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Happy Illustration Friday!

Please enjoy the wonderful illustration above by Kylie Millward , our Pick of the Week for last week’s topic of PRIZE. Thanks to everyone who participated with drawings, paintings, sculptures, and more. We love seeing it all!

You can see a gallery of ALL the entries here.

And of course, you can now participate in this week’s topic, which participants of InkTober are going to love:

INK

Here’s how:

Step 1: Illustrate your interpretation of the current week’s topic (always viewable on the homepage).

Step 2: Post your image onto your blog / flickr / facebook, etc.

Step 3: Come back to Illustration Friday and submit your illustration (see big “Submit your illustration” button on the homepage).

Step 4: Your illustration will then be added to the public Gallery where it will be viewable along with everyone else’s from the IF community!

Also be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to our weekly email newsletter to keep up with our exciting community updates!

HAPPY ILLUSTRATING!

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Happy Illustration Friday!

We’re ready to announce this week’s topic, but first please enjoy the wonderful illustration above by Marta Bartolj , our Pick of the Week for last week’s topic of MERMAID. Thanks to everyone who participated with drawings, paintings, sculptures, and more. We love seeing it all!

You can see a gallery of ALL the entries here.

And of course, you can now participate in this week’s topic, which was chosen to celebrate the MASSIVE giveaway that will be announced this Monday September 28th over at Illustration Age:

PRIZE

Here’s how:

Step 1: Illustrate your interpretation of the current week’s topic (always viewable on the homepage).

Step 2: Post your image onto your blog / flickr / facebook, etc.

Step 3: Come back to Illustration Friday and submit your illustration (see big “Submit your illustration” button on the homepage).

Step 4: Your illustration will then be added to the public Gallery where it will be viewable along with everyone else’s from the IF community!

Also be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to our weekly email newsletter to keep up with our exciting community updates!

HAPPY ILLUSTRATING!

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Happy Illustration Friday!

We’re ready to announce this week’s topic, but first please enjoy the wonderful illustration above by Jack Viant, our Pick of the Week for last week’s topic of VILLAIN. Thanks to everyone who participated with drawings, paintings, sculptures, and more. We love seeing it all!

You can see a gallery of ALL the entries here.

And of course, you can now participate in this week’s topic:

MERMAID

Here’s how:

Step 1: Illustrate your interpretation of the current week’s topic (always viewable on the homepage).

Step 2: Post your image onto your blog / flickr / facebook, etc.

Step 3: Come back to Illustration Friday and submit your illustration (see big “Submit your illustration” button on the homepage).

Step 4: Your illustration will then be added to the public Gallery where it will be viewable along with everyone else’s from the IF community!

Also be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to our weekly email newsletter to keep up with our exciting community updates!

HAPPY ILLUSTRATING!

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Happy Illustration Friday!

We’re ready to announce this week’s topic, but first please enjoy the wonderful illustration above by Johan Keslassy, our Pick of the Week for last week’s topic of OLD. Thanks to everyone who participated with drawings, paintings, sculptures, and more. We love seeing it all!

You can see a gallery of ALL the entries here.

And of course, you can now participate in this week’s topic:

VILLAIN

Here’s how:

Step 1: Illustrate your interpretation of the current week’s topic (always viewable on the homepage).

Step 2: Post your image onto your blog / flickr / facebook, etc.

Step 3: Come back to Illustration Friday and submit your illustration (see big “Submit your illustration” button on the homepage).

Step 4: Your illustration will then be added to the public Gallery where it will be viewable along with everyone else’s from the IF community!

Also be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to our weekly email newsletter to keep up with our exciting community updates!

HAPPY ILLUSTRATING!

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Submitted by Zsolt Vidak for the Illustration Friday topic OLD.

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Take advantage of our hand-picked list of call for entries from animation festivals around the globe.

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 Hello fellow artists!

As part of our ongoing efforts to make Illustration Friday more of a community focused on the art of idea generation, here’s our Inspiration Board for this week’s topic of HEART.

You can download, save, drag and drop, print, or do whatever you want with it if it helps you to brainstorm ideas for your illustration.

Let us know in the comments if this is something that you think is helpful or inspiring enough for us to keep doing!

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[Editor’s Note: This article is an excerpt from our ebook Inside Illustration Competitions, which is available for FREE here.]

The outcome of an Illustration competition is largely dependent on the judges who view the work and decide which artists deserve to be recognized. Ever wonder how this jury is chosen and how they make these tough decisions?

Since so much depends on the subjective personal tastes of an Illustration competition jury, it’s important to pay attention to the list of jurors any time you’re considering submitting your work, and familiarizing yourself with who’s involved.

With the help of many organizers and judges of all the major Illustration competitions, I was able to get an inside look at what drives the method of assembling the jury.

