In partnership with the House of Illustration and the Betjeman Poetry Prize, Lauren Child (Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2017-2019) announces an International Illustration Prize for illustrators aged 18-25 years.
To enter the competition, create an illustration for one poem from the Betjeman Poetry Prize. Click here to download and print all poems (PDF file).
« For me, poetry and illustration are natural allies. Illustration enjoys the challenge and luxury of being hyper-selective, taking a single scene from a story, but then enjoying the freedom to go beyond the text, to contribute the illustrator’s own sense of emotion and drama. The best illustration is truly complementary to the text, going beyond the words while observing a basic loyalty to them.
In its own way, poetry does something similar. It can present in the most intense and moving form a single thought, an irony or a conflict, unconstrained by the demands of plot and character, like scenes from some wider, if unwritten, drama. For me, this makes short poetry an ideal place to start illustration, because it encourages one to think abstractly, to take a poem and translate it into picture and in doing so to create something which enhances the words and takes them further. » (Lauren Child)
You are required to submit full-page illustrations in black and white. Do not illustrate around the words. The illustrations can be in any medium suitable for reproduction. Your illustrations can either bleed off the page or be surrounded by a white border for a trimmed page size of 210 x 297mm (A4).
Original artwork should not be submitted. You should submit your illustration at 150 dpi, Greyscale, JPEG (jpeg setting 8). If you are shortlisted, you will be contacted for the master artwork. Master artwork must be a 300dpi Greyscale TIFF.
Entry fee is 15 GBP (approx. 20 USD) for each illustration.
Eligibility
Open worldwide to illustrators aged 18-25 years.
Prize
There is a 1,000 GBP (approx. 1,390 USD) first prize, plus prizes for commended illustrators. Top 12 illustrators will be commissioned to create further work to be exhibited at St Pancras International station, London, in September 2018.
