My selected competition.

I have decided to the international contemporary printmakers competition. This is because I am currently experiencing a struggle with my creativeity and need to try experimenting with new ways of working to help reinspire me. I feel that developing my print making skills will be a good way for me to reinvogorate my work, and as this competition has an open brief it does not restrict me in any way.

At the end of the illustrative practises module i aim to have a series of prints which may be submitted for the competition or may require further development before the deadline of the competition - which is 12th June 2011. What I aiming for most importantly is a development and experimentation of with my printing skills, and hopefully the production of some prints which I am really proud of.

Plans for the remaining four weeks of the illustrative practises module.

I aim to spend at least 2 hours each week working within the print studio at college (the development of prints - such as physical lino cutting will be done outside the studio). I will start by experimenting with different finishes that I can achieve through different print making techniques and how paper, texture and colour can effect these. I will to other printmakers to gain inspiration and influence for this.

I am also hoping to visit some local galleries to gather inspiration (as suggested by Simone Lia when I emailed her asking her approach to dealing with a creative block) as well as mood boarding and mind mapping potentials for the content of the prints.

Previous winners of the A4 printmakers competition

This is last years winner of the A4 printmakers competition. Entitled 'Pearl' it is a dry point etching produce by Reti Saks from Estonia.

This piece seems to focus on the imagery which can be produced through the physical print making process as oppose to the print subject matter. This is a very contemporary print which shows details  only be achieved through printing making.

Here are some of the other winning entries...

Second place - 'Exodus' print produced by Barry Contrell. I must admit to not particular;ly liking this or the first prize winning print which I feel do not really do printmking full justice in terms of the effects which can be achieveable.

Third place -  'Then'  Mezotint produced by Cleo Wilkinson - a print I particularly like and is more traditional in it's approach to subject matter - which is clearly defined.

Elizabeth Dove - 'Small world experiement' - The simplicity of this highly commended entry make it really striking - it shows that selected prints do not have to be highly complex.

Maria Heed - 'Gifts' - This exhibited entry is again quite different in it's style and subject matter, suggesting a freedom of style and imagery of prints submitted.

Jill Mckeown - 'Cold Splash'

This again is another highly commended entry which I like. Having looked through the website at the winning and exhibited entries, it does not seem that there is any particular preferance for style, type or subject matter of the selected prints.   This is encouraging as I feel like if I were to enter then I would be free to experiment with any subject matter and printmaking technique that I wished. The only thing which worries me about entering this competition is my lack of printmaking experience, given that entry would be against people who have been printmaking all their lives. However, I would like to try and view this as a challenge to  further my work within a new area.

AOI images competition - Student catergory

Competition Brief

This is an open brief, with no direct requirements other than submitting an illustration which you feel is your best. (There are no restrictions on style, medium or genre within the student catergory)

Submission details

1. The entrant must register with the AOI (you are provided with email confirmation and login details after completing this)
2. For each image create:
   1 x low-res RGB JPG or Gif at 72 dpi, longest dimension set to 1200 pixels, use the 'save for web' dialog if available.
3. Submit an online entry form with the images. 

Entry Fee - £36 for a non memeber student

Images is an annual event, repeated at the same time each year:

• Call for Entries opens in April/May
  
• Deadline for entries is July/August
  
• Exhibition, and publication of annual: the following August/September

Competition deadline - (tbc) July / August 2011 

The deadline for last years competition (Images 35) was 15th September 2010, so I am assuming that the deadline for this years competition - which has not been posted on the website yet, will be on a similar date.

Illustrative Practises module deadline - 11th March 2011.

The deadline for this competition is well after the illustrative practises module deadline meaning that I can complete my entry for this competition for the illustrative practises module deadline and then if needs be I can reconsider my entry later on to see if I have produced something more successful.

Competition judges

The AOI images competition spans lots of different catergories of illustration (student is just one of 8). Last year there were 9 judges in total, (made up of contemporary illustrators, art directors and those within the creative industry) each judging multiple catergories of the images competition.

Given the vast array and number of judges, then it seems that the communication of an original idea will be the key thing to consider when entering this competition. As there is likely to be a high number of entries, it will be important to create an illustration that will stand out from the rest. It is unlikely that any particular style / subject content or meduim will be favored by the judges, giving free reign to the illustration that can be produced for entry.

Competition prizes

Award winners receive - Images New Talent Refresh! Award. Sponsored by The Coningsby Gallery worth Gold: £500, Silver: £250 and Bronze: £150. 

Winners work is displyed in the annual exhibition in London during the following summer and is printed within the images annual published at the same time and distributed to 4,000 illustration / design commissioners.

Successful student entrants will have the opportunity to show work at dandad.org /talentpool,  All student award winners will be given a year's free, unlimited use of directory lists produced by the AOI.

