"The Boy & Dragon Stories and Other Tales" is a collection of short stories by renowned author Suniti Namjoshi. I had the privilege of illustrating the stories for Tulika Publishers, based in Chennai.
The book trailer, featuring animation and original music of my own.
Buy "The Boy & Dragon Stories" HERE!
"Next the boy painted 'SORRY' across the dragon’s sides and the dragon pretended he was a zeppelin. The boy towed him about."
"The boy had heard you could find stories among pebbles, that pebbles sometimes talked, even recited poems, but you had to find the right ones."
"As they were playing on the beach, one day, a giant kidnapped them."
This book had to have, I thought, the same quality that my favorite storybooks did: a sense of fun and adventure crossed with a quieter sense of contemplation, if that makes sense. My images had to exist in that middle ground between the dyamic and the delicate, in much the same way that the Namjoshi's stories do.
"Suddenly they heard the whirlwind shriek, “Look at me! Oh, look at me! Look at all the topis and toupées, the bonnets and berets, I’ve collected!"
"It was dark inside the monster's belly. Avaan wanted to cry, but he couldn't very well if Devika wouldn't."
Integrating large amounts with text with the images was another new challenge for me. I'm refraining from posting more images from the insides of the book, with text overlayed over the images, in order to not spoil the stories. The stories are, by the way, really, really beautiful and kind of weird and just really fun. I would have loved them as a kid. Why, I love them right now.
"One day a giant child wandered across the hills and came across a group of children playing."
"One morning, Monkeyji cleared her throat and announced to her friends that she was going to write a book."
"'I’ll send you flying across cyberspace!' the giant shouted."
"He looked up into the enormous canopy. 'I'm sorry I kicked you yesterday,' he said. 'But would you please let me rest in your shade?'"
The evolution of an illustration from the very first rough sketch to a more refined drawing to the final line work to the finalized, colored image.
Evolution of the cover art, from the very first rough to the final design.
Buy "The Boy & Dragon Stories" HERE!
