Krishna Deva Raya: King of Kings — Revisiting history through a picture book
Much of history is so often served in boring, indigestible chunks that to see it come alive in a picture book with stunning visuals and an exciting narrative makes ‘Krishna Deva Raya: King of Kings’ a sight for sore eyes!
Written by Roopa Pai and illustrated by Archana Sreenivasan, the book captures the glorious days of the Vijayanagara empire under the powerful king, Krishnadevaraya.
Archana Sreenivasan talks about what went into illustrating and designing this beautiful book, what to keep in mind when depicting historical characters and how to successfully recreate an ancient world that readers can be instantly transported to.
Me — Tell us about how this book came about. What were your thoughts when you first read the text?
Archana — Work for this book started way back in 2016, and I finished the art for the book in 2017. I don’t remember my thoughts from when I first read the manuscript. But I looked through some old emails and found a mail in which I’d told Roopa that reading the manuscript gave me goosebumps :) Which I’m sure it did!
Me — Did you get to visit the places described in the book?
Archana — Yes! Roopa and I made a trip to Hampi before I started work on the book. She very kindly took me around and introduced me to Hampi, because I’d never actually been there before! And yes, many things from the trip definitely made it into the book. Roopa took me to the top of Anjanadri hill before day break, and we watched the rising sun light up the Tungabhadra, just as it is described in the book.
Sculptural details from the various temples we visited, a coracle ride we took, and finally, the distinctive landscapes, rock stacks, and colors of Hampi that I saw on my visit definitely went into the book.
Me — I love the style of the illustrations. Tell us more about them.
Archana — In the course of my research I came across the wall murals of Lepakshi, and the ceiling murals of the Virupaksha temple that were painted at the height of the Vijayanagara Empire. I fell in love with these paintings and tried to adapt the art style for the book illustrations. So that’s how the stylized treatment for the book came about.
Me — Recreating the splendour of a civilization based on ruins for a visual reference :-) what was the experience like? Were there any challenges in the process?
Archana — Oh yes. There were some things that I couldn’t really find any reference material for during my research. For example — what did a regular village home look like in the Vijayanagar Era?
Or what did a live, bustling market look like then? So I just went ahead and took some informed guesses and creative liberties with my representations.
Me — What are your thoughts on taking creative liberties when illustrating a historical time period?
Archana — I think that if one puts enough energy into research, then the artistic license taken tends to be based somewhat on the research, and so, feels authentic.
Me — I love how you’ve depicted the characters — each one from a distinct walk of life. Tell us more about how you arrived at representing them.
Archana — I drowned myself in a lot of research for this book. I scoured the internet for every scrap of information I could find, and saved many, many folders full of information and reference images and links related to the Vijayanagara period. So the drawings of all the people are based more or less on stuff I unearthed during my research.
Me — What could illustrators keep in mind when depicting a historical time period?
Archana — I guess it really helps to read up and research as much as possible while working on historical characters and themes. Of course, there are likely to be gaps in the information available via research, but we will be able to let our imagination fill in those gaps, and as long as most of the stuff is well researched, the smaller imagined bits will also feel authentic and right.
Me — Tell us about your use of colour in this book.
Archana — Colors for this book were also inspired by the Lepakshi art. However, I’ve departed from the Lepakshi color palette on some spreads in order to allow for drama and variation as needed by the narrative. For this book I worked mostly instinctively on the color, and didn’t really think too much about it.
Me — How did you visualise Krishnadevaraya? He also appears as a narrator. Were there challenges in accommodating that in the larger narrative?
Archana — We found Krishnadevaraya portrayed in the sculpture of the Vittala temple, and that likeness has gone into the book as well.
I guess it was only that we needed to treat those sections ( where Krishnadevaraya appears as a narrator) differently visually, so as to make it clear that they weren’t part of the narrative going on in the rest of the book.
Also, these sections were often more text heavy, so we had to work out a layout that could accommodate all that text. So we went with smaller spot art for these sections.
Me — Yes, it’s a unique book in many ways. It is like a chapter book and a picture book combined. The sheer number of gorgeously illustrated pages makes it a treat.
