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."

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

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

.

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

SMELLS

 Click on the pictures for bigger images -

Your Plants Need Fresh Air.

@cityofwomen did an interesting questionnaire on their Instagram account about Unsolicited Advice, something all of us have been at the receiving end of. The title advice of this post was the last one I remember receiving: "Your plants need fresh air". This by a house guest who walked into my studio; she was going through a bad phase in her life and had tearfully asked me to have her over for two nights. During her stay I got quite a lot of unsolicited advice from her but this particular one was memorable for its absurdity, uttered as it was in my leafy studio with windows left wide open during the day. When I recall this moment I also associate it with the whiff of something burning.

 Unsolicited advice is almost always the by product of Envy and the desire for control. When I read the answers to @cityofwomen question about unsolicited advice, most of the advice was to "get married" or "have a child" or "have another child". What makes its presence strongly felt  in such advice is a staggering lack of imagination over the decades, not to mention the stagnation of thinking i.e. The sole purpose of a woman's existence is to be a breeder and caretaker.

Unsolicited advice carries with it an undertone of disapproval, thereby diminishing from a position of implied superiority - I have the right to tell you what I think you ought to do because I know more than you. It almost always leaves a stain of humiliation and the advice can be given precisely in order to do that - I envy you, I am uncomfortable with some aspect of you (your body, your freedom, your success) therefore let me try and control you by bringing you down a notch or two by telling you what is best for you, or as in the case of my former friend, let me shit all over your house, your life and your gesture of friendship, thereby dousing my own discomfort at my insecurity.

I have to resort to that very thing I cautioned against in this post - advice giving, because I have seen it once too often among women as a kind of point scoring. The biggest irony shows itself when women who decide they are Feminists resort to doling unsolicited advice to do so. Before you clamor for equality and accuse men of "mansplaining", do consider giving your female friends  basic respect, dignity  and acceptance of their choices during your interactions with them. Be married, grow your child, but do it without crapping all over my life by giving me advice on how to grow my plants and being rude in so many other ways. You cannot undo your choices so accept it instead of getting consumed by hate and envy and the need to resort to petty one-upmanship because you resent my autonomy. As women, let's start with each other, Shut Up with the unsolicited advice.

Fine Art Prints from my Book

So I have just received these utterly gorgeous fine art prints of my illustrations for my book. They are printed on thick, luxurious Hahnmuele paper and they are each 12 inches in height. They look fabulous in real if I may say so myself. These photographs don't really do justice to the richness and beauty of these prints.

These can be ordered directly from me via my email priya.sebastian@gmail.com
- They are limited edition of only 50 prints per picture.
- Each print is signed and numbered by me, the illustrator. 
- Each comes at a price of INR 2500 + 500 for postage.

CAKE

LOVE

BIRDS

PRAYER

BODY

GIRL

My Book

Available for both domestic and international shipping at:

Seagull Books.

On the train to Matera

These are some drawings in my sketchbook of my train journey to Matera.

When I saw the Italian countryside landscape for the first time, I understood better what the old Renaissance masters had painted.  My usual bold charcoal drawings did not work very well for these landscapes. I felt it needed something softer and more poetic. Derwent graphite with its muted tones worked very well for the rolling hills and Olive trees. However I wanted to experiment with other media so I tried ink, my first foray into wet media.

My initial attempts at ink are reminiscent of how I use charcoal, my approach was the same, I let the fountain pen ink that I used literally gambol on different kinds of paper. It was pretty much hit and miss every time, some worked but most did not and there were many, many trials and errors for about two weeks (below). 

Then on a suggestion from a friend, I used a bottle of Sumi ink that had been gifted to me last year (one of those rare, thoughtful gifts that I could actually enjoy). I used tiny rectangles of cheap paper from a small notepad I had and strangely and much to my surprise it worked. The pictures had a print like quality to them which recreated the atmosphere that I wanted (below).

My long journey to Matera which began at 5 am went like this : Trastevere to Rome, Rome to Bari, Bari to Matera. Here are some of the sketches of my co passengers.

I felt compelled to redraw the sketch of the schoolgirl with red streaked hair and distinctive features into something larger. Her face reminded me of a Renaissance portrait. I think I should title the drawing of her as Sleeping Madonna (above).

While making these drawings I recall the sense of anticipation I felt sitting in the slow train which glided leisurely through the Olive groves and towards my destination.

There is a resumption of daily drawing over at Hello Every Sunday. We even have a brand new website with large images. Do meet us on Sundays to see our daily drawing progress at
HELLO EVERY SUNDAY.