What goes into the making of a picture book? In a new children’s book, This is How I Draw (Pratham Books), seven artists — Aindri C, Deepa Balsavar, Ogin Nayam, Pankaj Saikia, Prabha Mallya, Priya Kuriyan, and Rajiv Eipe — seek to answer the question by offering a glimpse of their first steps. For Eipe and Balsavar, listening to people and paying attention to all that is around us are ideal ways to find ideas. Meanwhile, Saikia searches for the extraordinary in the ordinary. Aindri C begins with shapes, and Kuriyan sits with a thought before giving it form. Mallya admits that online research is a great tool when she wants to refine her ideas. Nayam’s imagination reaches the sky, like “a house on stilts, in the clouds”.

Illustration Courtesy/Prabha Mallya

Plenty happens before a final book is brought out. Only the publishers are privy to this. The book opens a rare window into this world for its readers. It’s a well-curated compilation of different voices that borrow ideas from life. “We wanted to take the readers backstage, so that they could see the illustrators’ minds at work,” says Canato Jimo, art director at the publication.