so movingly about how much she loved the illustrations in my book in her post on her Instagram account over here -  >>>LINK

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When I was around 5 years old and in Class 1 at school, it was Open Day, when classes were decorated nicely and people came to see what the students had put on display. When I climbed up the steps to enter my class, several of my classmates rushed up to me, “Priya! 3 boards full of your drawings have been displayed in class!” And indeed, when I walked towards my classroom, right at the entrance, I saw 3 boards full of my drawings pinned up on them. The teacher had taken the drawings from my drawing books and pinned them up for all to see.

I’ve tried to remember how I felt back then. What I do recall was that I was rather confused at the excitement of my classmates around me. I remember being somewhat surprised that their drawings had been grouped together on a couple of other boards, while my drawings had 3 boards all to themselves. I had no idea why. Drawing was simply something that I did spontaneously and naturally, like eating or sleeping.

Now, so many years later, there seems to be a repetition of what happened long ago when my publisher decided to blow-up my work giant-size for the exhibition of illustrators and eulogized my work with so much enthusiasm. I am happy.

Had I been in my 20s or 30s and received such attention for my work, I'd have probably thought it undeserved and retreated into my shell and showed off some kind of mock bravado in public. Now, in my 50s, seeing this still fills me with a sense of disbelief and it took me several months to process and make a post here. 

Everything happens at the right time. This is a good way to end over 2 decades of my vocation as an illustrator. Many, many thanks to Richa both for this unique exhibition of illustrators and for highlighting my work in this manner.

Photographs by Archana Atri (editor Pickle Yolk Books)

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"The trouble with metrics, I’ve learned, is they have the habit of collapsing right when we’ve got them where we want them. You get a promotion: AI wipes out your sector. Buy a house: the market collapses. Find the love of your life: they find theirs. As the old Yiddish proverb goes, ‘We plan, God laughs’."

~ Rajeev Balasubramanian

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#priyasebastian #priyasebastianillustrations #priyasebastianartist #priyasebastiandrawings, #priyasebastian #isitthesameforyoubook #seagullbook #indianillustrators

Completing the Circle

 

Sometime in January 2020, I completed my first picture-book and I decided I to retire from life as an illustrator. How little we know what life holds for us, and what lessons it brings, but 4 years later, in January 2024, when I was taking a break from life in the city on a farm, I got an email and a video clip of my second picture-book from my publisher (and writer of this book), Richa, that our book had been published. All the efforts of 2 years had arrived packaged into one superb picture-book and if I thought matters would end there, just before the Bologna Book Fair in April 2024,  I was sent an email that this picture-book had made it to the dPictus 100 Outstanding Picture books, the first Indian picture-book to have climbed up onto this platform. 

Competing with the best picture-books on an international level is a game which has to be played in a different league. So much attention had to be paid to detail and the the standard of my illustrations had to be at their best. I recall I redid all the illustrations enough times to fill up 3 books or more. What at first seemed like straightforward book to make turned out to be as challenging as any. Needless to say, Richa's text too, though seemingly simple, was was fine-tuned over and over as much as the illustrations were to create a thoughtful and insightful story. 

This was my first attempt at designing a book using InDesign, which I learnt to use during the pandemic.  This was also my first cover design. I recall in the final moments, when everything was assembled and double-checked and I had to hit the "publish" button, I got an attack of nervousness and messaged a colleague - So we have to hit "publish" and its done right? Yes, hit publish and it's done. (The colleague, a veteran of 100 picture-books, who was right in the middle of getting a prestigious award when I asked this question pointed out later: What use is getting an award if I cannot answer questions like this?).

After I completed this second book, I was asked for a conversation about my entire career as an illustrator by a designer called Purvi Rajapuria, an extremely professional and intelligent young woman, who visited me in my home and then created an excellent interview of the morning we spent talking together. The interview was made for the design studio called Studio Bahubashi.

Here is the interview - INTERVIEW

So this is it then, I have completed the circle.
On to other things.

PS (2025): Mommies got selected for 100 best books in 2025 too, on the DPictus platform!

The book also got several awards,  the IFFAC award and the Publishing Next award for Best Picture Book. However, the book getting chosen a second time at DPictus, on an international platform, with the best books in the world, makes me happiest.

#priyasebastian, #priyasebastian, #priyasebastian, #priyasebastianillustrator #priyasebastianillustration, #priyasebastianillustrations, #priyasebastianinterview

Redoing Rome. A Postscript.

 

I did visit Rome again as I promised myself I would, and this time, the second time around, I got it right. I celebrated as I should have four years ago and I did everything I wanted to do the first time around. Rome in autumn is magical and unforgettable.

The walk to the art supply shop Ditta Poggi. This early morning walk took me through all the magnificent sights of Rome, without the crowds and in pleasant weather. I could stop, pause and stare all I wanted to and every time I turned my head there was always something more magnificent to see.

