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 Kashmiri Girl on a Cover

This is the cover for my picture book due in October 2019, published by Seagull Books. The cover illustration is done by me and the cover design by the awesome Sunandini Banerjee who designs all the Seagull Books covers. 

Here is Sunandini's response to me after sending me this cover design:

Thank you for the beautiful work you continue to do, and for having faith in me—for trusting me to add to your image on the cover. It has been a tremendous freedom and a responsibility and I am so very glad I could make you happy.

I am very touched to read this. While I am personally wary about emotion expressed over artwork, I have to admit that this time, when I saw my illustration placed within this understated and sophisticated cover design, I discreetly wiped away a tear. Who would've thought all those years and years of practice I put in would all lead to this?

This book was what I spent part of 2017 and most of 2018 frantically illustrating. To say that it was hard work would be an understatement. For an illustrator, making a picture book is akin to writing a novel. 

Here is a synopsis about the book ~

Priya Sebastian and Neha Singh, 'Is It the Same for You?'

‘The day they found my brother with a blood stain, I found one on my kurta too, but no one noticed my blood stain.’ Thus begins “Is it the same for you?” a story of a young girl in Kashmir as she goes through the turbulence of adolescence in her conflict-ridden world. While larger issues of terrorism, violence, and death engulf the hearts and minds of all those around her, she struggles to come to terms with her changing body and all that it entails. Left alone to deal with her constant questions, she experiences despair and loneliness but also shows resilience and hope in the faint knowledge that maybe it is not very different for all young girls around the world. : ‘Is it the same for you?’ she asks.
With powerful yet sensitive illustrations by Priya Sebastian, which infuse the story with universality, this beautiful volume is a tender attempt in imagining the different strands of a young life in Kashmir - a place where the inner conflicts of voiceless, adolescent girls are often overshadowed by the political, religious, and military conflicts that are now a constant in everyday life.

Forthcoming. October 2019.

Moving On

This illustration is the last illustration I did in 2017. It is for a Jim Corbett book cover.

The last time I drew a tiger was sometime in 2009 for Deccan Herald when I used to do illustrations for their kiddie section. The pay was so low, the stories were so trite that the work became a chore. I decided to move on to other things. The picture below was the final illustration I did for them for a very nice poem. It was a good way to end, the 2009 tiger, sweet faced and hopeful.

Since then I have certainly moved on and in 7 years I have tried my hand at all kinds of wonderful projects which I never even dreamt I would do. However once again the red lights are flashing around my head and there are sirens in my ears every time I take up an editorial or a cover. It is time to move on again, this time to solving far more complex puzzles on my table and at my own pace.

Another Cover

There is one art director who absolutely knows what to do with the styles of different illustrators. She brings out the best in each of us. This cover was particularly challenging since we were figuring things out as I went along with her suggestions. I wasn't quite sure what she wanted or had in mind and after many attempts at getting it right I wasn't even sure if what I had done had sufficed. I spent sleepless nights.Then when the cover design with my illustration arrived in my inbox, I was pleased by how striking it was. It is therefore with great pleasure that I am showing it off over here.

Roosters

I made the illustration for the rooster pictured above for a book cover. After I sent it across, my art director sent me the drawing below which was done by her five year old daughter upon seeing my picture.
I have included the drawing in this post with Devayani's kind permission because I cannot help but be impressed by how well she has drawn it. What strikes me most is the surety and confidence with which the head of the rooster is drawn, the most difficult part.
Thank you Devayani, for letting me include your drawing in my blog.

Invisible People

This is my cover illustration for Harsh Mander's book of stories Invisible People. Stories of Courage and Hope. 
When I was reading through the manuscript, I could not help commenting to the publisher Anushka Ravishankar, how good the stories were and how absorbing to read. I also couldn't help remarking on the quality of the writing, it was excellent. The real-life heroes who make up these stories are truly people who have made their way out of the depths of despair and darkness and walked towards the light.
Do read what the author has to say at Duckbill's blog over here >

Bicycle Dreaming

Here is a section of the cover illustration I did for Mridula Koshy's upcoming book Bicycle Dreaming. The author requested the publishers to invite me to do the cover illustration. That is a nice thing to happen :)
From her first book launch that I attended in 2010, I know that Mridula leaves her audience enthralled, so if you are in Delhi, do save the date to attend the launch of her latest book. I am copying the invite sent by the author ~

My book, Bicycle Dreaming is going to press as we speak, and I want to invite you to the launch on Friday, January 29 at IIC. I can promise you good conversation, tea and samosa. There will be an after party, of course, with details to follow.

A little bit about Bicycle Dreaming, a story set in working class Chirag Dilli:

Noor turns thirteen on the first page of the book; we leave her at fourteen on the last page. In between, she falls in right and wrong love, comes apart, together, and apart again from her family. We, the readers of the story, take measure of how much we know about happiness and wholeness in relationship: where does it come from, how do we account for it, and when the bottom falls out from under us, how do we survive our unheroic stories?

17/04/2016
This is my version of the cover design for Bicycle Dreaming -

Deepalaya Community Library and Reading Project

The Name's Bond, Ruskin Bond

The publishers wanted a cover illustration that was mature and which would appeal to both adults and children alike. They felt my style would be appropriate for this.
Later, the art director, woman of few words, actually wrote back to tell me how much 'everyone liked the cover illustration'. And people are still 'liking' it on my Facebook page as I write this.
As always I am bewildered during moments like these. This cover illustration was a breeze to do after assignments like doing the illustrations for Dr. Kalam's book and coming up with all kinds of strange illustration solutions for the complex articles at Current Conservation magazine.

By the way, the design for this cover was a given template around which I had to base my illustration as well as draw a 'motif' that gets incorporated into the O.

I have decided to permanently remove the comments section from my blog for reasons which are too many to explain. For those of you who want to get in touch with me, my email is always there for you :-)