Emilie Kemp's Uni Blog: Macmillan children's book illustrator competition

I entered a competition in May which was an illustration competition for a children's book which influenced work for my illustration and printmaking classes.The brief asked that we sketch out the whole 32 paged book and finish and colour 4 paged spreads which could include the cover.I worked very hard on this project and only had a few weeks to finish it, unfortunately I didn't win or was highly commended by the judging panel but I had a look at the work of those who were at the exhibition in Foyles Bookshop, London to see what i was up against. The winner was Gemma Merino a student from the Cambridge School of Art with her story 'The Crocodile Who Didn't Like Water' i thought this was a very good piece as it was in keeping with the age range of no older than 5years and the style was very lovable, i also found it was easy on the eye for a youngster which is always a good thing as many were confusing such as a piece by Emma Bennett (left) titled 'Sidney and His Shadow' which was mostly jumbled up text and small illustrations the l

ikes of what you would see on the side of a coffee cup or jumped up organic produce no offence intended but I do not feel that this was particularly good or suitable for a young child.

I liked all the pieces for their different and professional looking styles I really feel that I need to neaten up my finished pieces next time I enter even though the brief said that the book can be done in any media it looked like all the work exhibited was tidied up on Photoshop and I feel that this is where I failed. I also feel that I had seen these styles before somewhere and they weren't very original where as my style is my own and not to sound to sour but I feel that if my work was neatened up I would of won.

here are the rest that I liked at the exhibition.