Animal’s person In The Wildings, Prabha Mallya’s striking black and white illustrations don’t simply accompany the words but enrich the tale being told. about drawing out stories with images

Animal’s person

In The Wildings, Prabha Mallya’s striking black and white illustrations don’t simply accompany the words but enrich the tale being told. about drawing out stories with images

How did you begin work on The Wildings? Aleph had given me the manuscript and [asked for] a set number of illustrations. Going strictly by that, the book might have looked different. However, as the illustrations began to develop, we (Bena Sareen, creative cirector of Aleph, David Davidar, co-founder of Aleph, and the other editors) could all see what a difference little drawings snuck into the margins could do. It just grew and grew, like a wild interesting bunch of mushrooms, like kittens tumbling out of a box. Did you read the entire book? Yes! From start to end, and I was glued. I must have read it twice through the whole two months of illustrating. Were you very conscious that The Wildings shouldn’t seem like a children’s book? Yes. Aleph wanted it to be an illustrated book and specifically, a not-cute one. Conventional kiddie illustrations tend to stay bright and cheerful and keep away from gory ideas like death, blood, un-prettiness, wildness. I think if a kid can take in this gritty, brave, wild story, then the illustrations must stay true to the words and be just as wild and real. I wanted to portray the animals in a way that appeared as realistic as possible, so readers could perhaps relate what they see in the book to what they see in the street animals around them too. The world of The Wildings is full of so many layers — plants, earth, rain, stone, garbage from humans, sound, smells. Is it more fun drawing animals than humans? I’ve come to prefer drawing animals (though I absolutely love drawing kooky-looking people and strange clothes). There are so many nuances of bodily expression in animals to latch upon, so much that can be observed from an animal and captured in a drawing in unconventional ways. I think when you’ve spent enough time with a particular animal, you get to know what it’s telling you non-verbally. That’s what Nilanjana’s view of cats reveals. What are your favourite parts of The Wildings? My favourite character of all has got to be Kirri. I could even imagine how her voice might sound. The idea of a mongoose “dancing” with a snake or any other enemy is so full of thrill and movement. The illustration of Kirri needed to show the kind of sinuous motion she’s capable of. Besides, to all the other creatures, she’s almost a mythic creature full of unexplained power, so the figure drawn is a little bit abstract and unreal. Of course there is the cinematic, stripey spread [when Mara meets Ozzy the tiger]. The illustration was a black and white translation of the scene. Nilanjana’s written this so vividly you nearly expect to see black and orange flames crackling in the air around you as you read. As one of the first illustrations done for the book, this is where the mixed-media technique really fell into place. Do you have a preference for cats? I started out a dog person until one day a mewling kitten was brought to Pencil Sauce (where I worked, in Bengaluru). Watching that cat grow and do all those wonderful things cats do… I have been inspired by cats ever since. Artistically, you can reduce every move of a cat to a gentle s-curve. They’re very poised and balanced and graceful, neat and composed. And besides, they sit on your lap, making you stay put and finish the drawing instead of prancing around and being distracted or procrastinating. One should never wake a sleeping cat. Somewhere an angel dies when you do that.