Jury Selection

It is in the best interest of all parties involved to have a professional, experienced, and esteemed panel of judges to view the artwork and select the best of the best to be featured in the organization’s annuals, shows, and online galleries. In this way, the various competitions maintain their relevance in the industry, encourage a comprehensive collection of high-quality Illustration, and offer Illustrators the opportunity to have their work viewed by the top tier of their target audience.

In most instances, the jury is comprised of some combination of Illustrators, Graphic Designers, Art Directors, Artist Representatives, Educators, and other creative professionals who have made an impact on the Illustration industry. Potential jury candidates are often recommended by Illustrators or past Chairs based on quality of work, talent, years of experience, and standing in the field. In addition, judges are often assigned to vote in categories that are a good match for their particular area of expertise, whether it be publishing, editorial, advertising, children’s books, etc.

One interesting variation on this theme is the competitions run by American Illustration, which limits the selection to only Art Directors and others who are able to actually hire Illustrators.

Another alternative is practiced by 3×3. Because of it’s uniquely international focus, 3×3 makes sure that all judges represent different countries and tries to have one or more Art Directors and Illustrators from each of the primary illustration markets around the world.

Judging Criteria

One of the most intriguing aspects of the judging process is the criterion by which jurors are instructed to select work, or rather, the lack thereof.

Sometimes, the organization running the competition has an introductory meeting to outline the overall purpose and criteria of the selection. However, rather than instruct the jury with specific guidelines, most competitions rely on the experience and aesthetic sensibilities of the jurors involved.

Therefore, each judge votes along the lines of their individual tastes, with a focus on the effectiveness of the image, its ability to solve a visual problem or communicate an idea, its professional execution, and any other strengths they typically look for in a successful Illustration. Jurors are encouraged to take their time and go with their instincts while seeking out Illustration that reaches a higher level of excellence.

“We do not believe in quotas, we ask judges to select the very best pieces in each category.”

– Charles Hively, 3×3

“Jurors are encouraged to make brave choices and [select] images that represent the finest work from the year. Our goal is to recognize work not typically honored by other organizations and publications.”

– Mark Heflin, American Illustration

“Judges are asked to use their own judgment as to what constitutes creative excellence.”

– Patrick Coyne, Communication Arts

As stated above, due to this personal approach it can be very beneficial for an artist to familiarize themselves with the list of jurors involved, because it can potentially offer some level of insight when choosing which of their pieces to submit.

Voting Method

As expected, the actual steps involved in the scoring process is another area in which each competition is different. Sometimes it’s simply a matter of saying whether each Illustration should be “in” or “out”. Other times the judges are asked to rank each image on a scale of one to ten or some variation thereof.

Here are a few examples of the various voting methods employed:

“Jurors meet as a group and view all images. They first nominate images they like. From there, the nominated images are viewed and voted on individually by secret vote. It only takes one juror to nominate an image in the first round. It takes a majority or better in the second round to get into the book (usually 4-7 votes). All images that were nominated and then received at least 2 votes are presented on the website only.”

– Mark Heflin, American Illustration

“The first round, each Judge adds a dot to the entry. Second round, the judge’s team up to view entries that received the highest votes. Finally, the judges come together as a total group to discuss the final selection.”

– Scott Hull, Artist Representative & Juror

“The Art Directors Club does 3 rounds of judging. Each round is assigned through a point value system with the last round being a medal round.”

– Luke Stoffel, Art Directors Club

“In the professional and children’s show, each judge votes each entry in or out. In the student show, each entry is given a grade 0-4, 4 being the top grade. It takes a majority of votes by the judges to have a piece accepted into the show.”

– Charles Hively, 3×3

Get your FREE copy of Inside Illustration Competitions here >>

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Hello fellow artists!

We know you love a good art challenge.

The folks at Doodlers Anonymous have teamed up with Blik to present this unique opportunity to artists. The challenge is to doodle, draw, or illustrate the backdrop of a wall clock!

Six winning submissions will have their art transformed into 10” wall clocks to be sold through Blik and Doodlers Anonymous. Plus, a portion of the royalties will go to the lucky artists!

Find out more about this fun challenge and how to enter here >>

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Hello fellow illustrators!

 

As promised last Friday, we are now in full effect taking Illustration Friday to the next level. The natural evolution of a fun weekly illustration challenge based on ideas is a deeper focus on the art of idea generation itself.

We’re starting small, with a stream of consciousness word list that one might create while brainstorming for this week’s topic of POINTY or any other of our weekly topics. I encourage you to make your own first, perhaps compare it to this list or even email yours to us if you’d like us to consider sharing it in a future blog post.

