Priya Kuriyan - Interview

Once in a while, I come across some illustrations during long web crawling sessions and I whistle! Let out a small sound of joy at the exciting and fascinating pictures leaping out of the page. Priya Kuriyan's blog etcetera etcetera, the illustrator of the book Taranauts, made me whistle and shout out with joy.

Many folks enjoyed the wonderful interview with the author of Taranauts, Roopa Pai. Here is an interview with the illustrator of the same book - Priya Kuriyan. Thank you Priya for writing back in detail to us.

How did you get into children's book illustrations?

In the beginning, I never consciously thought of illustrating for children per se . I studied animation film making at a design school where one is exposed to so many different kinds of exciting visual media. As a student of animation, one was expected to draw -a lot- and also experiment with all kinds of storytelling methods, character development, visual techniques and treatments at the conceptual stage of film making. I enjoyed this stage of the film making process immensely. I think my interest in illustrating for books was an outcome of that.

However it wasn’t until I approached Tulika books, a publisher based in Chennai, that I got my first real illustration project. They were kind enough to look at my work and give me a chance to work on an endearing children’s story called ‘I’m so sleepy’ written by Radhika Chadha. Later, I also did some sequels to the book and wonderfully, they did get noticed by other publishers of children’s books and one thing led to another. So it was really by default that I started illustrating children’s books ..and loved doing it.

What are you inspirations in the illustration world?

Oh many! Quentin Blake has been an all time favourite. I have always loved Mario Miranda’s work.Tim Burton’s concept drawings for all his films are a treat to go through. As a kid I also loved books illustrated by Mickey Patel. Prashant Miranda (compiler's note:- oh my god!. He has some amazing stuff!) is another artist whose work I really admire. I also love the work of graphic novelists like Niel Gaimen and Marjane Satrapi. I absolutely adore the work of Piet Grobler. I can just go on. Also, with the internet , there is so much more exposure to what is going on around the world. People are constantly exchanging links saying ….”have you seen this…?” or they are posting interesting items on their facebook profiles. It is really amazing how many talented contemporary artists there are in obscure corners of the world whose work I have stumbled upon work trawling the web . Its wonderful that one can actually access the work of these artists and actually personally get in touch with them through their blogs .

How does it work out when the illustrator and the writer are not nearby. I was surprised by the amount of cohesion there seems to be between the words being written by Roopa Pai and your illustrations next to it. Did you read the book before the assignment or did you work in parallel?

Well, I definitely did read the book before beginning to illustrate it . It would be impossible to do so otherwise as one has to really gauge the mood of the book and understand its characters completely.

I don’t think physical distances matter as much especially in this day and age when so much work can just get done online and by having a couple of phone conversations. Most of Taranauts was actually done in this way .I met Roopa in person only once the book was launched. Credit does go to the Vatsala the editor at Hachette who actually co-ordinated between us. Roopa had conveyed a very clear vision of what she wanted but at the same time gave me enough space to imagine and elaborate on the world that she had created. In cases where my visualization was a little way of target , a simple email explaining the error would suffice. The process always involves a little bit of back and forth depending on the feedback the author gives. I think once you have understood the characters and the genre of the book you are pretty much set. After that it is merely a question of executing those ideas.

There have been many occasions when I’ve illustrated for books and have never ever met the author or even spoken to them for that matter! It is however always nice to meet writers of these books personally not so much because it helps illustrating them, but because of the fact that they are usually interesting people!

As an illustrator, you would have your own pet projects versus projects being given to you by publishers. How do you balance your own interest with what you have to deliver.

Well, the answer to that I guess is simple . If you love and enjoy what you are doing , then nothing is really an effort. So I usually try and squeeze in sometime every other day for something of my own. I must admit that personal projects without clear deadlines are not the easiest to complete quickly.

Sorry if this take sounds stupid - like a writer's block, is there an illustrator block?

Well there are definitely some spells when one doesn’t know how to treat a certain story or doesn’t feel inspired enough... But I think a short walk or run in the outdoors or a day of doing absolutely nothing about it is a good enough antidote for illustrators block (thank you for the nomenclature. I now know what I occasionally suffer from). I always feel one mustn’t take a project so seriously that it ruins the spontaneity of it .

What are the books that you love?

Among children’s books, I love all of Roald Dahls books . Of course Quentin Blake’s illustrations only add to the charm. I love his impish and often mean sense of humor . Piet Grobler illustrated this book written by Anushka Ravishanker called ‘Today is my Day’ which I like a lot. Like every other kid I grew up on my quota of Enid Blyton. One of my favourite books as a child used to be ‘the Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss. The whole idea of a family getting shipwrecked on an island and building a life for themselves was fascinating. I still love Asterix and Calvin and Hobbes. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is also a favourite. I love all of J.D Salinger especially his compilation of 9 short stories. There are hundreds of other books I would like to name but since they might seem a little out of the context of this blog, I shall refrain.

Anything else that you would like us to know..

I guess that’s all for now. I hope I’ve answered all your questions. Thank you for the opportunity and your interest in my work.

Thank you Priya.