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.

Pages From a Book

This time, back to showcasing my work again -

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.

Limited Edition

Since a couple of friends have requested copies of this print, I will be making a limited number of reproductions by request only. 

If you are interested in owning one of these custom made prints, kindly contact me at priya.sebastian@gmail.com

Size of print: 19 x 15 inches on Enhanced Matte paper.

Cost: Rs.6500 (USD 100). Add Rs.500 (USD 8) for shipping.

I will be accepting orders until Sunday 29th Oct 2017 only.

Three Houses

These drawings were done for Hello Every Sunday but since I like houses I will post them here as well. 

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25/Sept/2017: I have added a SHOP symbol like the one below also to the left column of this blog. It will take you through the process of selecting and ordering prints.

https://shopforplums.blogspot.in/

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Silence is something more than just a pause, it is that enchanted place where space is cleared and time is stayed and the horizon itself expands.
~ Pico Ayer

Just Work...

Over the Wall

Memory

But what is memory if not the language of feeling, a dictionary of faces and days and smells which repeat themselves like the verbs and adjectives in a speech, sneaking in behind the thing itself, into the pure present, making us sad or teaching us vicariously…

—

Julio Cortázar, Hopscotch
(via mythologyofblue)

An art which isn’t based on feeling isn’t an art at all… feeling is the principle, the beginning and the end; craft, objective, technique - all these are in the middle.

—

Paul Cezanne

Cover

So here are some stunning cover designs done by my 
art director using my illustration of the rooster.I love how it has turned out.

Here is the link on Behance if you want to see some more.

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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.

Things I do

For Suttonese People -

Hers and His birthday cards.

The Bottles at my Window

There are no lines in nature, there are only areas of color set against each other.
~ Edouard Manet

Reliving Memories

Of a long cherished dream that came true.

Thundercloud and Bare Tree

From the Bits and Pieces box

I had to remove the foreground of mountains to replace on a different background. When I peeled off the mountain, the Fevistick and remnants of charcoal ended up producing this very interesting texture.I drew and cut out a tree and placed it over to make an image. I love the variety of textures that has resulted in this happy accident.The best surprises happen while playing.

The Green Bathing Pond

My host told me that outside the cities, the people of Kerala still bathed in rivers and ponds. She told me about her great aunt who walked down a path from her house to bathe every morning in her own personal bathing pond. Seeing my wide-eyed enthrallment, arrangements were made to take me there, to see the ancestral home and the great aunt's beautiful bathing pond.

This was the best and most memorable experience of my visit to Kerala.  

All the chatter in your mind suddenly stops as your brain cells get taken over by green undergrowth.

And then the experience of bathing here which must be some sort of baptismal renewal every single morning.

Exhale...

And then I flew back to Banglur.