The prizes for this competition sound fantastic. Winning would provide plenty of opportunity to develop new contacts within the world of contemporary illustration and could open up many possibilities for future work. The prestige that winning this competition provides is far superior to the cash prizes, which seem almost insignificant comparitively.

Although it seems impossible to win entering this competition would be a beneficial experience as it would provide a chance to get work seen by industry greats. This would hopefully provide me enough inspiration to try and further my work - to create my best illustration yet, something I can be proud of, that I feel it suitable to show to some of the best in the contemporary illustration industry.

As the deadline for this competition is after I complete my second degree year, I may want to enter a piece from my final major study for this, rather than entering this competition for the illustrative practises module.

The International Contemporary Printmakers Competition

Competition brief:

There is no specific brief, other than all of the images supplied must be produced through a printmaking proccess.

This competition is quite appealing as printmaking is something that I enjoy and I would like to develop my skills in this area further. I have a limited experience of lino, screen, mono and dry etch printing and feel that experiementation within these areas (and how I can combine them) could result in the production of some images which are suitable to enter into this competition.

Submisssion details -

1. Up to 3 prints may be entered
2. Prints to be no larger than A4 in size (if smaller then these should be mounted on to A4 paper/card)
3. Prints to be named, signed and sent in a hard copy format, along with an artists CV and submission form. (Competition address - Pat King,  Comedy Studio,  Main Road,  Christian Malford,  Wiltshire,  SN15 4BS,  U.K.)
4. An email must also be supplied, including JPEG images of each print, and a 400 word artists statement

Entry Fee - £40

Competition deadline - 12th June 2011

Illustrative practises module deadline - 11th March 2011

The illustrative practises module deadline is before this competition deadline, meaning that although I would need to complete my selection of prints for competition entry before the module deadline, if I wanted to develop these prints further at a later time I would be able to.

Competition judges

Pat King BA  Curator        

Jesse Leroy Smith RA    

John Howard RE              

The above are all contemporary printmakers and painters. If I were to enter this competition then I feel that it would be important to research the work of these printmakers to find out the style of prints they produce and if this influenecs their evaluation of other work. I also feel it will be important to look at previous winning entries and see if there appars to be any trend in the style of work selected and commended by the judges.

Competition prizes (More awards to be announced)

First prize
The winning print, will be reproduced in full colour in the catalogue, together with your details.  This artist is invited to have a show the following summer in Cornwall, with a full page in the catalogue of all the submitted works, and will be invited, to act as part of the jury for the A4 Print International the following year.

A4 Special prize

Subscription to printmaking today

Best Emerging Talent Prize

2 day workshop at the Hand Print Studio Penzance

Although these prizes are not as prestigious as any of the other competition prizes I have looked at, I feel that the freedom of the brief in this competition and its nature make this currently the most appealing competition I have looked at. Winning this competition may not generate the contacts or work which would be provided by winning another of the competitions I have researched, but it would be a good edition to my CV and portfolio, allowing me to show a breadth of different working styles. This competition could provide a foothold into the printmaking industry and provide work generated in this area.

I feel quite inspired by this competition. It would allow me to experiement within this area and develop my work further. The freedom provided by this competition brief would hopefully mean that I can regain my creative interest in illustration.

Presently, I feel that to begin considering an entry for this competition I need to first research the judges of the competition and previous winning entries. It is also important to begin experimenting again with each of the print maing techniques I have knowledge of and to find out the types of imagery I can produce with these.

Choosing competitions

I am currently experiencing a creative block, and am finding it hard to feel inspired by any of my work. I feel that in order to try and solve this problem, I need to begin experimenting with my methods of producing imagery, and the ways I am working.

All the competitions which I have researched so far (excluding the V and A student illustrator awards) have a defined genre within which the illustrations must be produced, or a specific illustrative brief . Although I was oringally interested in entering the children's macmillan book prize or the bolgna book fair competition, I currently feel that entering these would restrict me too much, and may result in my work not being at its best.

I have spoke about this with Mel, and have found another two competitions to research further - the AOI images competition and the International Contemporary printmakers Competition. I currently feel that it is important not to enter a competition which has a very restricted brief, as this will allow me to experiment with my style and hopefully to become creatively inspired with my image making once again.

The Bologna Children's Book fair

As with the v&a illustration awards, if I were to work on an entry for this as part of my illustrative practises module then my work would have to be for the 2012 book fair (as entry for this years fair has now passed)

Competition Brief:

There is no set brief - this is open. 

