LET ME DRAW YOU A STORY is a new project by ThinkArts, inviting children in India and Bhutan (ages 9–12) to respond to extracts from Swiss children’s books--through drawing! These extracts introduce young readers to new stories, themes, and ways of thinking, while reflecting Switzerland’s rich tradition of multilingual publishing and imaginative storytelling.
Stories can be pictures too. The project follows on the success of LET ME TELL YOU A STORY, which in 2020, gave children in India a unique space to share their voices during an unprecedented time. The project grew into an online repository of 100 stories written by children aged 6–10+, with 15 illustrated by Swiss artists and 45 narrated by storytellers in India.
Let Me Draw You A Story is presented by ThinkArts with support from the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia in partnership with the Embassy of Switzerland in India and Bhutan under the Sustainability with a plus initiative.
Stories can be pictures too. The project follows on the success of LET ME TELL YOU A STORY, which in 2020, gave children in India a unique space to share their voices during an unprecedented time. The project grew into an online repository of 100 stories written by children aged 6–10+, with 15 illustrated by Swiss artists and 45 narrated by storytellers in India.
Let Me Draw You A Story is presented by ThinkArts with support from the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia in partnership with the Embassy of Switzerland in India and Bhutan under the Sustainability with a plus initiative.
PROCESS
Collecting Stories: Each child creates a drawing inspired by a selected prompt, offering their personal visual interpretation.
Drawing Stories: A team of Swiss, Indian, and Bhutanese illustrators will then view selected drawings and create new artworks inspired by the children’s imagination.
Sharing Stories: This dialogue across geography allows artists to reflect on familiar stories transformed by children’s perspectives, resulting in richly layered works.
All artworks by the participating children will be uploaded to a dedicated page on the ThinkArts website, creating a vibrant gallery of imagination and exchange.
Drawing Stories: A team of Swiss, Indian, and Bhutanese illustrators will then view selected drawings and create new artworks inspired by the children’s imagination.
Sharing Stories: This dialogue across geography allows artists to reflect on familiar stories transformed by children’s perspectives, resulting in richly layered works.
All artworks by the participating children will be uploaded to a dedicated page on the ThinkArts website, creating a vibrant gallery of imagination and exchange.
With the end of the first phase, we are now moving into creating original illustrations inspired by the hundreds of submissions sent by participants from across India and Bhutan.
Here are the professional illustrators working on the project!
Here are the professional illustrators working on the project!
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Carla Haslbauer
Carla Haslbauer (*1994 Germany) is an illustrator and author for picture books and comics, based in Basel Switzerland. With her first and second picture book "Die Tode meiner Mutter“ and „Wo kommen die Ideen her“ published by NordSüd she received great media attention and was nominated for the German Youth Litheratur Award. She finds her inspiration in nature, the underwater world and her childhood memories. |
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Photographer: Nikkol Rot
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Johanna Schaible
Johanna Schaible is an illustrator and artist living in Switzerland. She loves working with images and text. Her picture book debut "Once upon a time and there will be much more" (2021) was published in thirteen languages. Alongside her own projects, she lectures at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. |
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Pakhi Senshekhar
Pakhi is a Delhi-based multimedia artist working across illustration, hand-drawn animation, and wall murals. Over the past five years, she has developed a freelance practice centered on storytelling, using hand-drawn methods to explore themes of identity, relationships, and everyday life. Her work often draws from personal experiences as well as broader social and political contexts. She has contributed to a range of editorial and digital platforms. Her work includes a published political cartoon in The Mainstream Weekly. She has also illustrated for Agents of Ishq, contributing to projects that engage with gender, relationships, and sexuality. In addition to her independent practice, Pakhi has experience in research-based work. She spent nine months as a research assistant on the Hum Hindustani outreach project, where she supported work related to cultural identity and belonging. This experience continues to inform her approach to visual storytelling. Pakhi works across formats, from animation to murals, and continues to experiment with different ways of drawing and image-making. Her practice remains grounded in hand-drawn processes. |
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Paloma Canonica
Born in 1989, Paloma Canonica grew up in a small Swiss village. Over the years she has worked in the fields of illustration and animation, collaborating with various Swiss and international publishing houses, including Bohem Press Italia, Marameo, and Nord Sud Verlag. She currently works as a middle school Visual Arts teacher. She sees the world best through illustration. |
Thimphu Comics
Thimphu Comics Studio is a Bhutan-based creative collective led by three comic artists: Tempa Rabgay, Wang Rana Gurung, and Tshewang Namgay. The studio focuses on storytelling through comics, illustration, and visual narratives that draw from Bhutanese culture, history, and everyday life. Our work aims to make stories more accessible and engaging, especially for younger audiences, while also experimenting with contemporary styles
and formats.
Through collaborations, workshops, and creative projects, Thimphu Comics seeks to expand the presence of comics in Bhutan and use the medium as a tool for education, cultural preservation, and artistic exchange.
Thimphu Comics Studio is a Bhutan-based creative collective led by three comic artists: Tempa Rabgay, Wang Rana Gurung, and Tshewang Namgay. The studio focuses on storytelling through comics, illustration, and visual narratives that draw from Bhutanese culture, history, and everyday life. Our work aims to make stories more accessible and engaging, especially for younger audiences, while also experimenting with contemporary styles
and formats.
Through collaborations, workshops, and creative projects, Thimphu Comics seeks to expand the presence of comics in Bhutan and use the medium as a tool for education, cultural preservation, and artistic exchange.
