Sana Bansal’s introspective illustrations absorb you into her wistful world

Sana Bansal creates all kinds of characters, from potatoes to aubergines with faces to furry creatures large and small, with tactile, warm textures she makes with “wax pastels and a simple 6B pencil.” The London-based illustrator has developed an affinity with these two analogue tools as the starting point for her digital drawings, “as I love how free and expressive I can be with them”, she tells us – her characters animated even on the static page through their soft, sweeping strokes.

Sana is of the opinion that “imperfect, messy drawings” are much more of “a fitting reflection of life”, than anything too clean-cut. She hopes to use her scratchy, layered mark making to sensitively explore themes of nostalgia, humour and cultural memory in her work, taking a lot of the influence for her illustrations from her upbringing in India and memories of her childhood. “Often, they are seemingly inconsequential memories like the lemon tree in my grandparents’ home that I would visit in the summers, but I like how these can root a story in a real experience”, she shares. “I also draw a lot from my everyday surroundings – observational drawings of people and places inspire the playful scenarios in my fictional narratives.”

The illustrator has developed a particular love for print over her career for all of its mystery and imperfection, finding in it a rather complete way of communicating all the nostalgic nuances of her drawings in editions of self published books and illustrated comics such as her zine Aloo Kachaloo. Recently discovering the Risograph, Sana has been drawn to its grainy textures and punchy colours as the perfect way to replicate all the whimsical nature of her work.