Illustration Award Winners Announced!

It's always incredibly exciting to find out who won the various illustrator awards given at each conference.

Sarah Baker just announced this year's winners, starting with the Tomie DePaola award, named after the beloved illustrator who also serves as the contest judge. Three hundred people applied this year, creating illustrations inspired by Chicken Licken.

Runner up: Laurie Eslick

Tomie loved the painterly style of her illustration, and he challenged her to take it further.

Laurie Eslick

The winner: Yvette Piette Herrera
Tomie loved her style and found the round composition a unique take on the round robin story.

Yvette Piette Herrera

Student illustrator scholarship Two fulltime illustration students, Davin Choi and Eunhye Seo, won conference tuition for their work. Both are students at Rhode Island School of Design, coincidentally. A panel of industry professionals judged.

And the big one: the portfolio showcase ...
One-hundred and eighty-five illustrators competed, and 350 of the top professionals in the industry reviewed them during a cocktail party on Friday night.

"We were all really proud of the illustrators who presented their portfolios," Sarah Baker said. The judges looked carefully and took away a lot of promotional postcards. "I'm sure a lot of connections were made Friday night." 

Runners up

Wook Jim Jung

Wook Jim Jung

Lori Nichols

Lori Nichols

And the winner...

Mike Curato! 

Mike Curato