2022 New England Illustration Prize
The New England Writers' Centre is proud to announce the winners for this year's Illustration Prize, with three wonderful awards and national recognition.
| 2022 Illustration Prize Press Release |
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"The Door to Adventure".
Congratulations to everyone who responded to this year's Prize with your interpretations of "The Door to Adventure". 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. |
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Feedback from the judges
The entries were generally of a high standard, with a wide variety of concepts used. |
So many cute and fun illustrations! Whimsical and magical. |
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First Prize
A children’s “Focus, Assess, Recharge” picture book project review from the Exisle Academy, and $350 cash prize. Proudly sponsored by Exisle Academy |
Expert Advice from Book Publishing Professionals
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Goes to Anke Noack
Anke's submission was the clear winner by score for all key areas of artistic merit, fitting the theme and concept.
Copyright Anke Noack
(Click on the image to enlarge)
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"Great concept, design and palette. An exceptional design and execution, with the subject matter aligning well to the theme and just waiting to be turned into a book.
The character design is brilliant - look at their handy bag packed with maps/important items and even sections to hold all their drawing utensils with! (I wish I had one of those!) The scraped knee adds to the feel that this person is ready for an adventure. " |
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"The colours have been chosen very well. The light faded bedroom colours that don’t allow for distracting details is very smart, leaving the new world open and just waiting to be uncovered/dived into. The animal choices are also really good. I love the slow loris (I think it is one anyway) on the right-hand side, along with the pangolin, animals that very rarely get their time in the spotlight when it comes to kids’ books. More weird and wonderful creatures please!"
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"Absolute stand-out: brilliant composition, clever use of light and shadow, colour and white.
Captivating central child character with lots of detail to bring their character to life. So much detail in the scene to pore over and discover new points of interest and intrigue. Magical and inviting and exotic and familiar all at once. Well done!" |
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Second Prize
A portfolio assessment by United Publishers of Armidale, and $250 cash prize. Proudly sponsored by The United Publishers of Armidale |
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Goes to Margeaux Davis
Copyright Margeaux Davis
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Margeaux's choice of palette and details attracted considerable praise.
"Exceptional illustration with beautiful linework, shading and detail." "First thing that caught my eye was the beautiful colours chosen. There are so many green tones to choose when it comes to trees and grass, they have made sure to make a careful mixture of blues, yellows, and greens (light and bright). This alongside the shadows being cast, helps create a fabulous colour palette/scene." |
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"The bubble is great and looks good against the white background and doesn’t take away from the scene.
The contrast of the barn owl against the trees is also beautiful (a great subject choice), details have been done so well on the wings and face. " |
"Works very well with the theme and has little pockets of references which is fun to notice. I am very much reminded of the boy from Graeme Base’s Animalia book because of the blue denim pants and red and yellowish/orange striped scarf."
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Third Prize
Cash prize of $150 and 1 year's membership of the New England Writers' Centre, with discounts on 2023 workshops. Proudly sponsored by The New England Writers' Centre |
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Goes to Tilda Joy
We note that Tilda was Commended in the 2021 Prize, and this year, has moved into the winners ranks. Well done Tilda!
Copyright Tilda Joy
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"Evocative of night time adventure and curiosity."
"This piece really drew me in! Love the use of light and shadow to bring this evocative scene to life. Palette delivers the mood beautifully. An exceptional piece that is only let down a bit by the rendering of the child character - physicality feels a little off." |
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"Fabulous illustration skills, it is a huge triumph to be able to create a glowing effect from the darkness without using blacks and typical yellow/orange glows. It really makes the entire image a lot more interesting. The use of pinks and purples throughout the rest of the page is a great touch. It ties everything together."
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"I would love to see how the curtains under the bed have been opened. Since there are beautiful delicate flowers coming from inside, maybe there could be some small friendly insects or creatures also coming out in a similar artistic style. With a small butterfly (like the drawing on the pin board) or mouse pulling the curtain open to reveal the door to the adventure."
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Meet the Winners
Anke Noack (VIC)
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Anke works as a children’s book illustrator and CG artist in her studio in North Fitzroy/ Melbourne.
She started out as an architect, followed by ten exciting years in the computer game industry in London and Berlin. In 2018 she established SALMONLAB, a design and illustration studio. When she's not traveling the world with her three kids in tow, she's creating colourful worlds and sharing her love for 'Wimmelbooks' and Franco-Belgian comics with little (and not so little) people. https://www.salmonlab.com |
Margeaux Davis (NSW)
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Hello! My name is Margeaux and I'm an illustrator and soft toy designer, working under the name Willowynn.
I work from a tiny garden studio, in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. I'm just starting out in my picture book illustration career, and am excited to be working on a project that will be published with Wombat Books in 2023. My work can be viewed over at my website: www.willowynn.com/illustration or on Instagram www.instagram.com/margeauxdavis.illustration |
Tilda Joy (ACT)
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Tilda is a Canberra based illustrator who is studying a Bachelor of Design and Bachelor of Science at the Australian National University.
In her picture book illustrations, she loves exploring nature, light and magical environments. She plays across a range of traditional and digital mediums in search of new colour combinations and unexpected textures. Tilda can be found on instagram @tilda.joy |
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Janeen Brian
Janeen Brian is an award-winning, children’s author and poet with over 110 books published in both trade and educational publishing. She enjoys writing picture books, junior fiction, poetry, novels and non-fiction.
Many of her books have been translated and distributed worldwide while more than 200 stories, poems, plays and articles have been published in children’s magazines or anthologies. Janeen was the recipient of the 2012 Adelaide Festival of Literature Carclew Fellowship and in 2009 also received a May Gibbs’ Children’s Literature Trust Fellowship. Janeen is an Ambassador for Raising Literacy Australia (The Little Big Book Club.) |
Janeen loves reading, creating mosaics, aqua-aerobics, Yoga, walking, gardening, travelling, craft work, watching theatre and films and spending time with her family and friends. She lives in the seaside city of Glenelg, in Adelaide, South Australia with her husband. She has two daughters and four grandchildren.
www.janeenbrian.com
www.janeenbrian.com
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Tash Besliev
Tash Besliev is the kids publisher at Affirm Press. Her 20 years in children’s publishing has seen her work on best-selling books across a number of categories, from Billie B Brown, Zac Power and Go Girl in junior fiction, to picture books such as the HumanKind series and non-fiction like Love Your Body and Money Queens.
She’s also worked with entertainment brands including Disney, Star Wars, ABC Kids and The Wiggles and classic children’s book estates including Enid Blyton, Tintin, Thomas the Tank Engine and Winnie-the-Pooh. |
She believes strongly that books are a right not a privilege, and that all children deserve access to quality books.
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Sami Bayly
Sami is 26 years old (in 2022), and is currently based in Tamworth, NSW.
She has released three books in the Illustrated Encyclopaedia series and has just released her first book of a new series, How We Came To Be - Surprising Sea Creatures, published by Lothian - Hachette Australia. |
With a bachelor of Natural History Illustration (Honours) at the University of Newcastle, Sami is trained in scientific illustration and loves to try new mediums and techniques as she never knows what style she might fall in love with next. At this point in time her most preferred medium is watercolour. She loves to illustrate any animal that can be defined as weird, wonderful or even ugly!
samibayly.com
samibayly.com