Illustration Awards 2016

Some more old stuff from August 2016, when we went to the Illustration Awards in the Embankment Galleries of Somerset House. It was a suprisingly small exhibition.

I loved the right piece, a self-initiated cutout piece called "In the Water" by Sonia Alins. It's supposed to seem dreamlike, and I find there's something quite horrific about it, despite the somewhat calmness of the colours and the delicate cutouts.

This was a strange piece, on being trans, and I'm not sure it's it oversimplifies the issue in a good or bad way. It's hard to illustrate gender without using somewhat sexist iconography, given those are the associations we are brought up to make, regardless of their moral compass. It also highlights relatively well the feeling of having to hide being trans, given the woman in te tie takes a moment to spot.

I really enjoyed this book! I wish I'd gotten more pictures but I felt bad- it was so cute, a really neat idea (teaching kids history and science through the idea of time travel!). The art style is great, quirky but with still enough detail to be useful to teach, as well as aesthetically interesting for both kids and adults. It was also nice to see a BAME protagonist, and the history covered wasn't overly Eurocentric as it so often is, which was refreshing. Such a well thought out project!

These were super interesting too, putting politicians as characters from "Journey to the West".

A good range of book cover designs!