The First Ever Pretty Much World Famous Illustration Contest for Children’s Illustrators!!!

Fasten your seat belts and prepare for take off!  It’s finally here!

The First Ever Pretty–Much–World–Famous Illustration Contest!!!
the fact that this particular illustrator resembles a female
is in no way meant to deter any male illustrators! 🙂

The Contest: Draw/Paint/Create a children’s picture book cover illustration (no text required – art only) for one of the following stories (which you will recognize as the top finishers in the March Madness Fractured Fairy Tale Writing Contest – a little extra surprise for those authors :)):

 – The Three Wiggly Worms Bluff by Wendy Greenley
 – Goldilockup by Mike Allegra
 – Goldibawks And The Three Pairs by Dawn Young
 – The Sweetie Witch by Pen Avey
 – The Princess And The Stinky Cheese by Lauri Meyers
 – Mongoose’s Holi Party by Darshana Khiani
 – The “Princess” And The Pete by Jennifer Caritas
 – The Jackrabbit Who Cried Gila Monster by Elliah Terry

Illustrations should be 8×10, horizontal or vertical, any medium, posted in jpg at least 72 px
All stories can be read on the March Madness Finalist Post HERE so you will know what to illustrate 🙂  Illustrators may enter more than one entry if they’re feeling ambitious enough to illustrate more than one book title 🙂
Post:  Your entry should be posted on your blog between right now this very second and Monday April 28 at 9 PM EDT (contest deadline!), and your post-specific link should be added to the link list below.  This post with the link list will remain up through Tuesday April 29 so that people can come visit and enjoy your gorgeous artwork!  (For regular blog followers, there will be no PPBF on Friday April 25, no new post on Monday April 28, but there will be a brief interruption for WYRI on Wednesday April 30 because I forgot to leave it open for the contest :)).  If you don’t have a blog but would like to enter, please copy and paste your entry into the comments below.  (If anyone has trouble commenting, which unfortunately happens, you may email me and I’ll post your entry for you!  Also, since this is the first time we’ve done an illustration contest, I’m not sure if you actually CAN paste your entry into the comments.  If this turns out to be a problem, email them to me and I’ll add them directly to this post.)

Judging:  entries will be judged by multi-talented, award-winning author/illustrators Iza Trapani, author and illustrator of over 20 gorgeous picture books, and Lisa Thiesing, author and illustrator of at least 16 beautiful and fun picture books and early readers!   Judging criteria to include:


 – is the picture readable to a young audience,
 – how well does it show the character(s) and
 – is the character(s) appealing (character development),
 – does it make you want to read the story,
 – originality
 – skill.


They will narrow down the entrants to 6 finalists (or possibly a couple more or less depending on the number of entries :)) which will be posted here on Thursday May 1 for you to vote on for a winner.  The vote will be closed at 5PM EST on Sunday May 4 and the winner will be announced on Monday May 5.  (No PPBF on Friday May 2.)


The Prizes!:  There will definitely be a 1st prize.  Whether we give prizes for 1st only, 1st-3rd, or 1st-6th will depend on how many entries we get.  We need at least 12 entries to place through 3rd, and at least 20 to place through 6th.

    First Prize is absolutely amazing!  A portfolio critique by celebrated author/illustrator Michael Garland, who has over 20 picture books to his credit!!!

 – Second Prize – a $50 gift certificate to Dick Blick Art Materials (which is online)
 – Third, Fourth & Fifth Prize will be winner’s choice of one of the following books:
      – Writing With Pictures by Uri Shulevitz

 – Sixth Prize – a Canson sketch pad and a small set of Derwent or Faber Castell colored pencils

I’m so excited to see what everyone comes up with!  As a person whose artistic ability is limited to stick figures, scribbling and relatively easy coloring books, I am in awe of anyone who can draw/paint/cause anything recognizable to appear on paper/canvas/computer screen 🙂  I hope we’ll get plenty of entries, and that there will be at least one attempt at every title!

