Some of the most shared love illustrations online show no weddings, roses or grand gestures at all. They show a couple fixing a car, reading in bed or arguing over a song. These eight pictures come from Everyday Love, a long-running series by Indian-American illustrator Nidhi Chanani, and their appeal is exactly that ordinariness: love as a set of small, repeated choices rather than a single dramatic moment.
Chanani draws in warm, soft colours, with rounded characters, cats under the furniture and plenty of lamplight. Her couples are rarely posed; they are caught mid-laugh, mid-chore or mid-daydream. Below, each illustration is paired with a short note on what it shows and why that moment matters, along with a look at what relationship research says about the everyday habits the series celebrates. All artwork is by Nidhi Chanani, who sells prints and shares new work on her site, Everyday Love Art.
Who is Nidhi Chanani?
Chanani was born in Kolkata, India, in 1980 and moved to Southern California as a baby. She studied literature at UC Santa Cruz, spent time at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and worked for non-profits before turning to illustration full time. In 2012 the White House named her a Champion of Change for her work.
Alongside Everyday Love, she has written and drawn the graphic novel Pashmina (2017), about an Indian-American teenager discovering her mother's past, and co-created Jukebox (2021) with her husband, Nick Giordano. She has also illustrated picture books and worked with studios such as Disney and Paramount. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, daughter and two cats, and cats turn up in many of her drawings.
Play, music and learning together
1. Self-expression
A young man belts out a song on his guitar while his partner lies on the bed, chin in hands, smiling at him. Whether he can sing is beside the point; what the picture captures is the freedom to be enthusiastic, even a little ridiculous, in front of someone you trust. Feeling safe enough to look silly is one of the quieter signs that a relationship is working.
2. Learning from each other
Here the couple lean over an open car bonnet, and it is not obvious who is teaching whom, which feels deliberate. Chanani avoids the usual split of who knows engines and who knows kitchens. Swapping skills, and being patient while the other person learns, turns an annoying breakdown into time spent side by side.
3. Retaining youth
A pillow fight on the bed in a room lit by late sunlight: two adults acting like children. Chanani's couples are frequently playful, and this is one of her most joyful scenes. Play matters in long relationships because it creates shared laughter, lowers tension and reminds partners that they actually enjoy each other.
Hard days and shared interests
4. Comfortably uncomfortable
One partner sits slumped on the edge of the bed while the other curls up beside him, arms around him, eyes closed. Nothing in the drawing tells us what went wrong, and nothing needs to. The image is about turning up on a bad day without trying to fix everything, which is often what people say they most value from a partner.
5. Sharing interests
Perched on a giant branch against a starry sky, the couple point at a shooting star together. The fantasy setting makes it one of the more dreamlike pictures in the set. Shared curiosity, whether about stars, games or books, gives couples things to talk about long after the early excitement of dating fades, and common interests can grow over time rather than being there from the start.
Adventure, space and growing old
6. Appreciating time outside
A windswept beach, waves breaking behind them, and the pair laughing as they run along the shore. Getting outdoors together adds novelty, and the fresh air and movement are good for both people. Studies of couples suggest that trying new and slightly exciting activities together can lift relationship satisfaction.
7. Do your own thing, together
Late at night under a crescent moon, both partners lie in bed absorbed in their own entertainment, one with a book or tablet and one with a snack and music, while a cat sleeps under the bed. They are not talking, yet they are clearly together. Being able to share a room comfortably in silence, each with your own interests, is a mark of security rather than distance.
8. Love till the end
The final picture shows an elderly couple from behind, his arm around her shoulders, looking out over the sea towards a city skyline as birds fly overhead. Their grey hair and stooped posture suggest decades together. It quietly answers the question the rest of the series raises: these small daily moments are what a long life together is made of.
What research says about everyday love
Chanani's focus on small moments lines up well with relationship research. Psychologist John Gottman, who has studied couples for decades, describes "bids for connection": the small ways partners seek attention, such as a comment, a smile, or a request for help. In his study of newlyweds, couples who were still married six years later had responded to these bids about 86% of the time, compared with about 33% for couples who divorced.
Another influential idea is the self-expansion model, developed by Arthur and Elaine Aron in the 1980s. It suggests that people are drawn to relationships partly because a partner helps them grow, learning new skills, perspectives and experiences. Research based on the model links shared novel activities with higher satisfaction and less boredom, which is very close to what the car-repair, stargazing and beach drawings show.
A few practical takeaways follow from both lines of research:
- notice and respond to small bids, even with a few words,
- try something new together from time to time,
- make room for play and humour,
- allow each other comfortable space and quiet time.
The beauty of ordinary moments
Popular culture often sells love through big events: proposals, anniversaries and grand reunions. Chanani's drawings make a different case. Most of a shared life happens in kitchens, bedrooms, car parks and on walks, and the way two people treat each other there shapes everything else.
That is also why her work travels so widely online: viewers recognise their own routines in it. If one of these scenes made you think of someone, that small moment of recognition is the series doing exactly what it set out to do. To see more, visit the artist's own site and support her work directly.
The descriptive commentary on these illustrations first appeared on Life Advancer, written by Sherrie H.; all images are by Nidhi Chanani.
Sources: Nidhi Chanani: Everyday Love Art; Wikipedia: Nidhi Chanani; The Gottman Institute: Turn toward instead of away; Wikipedia: Self-expansion model; Life Advancer (Sherrie H.).
For another artist's approach to showing affection through ordinary gestures, explore Puuung's Illustrations of Love in Everyday Moments.
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