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Chaaya Prabhat’s artistic flair blossomed from a young age. She was a library-loving child with a passion for drawing and storytelling, and it seemed a given that professional illustration was in her future.

“My style of illustration, use of colors, and hand-lettering all seemed to naturally fit well into making picture books for children,” she says. “[It] was the perfect culmination of all my interests.”

Prabhat credits libraries and the “torn, tattered, and much-loved books” she cherished with fostering her talent.

“In design school, I spent hours upon hours looking at art books, references, and I have a whole hard drive full of scans taken [of] those books,” she says.

Readers can see the Goa-based artist’s work in two 2024 SLJ-starred titles, each distinct in format and scope. Prabhat is the cover artist for The Partition Project, Saadia Faruqi’s latest middle grade novel about a young Pakistani American girl whose life is changed when a journalism project prompts her to interview her grandmother about the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan.

Prabhat’s involvement was personal: “I found [Faruqi’s] story to be so interesting, particularly because my own grandmother had moved across borders during the Partition.” After being tapped by HarperCollins artistic director Joel Tippie, Prabhat distilled the essence of the novel into magnificent cover art that is, in her words, “quiet and contemplative, but still vibrant.”

Chaaya Prabhat

Her creative process begins with a rough idea, a pencil, and thumbnail sketches that are “usually indecipherable to anyone other than me.” From there, Prabhat brings her richly detailed illustrations to life in Procreate or Photoshop. For The Partition Project, she did a deep dive into the text to capture its essence. “I read the entire book and sketched up a few thumbnails,” she says. “It was a challenge, because the cover had to somehow tie in the historical context of the story with the modern-day protagonist.”

The second endeavor was illustrating Abigail Wheatley’s children’s cookbook, World Kitchen. “The premise was so exciting that I was instantly on board,” says Prabhat. “It was a really unique book to work on, with real-life recipes from real people around the world.” Since the recipes were provided alongside photos of the families who submitted them, Prabhat blended her personal style with reference-based depictions of families cooking their traditional cuisine. The result is a stunning array of mouth-watering food spreads, imbued with Prabhat’s trademark whimsy.

Her portfolio ranges from picture books and cover art to a Hong Kong wall mural, Google Doodles, and even the logo for the Obama Foundation’s Girls Opportunity Alliance. Key to any project, she says, is having it resonate with the intended audience. Each deserves a specialized approach, whether it’s a magazine cover or a gift-card design.

In her downtime, Prabhat admits that her main hobby is, well, illustration! “When I’m not drawing for work, I’m drawing for fun,” she says. Her leisure art is “less organized and more free,” and recent forays include working in gouache.

Another pastime allows for playfulness both on and off the page. “I really love experimenting with food and playing around with ingredients,” she says. When she gets food-based illustration work, she is thrilled to carry what she learned from her culinary explorations into her professional skill set.

As for what’s next, Prabhat says, “I’m working on a couple of picture books which haven’t been announced yet, as well as some book covers and some fun packaging projects that I’m waiting to share once they’re out.”

Ashleigh Williams is an associate editor at SLJ.