Submission details

1. 5 original illustrations (fixed number), unpublished or published after 1 January 2009, in black and white or colour, produced using any technique, including computer graphics (in case of mixed technique, please send both original drawings and printouts of the ultimate artwork).
2. The illustrations must be based on the same theme and must be numbered from 1 to 5 (labels enclosed) in the desired order.
3. Maximum size for the artwork:
   > Fiction 32 x 42 cm (or 42 x 32 cm)
   > Non-Fiction 50 x 70 cm (or 70 x 50 cm) 
4. The illustrations must be on paper or flexible board, maximum thickness 2 mm
5. Work to be sent to: BolognaFiere - Illustrators Exhibition, Piazza Costituzione, 6 40128 Bologna – Italy  

Entry to the exhibition is free and provides the entrant with a pass to the fair which they have entered.

Competition deadline:

I'm not sure when the deadline is the Bolgona children's book fair exhibition is, but for this year entries had to be submitted by 1st October 2010, so I am guessing submission for next years fair will be around this time.

Illustrative practises module deadline - 11th March 2011

If I were to enter this competitiomn then I would aim to submit my finalised visuals for the illustrative practises module deadline. I do not feel that this would be an unachievable work load in the time given, and this would also allow me to make any ammendments I felt were needed to the illustrations at a later date than the illustrative practises module deadline if I wished.

What makes this competition particularly appealing is that the brief is similar to the macmillan Chiuldren's book competition - meaning that I could gain some experience of children's illustration, but the workload is not as large and I would have a longer time to work on this.

Competition judges

All artwork received by the stated deadline and meeting the specified requirements will be examined and selected by an international panel (whose decision is final), comprising five members (from publishing houses and art schools) appointed each year by BolognaFiere.

Competition prize - work is exhibited as part of the Bolgona children's book fair. The exhibition then travels to Japan and various other countries after this. Work is also placed within 2 pages of the annual of the event.

Having illustrations exhibited at this fair would be a great way to expose work directly to those working within the illustration industry and could help create new contacts within this - as well as providing career opportunities. I really like the idea that by entering I would receive a pass for the fair - this would be a brilliant fair to be able to attend, and could provide useful experience for the future.

I'm really tempted by this competition, I could potentially gain the most from just entering this competition as oppose to the others, as not only would I gain experience of producing children's illustration, but I would also have the opportunity to go to the fair even if my entry was unsuccessful.

If I were to enter, then I feel that the best place to start with my entry would be research into children's books within a specific age group. This would give me some sort of idea as to the complexity of imagery which is targeted at different age groups of children and how I should go about handling this, as well as how creating a narrative of sequences can be approached.

V&A Student Illustrator awards

Competition Brief:

There is no defined brief, 3 illustrations can be submitted and it is suggested that these might be either a sequence of images for a book or the preparatory sketches/roughs leading up to a finalised illustration (One animation may also be submitted along with the illustrations).

Submission details:

1. Entry into the Student Illustrator category of the Awards is via the Online Entry System only
2. Entries must have a clearly defined illustrative brief, which must be described on the competition entry form. The brief is open. Students may submit work set as coursework by their tutors or they may define their own imagined brief.
3. All images uploaded must be in the JPEG format, using the extension *.jpg
4. Images must be a maximum file size of 1MB and not larger than 900 pixels in width.
5. Animations must be no longer than 3 minutes in length

Competition deadline:

If I wanted to enter this competition then I would have to submit my entry for the 2012 student illustrator awards which I am presuming will have a deadline that is near the end of this year as it was for the 2011 competition, when the deadline was the 13th December 2010. 

Illustrative Practises module deadline - 11th March 2011

If I were to enter this competition then I would aim to have my final visuals (in a finalised drafted version) finished for the illustrative practises module deadline. The workload for this competition does not seem unachievable, and given that the competition deadline will be so far away, then it would be nice to have something finalised by the end of the illustrative practises module, which if I wanted to I could develop yet further later on. Another option would be to consider using part of my entry for another one of the competitions for this competition as well - for example if I entered the macmillan children's book competition then I could finalise 3 of the illustrations from this and submit these to the v&a student illustration awards as well.

Competition judges:

There is obviously no information on the competition judges for the 2012 student awards, but previous judges include rob ryan and others involved within the illustration industry. Having looked at some winning / commended pieces from previous years, there is a real different array of styles and content of imagery - suggesting that no particular illustrative work is favoured by judges.

Competition prizes:

The Student Illustrator of the Year will receive £2,000 and a trophy. The runner up will receive £1,000.

Winning and commended entries are also exhibited on the v&a website and in a competition exhibition. 

Winning this competition would be similar to winning the other competitions in that it wouldmean a great deal of exposure for work as well as the prestige connected with this. Unlike winning the d&ad competition, the great thing about winning a competition such as this is that is purely illustration based rather than also being related to the creative design industry. Having a commended entry would be a great piece to include within a portfolio as well as a self promoptional website. 

I like the idea of entering this competition as I feel that producing an entry would not require a great deal of work if this was combined with my entry for another one of the competitions I have researched. The idea of having a totally open brief which I can set myself also appeals as it means that I am free to produce any style illustrations that I wish to.