You will notice that in my own personal word process below I try to let my mind freely linger in one area for a while until some other interesting pathway offers itself up, or not. Sometimes you’ll need to give it a gentle nudge, or step away for a minute. The randomness itself is where the magic can sometimes happen. This process is pretty much guaranteed to take your mind to surprising places. This list took only a few minutes to create, but it could go on and on with further exploration.

As things progress, we’ll be adding a LOT more features to share a variety of approaches to generating good ideas, as described in last week’s 5-minute video, so stay tuned…

SAMPLE WORD LIST

 

TOPIC: POINTY

 

 

pointy angle triangle mountain range mountaintop skyline pointy hat dunce cap witch’s hat pointing finger pointing out pointing at you/me/… what’s the point pointless

round obtuse sharp sharp (smart) pokey knife kitchen knife cut stab poke sword lance joust medieval weapons mace

vampire teeth wolf teeth shark teek/fin surfboard fingernails starfish star crescent moon thumbtack nail hammer and nail staple staple gun railroad stake king/queen crown, etc.

 Want even more inspiration? Check out the entries that have been submitted so far for this week’s topic.

Have fun!

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If you’ve ever wanted to work for Disney, well head on over to this “official website for Disney Television Animation talent and recruitment”. You can use it to view and even apply for a variety of artistic and production-related projects.

Visit the Disney Recruitment site here >>

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Take advantage of our hand-picked list of call for entries from animation festivals around the globe.

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Take advantage of our hand-picked list of call for entries from animation festivals around the globe.

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Three new calls for entries from Cuernavaca, Mexico; Hokkaido, Japan; and Corfu, Greece.

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Three new calls for entries from Pejë, Kosovo; Brooklyn, New York; and Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

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Three new call for entries from Montreal, Canada; Espinho, Portugal; and the Student Academy Awards.

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Three new calls for entries from Baden, Switzerland; Cyprus; and Ottawa, Canada.

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It’s no secret that cocktail napkins have long served as the unofficial medium for spontaneous brilliance. From award winning films to Fortune 500 companies, some of the world’s boldest ideas unfolded on a bar napkin. To help celebrate this phenomenon, Tuaca Liqueur is inviting artists of all backgrounds to share what ignites their creativity, on what is arguably the perfect canvas for serendipitous inspiration.

The idea is simple: Draw, doodle or illustrate whatever it is that inspires you on a cocktail napkin. Then, snap a photo of your creation and upload it to our virtual gallery at Tuacaart.com.
One grand prize winner will be awarded $5,000! Qualified entrants must be 21 years of age or over, reside in the United States and submit their artwork by April 15th, 2015.

For complete details and rules or to just check out the gallery, click here.

Happy Doodling!

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Calling all artists! Get those creative juices flowing because we're looking for entries to the 8th annual juried exhibition of outdoor scenes of Orange County, presented by Chemers Gallery and Tustin Area Council for Fine Art (TACFA)! We need your unique interpretations of Newport Beach, Crystal Cove, downtown Orange, Irvine Park and more! The show is open to all media including oil, acrylic, watercolor, pastel, photography, glass, mixed media, encaustic, printmaking, sewing, beading, etc. The more innovative, the better. The best part is...there are cash prizes!

Our show has been evolving year by year and we're sure this will be our best exhibit yet. One major change this year is the elimination of the "amateur" and "professional" categories. All are welcome to enter regardless of experience level - entries will all be juried to the same level. Another major change is the addition of award categories. All entries will fit into either "Oil and Acrylic" or "All Other Media,"giving you more chances to win an award!

Just like last year, all entries will be pre-juried online at OnlineJuriedShows.com - you can find the prospectus and links to enter HERE.

We are honored to announce that Greg LaRock, award-winning plein air oil painter, will be this year's juror.

Award-winning art from Dorothy Cavanagh, Lore Hold, Sherry Marger and Linda Rogers from the 2014 show

Important Dates & Deadlines:
March 4, 2015: Deadline to submit your entry form and .jpg photo to OnlineJuriedShows.com. Click HERE for prospectus and links to enter. (For help using OnlineJuriedShows.com click here.)
March 11, 2015: Notification of acceptance by email
April 6 - 10: Hand-delivery of accepted work to Chemers Gallery between 10am - 5pm. Shipped entries are not accepted.
April 18, 2015: Exhibition opens to public, Artists' Reception 5:30 - 8:00pm
May 2, 2015: Exhibit closes
May 4, 2015: Pick up work at Chemers Gallery between 10am - 5pm

Cash Awards:
$600 Grand Prize

Oil & Acrylic
$450 First Place
$300 Second Place
$200 Third Place

All Other Media (including watercolor, pastel, glass, photography, mixed media, etc)
$450 First Place
$300 Second Place
$200 Third Place

Artwork Specifications:
Entry must be an outdoor scene from anywhere in Orange County, California. If not easily recognizable as an Orange County scene, a source photo may be required. Work must be created during the year since the last exhibition (May 2014).

