A SKETCHY PLOT

It is not all fairytales and happy endings for people behind the colours of a children’s book

It is not all fairytales and happy endings for people behind the colours of a children’s book
White cottony clouds dot the sky. The grass is in all shades of green. The blue river flows beautifully, with tiny orange fish having conversations with the small green frogs sitting on lotus pads. The world is filled with music.
Turn the page.
“We are only handed the manuscripts and rarely get to meet the authors unlike in the West where illustrators are treated with respect. And small publications don’t even mention your names,” says Vandana Bist.
“I don’t want my drawings back and nor do I have a hassle with payments. Very often the authors aren’t interested in interacting with illustartors and I am fine with that,” says Neeta Gangopadhya.
These are the adults behind the beautiful illustrations in children’s books.

“For illustrating children’s books you have to be a child but when you are worried about your bread and butter money. You cannot live in a dream world. Which is necessary when you are trying to draw for kids. The publishing industry has to realize this,” says Vikram Nayak.
Turn the page again.
A children’s book has the feel of a spell being cast the moment you flip it open. The pictures, the colours, the line outlining houses and trees and the smiling faces of children, scarecrows, kings, queens and butterflies have left many children in its rapture for ages. The silent strokes that have moulded our early dew-fresh perceptions of the world are the works of illustrators that have almost never been in the limelight. The author writes his best work and a child may love reading it, but it is a picture associated with the text that remains forever.

We all know this. But is it that easy to get the words translated to a picture for a child?
Illustrators mostly jostle with the text written by someone they have never met. An author who has asked for a small illustration to aid a story or from a publishing house that has sent a script to be translated to drawing. “The few things to keep in mind while drawing for kids is that you’ve got to be honest and true to your feelings. You have to keep it simple and it is never a translation of the text but an interpretation,” says Suddhasatwa Basu, a renowned illustrator, painter and animation filmmaker. His first book for children as a writer is The Song of the Scarecrow. “When I illustrate I don’t interact with the authors. An author has written and that’s it. I try to read it as someone who reads it for the first time, without knowing who or where the author has written the story. I like to approach the story just like the stranger who will pick up the book.”

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Very rarely does the author-illustrator meeting take place. “Then the manuscript has to be something different,” says Neeta Gangopadhya whose illustrations are included in the book Once Upon a Time in India, which has been nominated for the IBBY Honours List in 2006. Neeta has illustrated Bimal Kar’s Satyadas for Katha. She recounts an incident where she was called to illustrate for a hardcore Islamic book. “I was totally clueless but somehow read up and managed to create something!” she says.

When it comes to comparisons with illustrators from around the world, Vandana Bist who has a degree in Fine Arts from the Delhi College of Art and has specialised in illustration, isn’t too happy with the way illustrators are treated in India. “We are not paid regularly and don’t even get royalty, illustrators are not given their due in this country.” Her first book is A Ticket to Home and Other Stories, a collection for children (HarperCollins, 1994). Vandana has illustrated Surangini by Partap Sharma and The Princess with the Longest Hair by Komilla Raote, for Katha.

In 1988, she was awarded the encouragement prize in the Children’s Picture Book Competition organised by the Noma Concours Foundation, Japan. Her works have been exhibited in Japan and Bratislava. “We are only handed the manuscripts and rarely get to meet the authors unlike in the West where illustrators are treated with respect. And small publications don’t even mention your names,” says Bist. Aren’t there instances when the manuscript turns out to utterly boring? “Of course, that’s where we come in handy. It’s left to us to charm the children into picking up the book. And children wouldn’t take a second look if the paperbacks don’t appeal to them,” argues Bist.

But the most important part of all for illustrators after all is the money, Vikram Nayak, a young illustrator who has been working for the last 10 years, says, “I remember meeting one of the well-known illustrators for children’s books and he told me, ‘Why are you wasting your time here?’ What he was pointing to is the lack of understanding of publishing houses towards illustrators. Publishing houses sometimes harass the illustrators. People who have been in the business for over 20 –30 years will get paid only Rs 50 per illustration by small publishing houses. It is a shame!”

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There is still the notion that an illustrator is a failed painter. Nayak says, “Publishers fail to understand that to be able to get a good illustration in their books they need to hire someone who specializes in the field and you have to give them time to work. I also see a lot of my work in the market, but I can’t show them proudly, because I know I was pushed to do the work in a hurry.”

Atanu Roy, who has worked on The Puffin Book of Magical Indian Myths, with Anita Nair’s text for company, took five years to complete it, says, “In India, publishing is text-oriented. The people behind the work are not visually literate. If you look at publishing houses abroad, there is an art director and an editor. There is also a problem of egos here. And you have to learn to keep your ego aside when you work for a child!”
And to think all this goes behind a colourfully illustrated children’s book.
Turn the page.
(With inputs from Neelima Menon)