2021 Illustration Prize Winners
The New England Writers' Centre is proud to announce the winners for this year's Illustration Prize, with three wonderful awards and national recognition.
Download the 2021 Illustration Prize Results Press Release |
This year's theme was "A Message In a Bottle"
The calibre and artistic merit of the entries this year was very high. All submissions were anonymous and our judges were asked to score on each entry for artistic merit, how well the artwork fitted the theme, and suitability for children's book publishing. |
Quick links
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Feedback from the judges
This collection of entries was very impressive and varied, both in the subjects portrayed and the medium used by the artist. There was a large range of artistic talent, most of them addressing the theme imaginatively and with considerable child appeal, which is an element of illustration that is high on my list. It’s also good if an illustration shows immediate appeal and invites the viewer to look deeper for the story portrayed. Many of these illustrations depicted appealing character interaction and invited closer inspection and viewer involvement. |
The illustrations submitted would appeal to a wide range of readers and age levels. There were some terrific entries in the competition, and some really interesting and original treatments of the theme. |
...and the winners are...
First Prize
A cash prize of $350 and a portfolio assessment by United Publishers of Armidale, plus one follow-up. Sponsored by The United Publishers of Armidale Goes to Shelley Knoll-Miller
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Supporting Children's Book Publishing in the wider community
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(Click on the image to enlarge)
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Shelley's submission was a clear winner by score for all key areas of artistic merit, fitting the theme and concept.
Judges comments:
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Second Prize
A voucher to the value of $250 to be used for books or prints listed on the Books Illustrated website. Sponsored by Books Illustrated Goes to Louis Decrevel
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Promoting Australian picture books and book illustration
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Third Prize
One year's Associate Membership of SCBWI and $25 voucher for art supplies (or cash prize of equal value $150). Sponsored by Havenslee Studio Goes to Triandhika Anjani
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Business support for creative entrepreneurs
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Shelley Knoll-Miller (VIC)
Shelley Knoll-Miller has worked as a cartoonist for over twenty years including with The Melbourne Age. She illustrated her first picture book in 2018, for Scholastic. In 2020, Shelley was awarded a place on the the Maurice Saxby Mentorship program and the ASA Style File Illustrator Award. She is currently writing and illustrating a series of 4 picture books, to be released by Penguin Random House in 2023.
Her main goal as an author-illustrator is to make enough money to employ someone to write her bios for her (because talking in the third person is weird and sometimes confusing). Shelley lives in a strawbale home that she built with her husband, and juggles creative work with raising three children, and growing a large permaculture garden. |
Louis Decrevel (SA)
Writer/Illustrator Louis Decrevel (pron. Louie Decra-vel), lives on a hobby farm in the beautiful Inman Valley, South Australia, where he and his wife homeschool their nine hilarious children.
He won the Faber Writing Academy Scholarship in 2021 for Writing for Children, and was runner up for the Book Links Mentorship 2021 for a middle grade fantasy novel. He has a Master of Visual Art & Design [Illustration] from UniSA. His Master’s thesis, Word and Picture at Play, explores how text and images interact in picture books. His family’s adventures provide endless inspiration for his stories, poetry, comics and art. He is working on humorous action-adventure and fantasy stories and picture books that explore childhood and family life. www.louisdecrevel.com |
Triandhika Anjani (ACT)
I’m originally from Indonesia and studied illustration in Japan, but now I live in Canberra and working remotely as an illustrator.
I love reading children’s picture book ever since I was small, and always dream of making illustrations for stories. The sky, the light, and nature landscapes are my sources of inspiration as well as artworks from various children’s picture books. You could view the illustrations I made on my website at www.triandhikaanjani.com or on my instagram page @triandhikaanjani |
The response to the 2021 Illustration Prize was outstanding with many imaginative and well crafted submissions. The judges were hard put to make their final selection. Below are those entries that were highly commended (click on the images to enlarge). Congratulations to everyone!
Margaret HamiltonMargaret Hamilton AM has had many years experience in children’s books — as a children’s librarian, a bookseller, a publisher and as a parent.
In 1987 she left her position as director at Hodder & Stoughton Australia to begin Margaret Hamilton Books with her husband Max. The company built up a reputation for high quality children’s books and was dedicated to the philosophy ‘that children have a right to the best of everything, especially books’. |
Margaret Hamilton Books won many awards and had considerable success on the world market. It became a Division of Scholastic Australia in 1996, where the imprint remains. Margaret’s passion for picture books, her enthusiasm for the world of Australian illustrators, and her recognition of the need for wider promotion of picture books, led her ten years ago to establish Pinerolo, the Children’s Book Cottage at Blackheath in the Blue Mountains. Her own extensive collection of books and original artwork provide the nucleus of this centre.
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www.pinerolo.com.au
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www.pinerolo.com.au
Paul CollinsPaul Collins is an Australian writer and editor who specialises in science fiction and fantasy. Collins has written many books for younger readers. He is best known for his fantasy series, The Jelindel Chronicles, and The Quentaris Chronicles, and his science fiction series, The Maximus Black Files. Paul’s latest book due Feb 2022 is James Gong: The Chinese Dragon. Paul is also the founder and publisher of Ford Street, an independent Australian publisher which publishes between twelve to fifteen titles a year, ranging from picture books through to novels and non-fiction for older readers.
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He is also the founder of Creative Net Speakers' Agency, showcasing some of the authors and illustrators he now publishes including some of Australia's best-known authors and illustrators such as Leigh Hobbs, Isobelle Carmody, George Ivanoff, Gabrielle Wang, Andrew Plant and Adam Wallace.
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fordstreetpublishing.com
creativenetspeakers.com
paulcollins.com.au
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fordstreetpublishing.com
creativenetspeakers.com
paulcollins.com.au
Nicki GreenbergNicki Greenberg is an award-winning writer and illustrator of more than thirty books including novels, picture books and graphic novels. Her first series of picture books was published when she was fifteen years old. She later spent ten years disguised as a lawyer while maintaining a not-so-secret Other Life as a comics artist and children’s book author. Nicki’s innovative graphic adaptation of The Great Gatsby was a White Raven at the Bologna Book Fair, and her adaptation of Hamlet was joint winner of the 2011 Children’s Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year award.
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