I am so excited to be able to announce the results of the illustration competition at last!

We had some fantastic entries and I have been genuinely bowled over by how good your illustrations are.

Pictures for kids books need to be original and inventive (not predictable), dramatic (capturing a crucial moment in the story), well executed (in terms of both style and finish) and have massive impact. Those are hard things to pull off (I’m still learning) – but you guys have made it look easy!

I have judged the entries against 4 criteria: inventiveness, story, finish and impact and given them a score out of 10 for each. I then added the totals to get a score out of 40.

The Winner

The winner, with a whopping score of 36 out of 40, is…. Lois M. Well, done Lois!

This illustration has huge impact thanks to the bold colours and clear black lines against the white background. It is super inventive, using a story board approach, and I love how the sounds the Incredible Counting Machine make are expressed in the centre panel – what a great idea! It is also very original having the faces cut off below the nose, which focuses attention on the words and lions. It captures a lovely moment in the story and the overall finish is really good (very neat and clear). I could imagine a whole children’s book done in this style.

Runners Up

There are three runners up with scores over 30 points:

This dramatic picture by Beth H captures the moment the Russians are closing in on Uncle Bill’s farm and Caleb, Grandpa and Uncle Bill make their escape. It is a really good composition (layout) and I love the picture of the helicopter, complete with sound effects. Nice bold colours and a strong style. Well done Beth.

This is a lovely picture by Rhoda H capturing a small but important detail in the book, where Mr Smythe and Ashley put a bug on Grandpa’s bike trailer. I love how it is just poking out behind the wheel! Another good strong image with bold colours and a good use of black line.

Charis M scores very high for inventiveness with this mixed media illustration. Can you see how she has used lollipop sticks and pipe cleaners?! It is a lovely picture of Uncle Bill’s office, with all kinds of interesting details: a bone, a jar of animal parts – and a real feather!

---

Thanks everyone for entering. I’ll be in touch soon about your prizes.

Look out for the next competition coming up soon!