Archana — Yes, this book is more text heavy than a picture book. But I don’t think it was hard to work around because I had the whole manuscript right at the start. I guess the only thing that happened was that the overall page count went up a bit so that we could take enough space for the illustrations too.
Me — Tell us about what went into the design.
Archana — It was Roopa’s idea to have the chapter numbers in both Kannada (or Telugu) as well as English. So I just played around with that to design the chapter heads. As for the drop caps — again, I tried to make the English alphabets look sort of like Kannada (or Telugu) script. Since I can read and write Kannada, this was fun to do :-)
Me — It sounds like very involved work by both of you! How long did it take to make the entire book?
Archana — It took a long time to make this book. Nine whole months, full time. Working on the final, colored art for the book was a lot of hard work, and I was truly exhausted by the time I was done. But I’m happy with how this book turned out.
Me — Tell us about your process of illustration.
Archana — My first step is to research/learn about the topic that I am about to illustrate. This might mean scouring the internet for articles and info, or collecting a lot of reference and inspirational images, or both.
Then I make some untidy scribbles with pencil on paper… this is when all the thinking and ideation happens. Character sketches/thumbnails/rough sketches… all of these happen with pencil on paper. Sometimes I also use ink washes to explore character forms. Once I’m able to pick out a few of these doodles to take to the next step, I scan these in, and work further on them digitally. In this process I end up discarding what doesn’t work, and select a few options to share with the client.
Once the roughs are approved, I work digitally to create the final art.
Me — I have always admired your body of work and the way you do justice to each project. Does a work ethic matter for illustrators and artists? It’s a pretty erratic field isn’t it, especially for a freelancer…
Archana — Thank you. I can’t think of any situation where work ethic doesn’t matter, actually. So it does matter for illustrators and artists too. And I’m quite sure it’s something that comes quite naturally to many, because most artists and illustrators are doing this work by choice and out of passion. And I guess that helps tide one over the erratic phases too.
Me — What excites you the most when it comes to illustrating books?
Archana — I love it when I’m able to find a way to insert a piece of me into my work. When I’m able to insert something from my own lived experience into a book, it makes the whole thing more meaningful and special to me, irrespective of whether anyone else gets it or not :-)
Me — Tell us about yourself.
Archana — I went to Chitrakala Parishath College of Fine Arts in Bangalore right after school. I worked for a few years after that, and then joined National Institute of Design for a post-graduate diploma in Animation Film Design. Many years later, I went to School of Visual Arts, New York, for a residency in Illustration.
Me — How did you journey into children’s books?
Archana — For many years after college I jumped jobs trying my hand at various disciplines like graphic design, advertising, cartooning, animation, comic art, UI design, etc. Along the way on this journey I happened to illustrate a few stories for a mobile app, and that’s when it occurred to me that illustrating stories is probably what I love best. And from there it was a slow-ish, bumpy-ish ride to becoming a full time illustrator.
Me — Tell us about writers and illustrators you admire.
Archana — I really struggle with this question because it’s not a fixed list. Often I just get online and discover new art to fall in love with. Some illustrators I admire are — Priya Kuriyan, Priya Sebastian, Aindri Chakraborty, Rajiv Eipe, Sandhya Prabhat, Chaaya Prabhat, Emily Hughes, etc. But this is by no means a complete list :-) As for writers — I really enjoy stuff written by Vinayak Varma, Shalini Srinivasan, Jerry Pinto, Philip Pullman… I’ve not been able to read much for a long time now, so I’m sure I’m forgetting some important names here :-)
‘Krishnadevaraya –King of Kings’ has been published by Good Earth. It is available here and here. You could have a look at more of Archana’s fantastic illustrations here
The idea behind this series of interviews is to give readers a glimpse into the world of children’s publishing and picture book illustration in India — what illustrators actually do and how they work their magic. Stay tuned!
Read the interviews with children’s book illustrators Read the interviews with children’s book illustrators Ishita Biswas , Sunita , Deepa Balsavar, Bhargav Kulkarni, Ruchi Mhasane, Ashok Rajagopalan, Priya Sebastian, Karen Haydock
