The Traveling Bug
Collaborative Illustration Experiment
I was lucky to be a part of a crazy, illustration experiment in the form of a traveling sketchbook. And a spontaneously developed narrative. Initiated by Pratham Books, this experiment allowed illustrators to also develop the script for a story. The first illustrator had the power to choose any topic to begin the story with, and the rest of us would take it forward from there. Rajiv Eiipe (Bangalore, Karnataka), Kalyani Ganapathy (Coonoor, Tamil Nadu), Ogin Nayam (Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh), Tanya Kotnala (Dehradun, Uttarakhand), Lungshai Leisan (Ukhrul, Manipur), Prabhakar Dabral (Leh, Ladakh) and finally the traveling sketchbook returned back to Bangalore - to me (Ruchi Shah).
The story took off from the idea of traveling, and getting bitten by a travel bug. This idea was explored through a character, Binita the Beetle who loves to travel the world. Each illustrator's fancy: colour pencils, water colours, inks and assemblage...all found a space within this story. Local creatures, insects, trees and patterns all added to the context of all the places Binita a. k. a. the sketchbook traveled to. With undercurrents of self discovery, music, happiness, and the joy of sharing, this resulted in a wonderfully bizarre, multilayered story.
The Traveling Bug.
Rough work for the spread I was working on.
Rough illustration - Rajiv Eipe. He was the first illustrator to decide the topic and line of the narrative.
This rough spread was created by Kalyani Ganapathy.
This is the spread I designed. Using an assemblage of real leaves, I collaged them and drew around them to create this page.
The Ebook which is available on Storyweaver.
