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

Susanne Janssen

One day while browsing through the internet I came across an extraordinary illustrated version of Hansel and Gretel by an artist called Susanne Janssen; extraordinary because this version did not have the usual variations of gingerbread house and dense forests, rather, right from page 1 which opens out into a double spread of a wounded deer, the illustrations seemed cold and sharp and chilling, a terrifying psychological journey through hell and back to sanity. Also the unusual way the illustrations were made, bold collage, sharp angles,plunging diagonal compositions, red against black, said something about the confidence of the illustrator and her emphatic way of interpreting an old story in an entirely fresh new perspective. There is no room for frills and cuteness in her retelling, instead the visuals are suffused with an anxiety that we all recognize,one that is a part of living in this modern world.
I did what one does when one comes across a “find” on the internet, I bookmarked, I googled, I searched on Facebook for Susanne Janssen, I “friended” her. I am pleased to say that the illustrator reciprocated my enthusiasm of her work by appreciating mine.

Janssen’s illustrations for Hansel and Gretel however, did not leave me easily, I searched on Amazon for the book but could not find it,there are no English versions of the book either. I finally asked someone to get the book for me from abroad and I am glad I did.

For a better understanding of these images in Hansel and Gretel it is necessary to read this in depth analysis in Figure dei Libre. You will have to use Google Translate to read it but I guarantee you will come away completely fascinated.

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Some weeks ago, Susanne Janssen sent me some beautiful flyers that she had made for her print making workshops. It provided some balm for the fact that I couldn’t whizz across to attend these sessions. The images on the flyers are beautiful and while they are a different mood from Hansel and Gretel, they are equally powerful and entice me to return to them often. Here are some pictures.

Interview with Susanne Janssen

Beautiful Drawings

It seems to be raining beautiful picture books here. Another gift, this time a travelogue of Vietnam by Lorenzo Mattotti himself. These drawings are full of color, life and joy. They revel in their surroundings and entice us to join in celebrating the city with the artist.

 Here is a film of the artist making this gorgeous book.

A Beautiful Book

I found the book I’d wanted for a long time at where else but Lightroom Bookstore. There were just three copies and the owner had ferreted them away somewhere inside rather than put them out on display. She brought it out to show it to a friend of mine when I gasped and pounced on it.

Back home, turning through the pages was like being within a meditation, a prayer. This is illustration at its best and purest. The minimalism of the pictures and their muted color reverentially lift the story and gently carry it forward. When you reach the last page and close the book, you simply sit quietly for a while.

Wolf Erlbruch

Creating the diploma

The Find

Recently, a friend who is an avid traveller and who is usually known for understating things, gushed about The Road to Oxiana, a book by Robert Byron that he had read innumerable times. I was intrigued at his enthusiasm and wished for a copy. While the immediate thing to do in this click of a button day and age is to order from Amazon, I still prefer to take a different route, via a second hand book store.

After a meeting with a client at MG Road I dropped by at Bookworm and looked through the travel section. This beautiful blue hardbound copy was just lying there waiting to be found and taken. This is serendipity.

The Road to Oxiana is considered the greatest of all pre-war travel books. I quote Paul Fussell, "What Ulysses is to the novel between the wars, and what The Waste Land is to poetry, The Road to Oxiana is to the travel book."

I will probably add an excerpt or two here after I read the book, but for now, here is a review of Robert Byron:

Review

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If I could read 100 Years of Solitude over and over again for the rest of my life while endlessly drinking cold Chocolate I would consider myself the happiest, most fulfilled person on earth.

Sometimes a Wild God

One cold, dark autumn day in Montreal, I read a poem by Tom Hirons called Sometimes a Wild God which made my heart contract and clench a little. I remember considering the message within that poem in relation to where I was at that moment in my life and mulling over it for a while. I remember feeling very uncomfortable. I remember I shifted my thoughts then to wondering how this poem could be illustrated and whether Tom Hirons' partner, the illustrator Rima Staines had considered doing so.
The answer to that appeared on the Hedgespoken website and by the time I had returned to Bangalore I decided I wanted that book. I didn't think I would get my hands on a copy of the book so soon but I did, thanks to someone from England visiting here.
In this post I present a small glimpse of the book with its unforgettable poem  accompanied by intimate and unique illustrations by the absolutely extraordinary Rima Staines.

When illustrating a poem, especially a descriptive one,it is easy to end up making the images repeat the text, something that good illustration should never do. I feel it not only dilutes the message but creates an unnecessary echo which ends up becoming an irritation. Therefore here, as an illustrator, I have to truly appreciate what Rima has done to illustrate this poem which is a difficult one to illustrate. Her illustrations are not beautiful in the general sense of the term but disturbing, as disturbing as the poem; the images are symbols juxtapositioned together to create strong compositions aptly suited to partner whatever part of the text they are illustrating. 
I have long admired Rima's work. She never disappoints. 

I am glad to be reading and admiring this book at my desk in my studio in beautiful afternoon October light :-)

Excellent Printing

Sometime ago, after Dr. Kalam's book, My Journey, was published, the editor of a publication in Indian languages wrote to me to tell me how much he appreciated the illustrations that I had done for the book while working on its Tamil translation. Mr. Kumaraswamy, the editor promised he would send me the Tamil edition of My Journey so that I could see for myself the excellent quality of the printing at Manjul Pulishers. I received my copy this morning and was truly pleasantly surprised at the way my illustrations jump out of the page almost as if I had actually drawn them right there. The quality of the printing is indeed sharp and excellent as you can see. The different textures and nuances of charcoal are brought out to their best and partner so nicely with the beautiful Tamil script. Now I feel my efforts in illustrating the stories have been worthwhile. Good printing does matter.

Once again I am really touched by the kindness of readers of this blog who stop to comment, write to me, take the trouble to personally meet and befriend me as well as encourage, assist, and appreciate what I do through the years. If Mr.Kumaraswamy had not taken the time to write and send across a copy, I would never have known how well my illustrations had been printed in the Tamil edition of the book.
Thank you!

Process for illustrations for the book My Journey

Time stood still...

...while I finished a P.D.James

He had then learned that the ability to make a great deal of money in a particular way is a talent highly advantageous to its possessor and possibly beneficial to others, but implies no virtue, wisdom or intelligence beyond expertise in a lucrative field.

- page 428

A blog reader asked me what the point of this second picture was. Well, after having read a book like this I feel as if I've solved the entire murder mystery all on my own. Such tension, sleepless nights and jumpiness at small sounds I tell you! I barely ate until it was over. And then to celebrate that the murderer had been caught and Dalgliesh had proposed to Emma : ) I feasted on hearty homemade bread, butter and jam.