And then, a proper walk exploring Trastevere, where I ogled at magnificent churches, explored the red alleys, visited bookshops and ate the best gelato ever (Otaleg).

I went to Janiculum Terrace again. I replaced the older memories there with happier ones. I gave thanks for the completion of my second book and validated my first book as it should have been done the first time around. For these moments, that I could come here again and acknowledge how far I've come, I have only gratitude. These are the memories that will remain with me.

The power of Caravaggio in real and the breathtaking work of MC Escher

The dazzling Palazzo Colonna with its exquisite works of art will require several posts. 

I'll stop here instead at just two pictures. Can you believe I saw Caravaggio, Escher and the art inside Palazzo Colonna all in one day? But that's Italy for you, crammed to the brim with centuries of art, in palaces, spilling out casually into the streets, scattered on the walls of bars and restaurants, art is everywhere.

I have not done justice to Palazzo Colonna with two pictures, but I wouldn't even know where to begin, and to blog the experience here would take an entire month or two of documenting solely this. So I will simply leave it here and end with a picture of me with my smile after my walk at Trastevere. I am glad my friend insisted on taking a picture of me. I am beaming. And this happiness is pretty much what my experience in Rome gave me this time around. I have many, many happy memories and much gratitude. 

A Fitting Conclusion - The interview

So this is the most in-depth and extensive interview I have done in my career as an illustrator. I talk about process, pictures, payment, profession, publishers and other related matters. The difference with this interview is that the questions were asked by another illustrator, making them pertinent, relevant and allowing me to open up as I have never done before. This is also a wonderful closure to this blog and to an entire part of my career as an illustrator at the end of this year. Now I can move on to other things with much gratitude for all I’ve been given.

Many thanks Niharika Shenoy, not only for giving me this chance to articulate my thoughts but also for interviewing and showcasing Indian illustrators so nicely on Medium.

Click here to read The Interview

It has been a great 10 years on this blog and a full 13 years of blogging. It is time to close the circle here too as with an entire volume of my life.

Here are the places you can find me and my work -

https://priyasebastianillustrations.tumblr.com/

https://www.behance.net/priyasebastian

The writing, travels, sketchbook stuff, opinions, photographs will all be at

https://priyasebastian.tumblr.com/

Thank you and goodbye.

The Forest

One day when you wake up,

you wil find that you've become a forest.

You've grown roots and found strength in them

that no one thought you had.

You have become stronger and more beautiful,

full of life giving qualities.

You have learned to take all the negativity around you and turn it into oxygen for easy breathing.

A host of wild creatures live inside you and you call them stories.

A variety of beautiful birds nest inside your mind and you call them memories.

You have become an incredible self-sustaining thing of epic proportions.

And you should be so proud of yourself of how far you have come from the seeds of who you used to be.

-------------------------------------------------------- Nikita Gill

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#priyasebastian #priyasebastianillustration #priyasebastianillustrator #seagullbooks #isitthesameforyoubook #conflictzone #picturebookartist #picturebook #kashmirbook #illustratorinterview #picturebookillustration #picturebookillustrator #priyasebastian #priyasebastian #priyasebastian #priyasebastian

Up in the Hills

 Sometime in December, I went off to spend time with friends in Mussoorie and Landour. I got my very first glimpse of the Himalayas from the plane and I was enthralled. I got acquainted with words phenomenons like "Winterline" and tried to draw new shapes (mountains) in my sketchbook. I also ate loads and loads of pork and had to beg for simple vegetables with my meals. I used a walking stick to walk even a few kilometers because that is a necessity when you live in the mountains.

The spectacular Winterline where hot air gets trapped beneath cold air 
causing this beautiful phenomenon.

Landour Bakehouse (below) with the classics - 

Delicious Chicken Tikka croissants and Rose Cake. 

So good. 

Sketching the Himalayas in Chakkar in Landour

Apart from the desperation to get out and about, this holiday made me remove my Montreal woolens from the recesses of my wardrobe and wear them. I was still very cold however, until my friend simply threw her mother's sheepskin shawl over me and I was instantly warmed. As Henrik Drescher told me, "It is not how much you wear but what you wear!". When it comes to weather, Bangaloreans don't know very much.

Beautiful pageants around fires are something completely new to a Bangalorean's eyes!

Below, gorgeous treasures picked up during treks around the mountains.

When people like Thoreau spoke about walking amidst nature to rewire the mind, I don't think he meant a walk at the local neighbourhood park, not even Lalbagh, although it can be a good substitute if there is nothing else, but what a healing, soul-cleansing experience it is to walk in a proper forest. How blessed and beautiful is Jabarkhet Nature Reserve.

Many thanks Sam and Bussu for this memorable holiday.