Tweet: Enjoy the art! Enter yourself! Children’s Book Cover Illustration Contest @SusannaLHill http://ctt.ec/58ZUb+ #kidart #illustration

Let the artistic fun begin!!!  🙂

Don’t miss Laura’s entry for The Three Wiggly Worms Bluff in the comment section! (click HERE and be a little patient :))

And here’s Katie’s entry for Goldibawks And The Three Pairs! (click HERE and be a little patient :))

And here’s Laura’s entry for The Sweetie Witch! (click HERE and be a little patient :))

And here’s Angela’s entry for The Three Wiggly Worms Bluff! (click HERE and be a little patient :))

and here’s Suzy’s entry for The Three Wiggly Worms Bluff! (click HERE and be a little patient :))

Entry from Hilary Swann for The “Princess” And The Pete

Hilary Swann – The “Princess” And The Pete

132 thoughts on “The First Ever Pretty Much World Famous Illustration Contest for Children’s Illustrators!!!”

  3. Joanna Marple says:
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    Unknown's avatar

    Wish I were an artist! This is awesome and love the little illo at the top! I look forward to seeing the entries. Thank you, Susanna, for this initiative!

  16. Cheryl Secomb says:
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    Unknown's avatar

    Me, too! Thank you for having this opportunity for her to take part. She might enter another picture. This is such fun. I'm loving all the fabulous entries!

  22. Wizmaya Design Studio says:
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    Unknown's avatar

    Thank you for this opportunity. I had lots of fun with my illustration piece. It's great to see other artists' works too! Creativity is overflowing here. 🙂

    If only I had the free time… would love to do another one for a different story.

  27. Nata ArtistaDonna says:
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    Unknown's avatar

    hi Susanna 🙂 I wouldn't let anything stop me from entering the first Illustrators contest! thank you for the opportunity! ……….working on my first ever watercolor entry 🙂

  30. Lauri Meyers says:
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    Unknown's avatar

    This contest is teaching me a lot about publishing. The editor's choice of illustrator and then the approach the illustrator decides to take can change enhance a story, change a story or turn that little story right on its head! Really fascinating to see all the different takes.

  31. Wendy Greenley says:
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    Unknown's avatar

    I love these! Seeing the illustrations for Wiggly Worms has me especially all happy wiggly inside. Good luck to everyone. 🙂

  32. :Donna Marie says:
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    Unknown's avatar

    Hi, Susanna 🙂

    Well, Erik posted this on his blog (http://tinyurl.com/ko8ctqb) so I
    scooted right on over to check it out! 😀 (His sister, Josie, did an adorable
    illustration for it, too: http://tinyurl.com/m3w8fxz)

    Oddly enough, I already have an illustration–two, actually–I did for
    something else that just HAPPEN to fit Mike Allegra's GOLDILOCKUP (which is
    hilarious, btw lol), soooooo…I figured I'd post them 🙂 They're just
    “collecting dust” here in my computer and my portfolio, so I figured—why not?
    😉 (Btw, I framed them to make them 8×10 since they're actually square.)

    That being said, I'm not so sure mine would qualify for this contest. So IF I
    qualify at all, I really don't want to be in the running for 1st prize, AND I
    already own WRITING WITH PICTURES (fantastic book!), but I wouldn't mind any of the other wonderful prizes you may offer 😉

    So, here you go:

    (the image of Goldi leaves room for text which is why such a large area is blank)

    Thanks for running this, Susanna 🙂 You do such wonderful stuff 🙂

  33. :Donna Marie says:
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    Unknown's avatar

    Yay, posting the images actually worked! Mine appear as if they're connected though. They are actually two separate images 🙂

  37. :Donna Marie says:
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    Unknown's avatar

    lol…I finally figured out where everyone was looking to view artwork! I am SUCH a dunce *sigh* Didn't realize those were links! Anyway, my blog's not launched, and I don't think I qualify anyway, but thought it would be fun to participate, so I pasted my entry ALL the way at the bottom of my “pre-launch” page.
    And I have to tell you, the artwork is really blowing me away! I'm hoping to see some come in for stories that haven't been done yet. Mine is there simply because I already had something pertaining to “Goldilocks.” If I had the time, I'd make a new one, but…
    So much fun, Susanna 😀

  38. Catherine Constance says:
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    Unknown's avatar

    Hi Darshana,
    I've illustrated the cover for your story. Would you let me have your blog address so I can link back to your page. I can't find it, must be wearing Mor's goggles… 🙂 Hope you like what I've done… 🙂

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