All 2-D artworks such as, but not limited to, painting, drawing, mixed media, printmaking and photography will be considered. The maximum allowed size is 24" x 36" not including the frame. Photographs must be printed on photo or fine art paper - they may not be printed on canvas or mounted to panels. Works must be framed to Chemers Gallery specifications (see framing requirements below), properly wired and ready to hang. The juror reserves the right to disqualify any work not suitably presented or that varies from the submitted image. All works must be for sale.

Sales commission: 50% artist 50% Chemers Gallery.

Framing Requirements:
Chemers Gallery will be happy to assist in framing your work. If you choose to frame it yourself, please bring your frame for approval prior to delivery. Oils, acrylics & mixed media can be unframed if gallery wrapped edges are painted, but other two-dimensional work must be framed. No photography on canvas. All 2D work must be properly & securely wired and ready to hang. Simple frames are preferred and must be either black or dark wood. Mats: neutral white, acid free (like Bainbridge 8655), acid-free colored filets ok, and either double 4-ply or single 6 or 8-ply mats. No non-glare glass. Space and weight limits apply to non two-dimensional work, see Karen Raab at Chemers Gallery.

Examples of black (left) and dark wood (right) frames

Examples of gallery wrapped canvases

Entry Procedure:
Non-refundable entry fee is $35 for one or two entries, payable when you submit to OnlineJuriedShows.com.

PLEASE NOTE: When filling out your information while entering the show at OnlineJuriedShows.com, please be sure all information is correct - spelling, title, pricing of your artwork. All information is input by the Artist and is used by Chemers Gallery for reference, printed materials and online postings.

Diptychs and triptychs are considered one work. Works are juried by digital image only.

For help using OnlineJuriedShows.com please refer to the Help page and the How OJS Works page. Likewise you can call 949-287-8645 or email [email protected].

Entry Image Guidlines:
Works will be juried by digital image only. Images must be sized to 1920 pixels on the longest side and at a resolution of 72 dpi. No mat, frame, or extraneous material should appear other than your artwork.

Save the painting with a new name, as follows: Your last name, first initial, ENTRY REFERENCE (A, B, C, D, or E), and abbreviated painting name. For example: Jane Doe's Entry A is titled New York Sunrise, the name given to the digital image would be: doej_a_nysun.jpg.

Save the image as a high quality jpg.

Images are used for jurying and web and printed materials.

Liability: 
All work will be handled with great care. Neither Chemers Gallery nor TACFA or its representatives will accept responsibility for loss or damage of work. Artists are responsible for safety of work during transit to and from the gallery. Submission by an artist will indicate agreement by the artist to these conditions.

Since 1978, Chemers Gallery has been providing fine art and quality custom framing in Orange County. the gallery hosts several shows each year and continually exhibits the work of exceptions artists, both local and international. Chemers Gallery is located in the Enderle Center, 17300 17th Street, Tustin, 714-731-5432. The gallery is free and open to the public Monday - Friday, 10:00am - 6:00pm, Saturday 10:00am - 5:00pm.

Founded in 1992, the Tustin Area Council for Fine Arts (TACFA) funds and administers programs which expand the arts in the greater Tustin, California area, and enrich the entire community. The Council raises funds through individual and corporate contributions and fundraising events. These funds subsidize elementary students' participation in The Art Masters program, support students' creativity and interest in the arts, and allow TACFA to produce an annual affordable and live production of a classic Broadway musical at a local outdoor venue.

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Three new calls for entries from Athens, Greece; Třeboň, Czech Republic; and Los Angeles, California.

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Our new Animation Festival Guide is a hand-picked list of calls for entries from respected festivals around the globe. This week, we add three new calls for entries from Portland, Oregon; Bologna, Italy; and Žilina, Slovakia.

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Our new Animation Festival Guide is a hand-picked list of calls for entries from respected festivals around the globe. This week, we add three new calls for entries from Annecy, France; Zagreb, Croatia; and Melbourne, Australia.

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Cartoon Brew is pleased to announce the launch of our Animation Festival Guide.

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The Japan Image Council has opened its call for applications for the Animation Artist In Residence Tokyo 2015. If you’ve had a film that has screened in an international festival or exhibition, I strongly encourage you to apply. As a previous resident of the program, I frequently find myself thinking about my wonderful experience in the residency.

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For the fifth year in a row, we are pleased to announce our annual Cartoon Brew Student Film Festival. The mission for the festival is simple: to honor student-produced animated shorts and share them with the widest possible community of industry decision-makers, fellow students, and animation enthusiasts from around the world.

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