the worldwide picture book illustration competition
Winners
2020
AND THE WINNERS ARE…
NAAM
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the worldwide picture book illustration competition
And the winners are‌ The Netherlands Margriet van der Berg Esther van den Brink Tonke Koppelaar Hedie Meischke (honourable mention)
South Africa Gabi Boy Danelle van Eeden Pippa Pereira LenĂŠ Ehlers (honourable mention)
Germany Simone Goder Carolin Motal Sara-Christin Richter
United Kingdom Ellan Rankin Caroline Reissner Gina Rosas Moncada
Copyright: © 2020 Lemniscaat b.v., Rotterdam Illustration on cover: © Piet Grobler Photographs: © the winners Picture this! logo: © Tobias Hickey Juries: The Netherlands: Jean Christophe Boele van Hensbroek, Mark Janssen, Ellen Vesters, Eline de Viet, Fred Wartna Germany: Paula Peretti, Maria Linsmann, Bettina Herre (S. Fischer Verlage/Sauerländer) South Africa: Alida Bothma, Reon Erasmus, Piet Grobler, Jaco Jacobs United Kingdom: Tobias Hickey, Petr Horáček, Louise Jackson, Denise Johnstone-Burt More information on www.wwpbic.com
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface by the publisher The winners
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The Netherlands Margriet van der Berg 14 Esther van den Brink 18 Tonke Koppelaar 22 Hedie Meischke (honourable mention) Germany Simone Goder 30 Carolin Motal 34 Sara-Christin Richter
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South Africa Gabi Boy 42 Danelle van Eeden 46 Pippa Pereira 50 LenĂŠ Ehlers (honourable mention) United Kingdom Ellan Rankin 58 Caroline Reissner 62 Gina Rosas Moncada 66
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PREFACE BY THE PUBLISHER
the worldwide picture book illustration competition
In this catalogue we proudly present the winners of the 2020 edition of the international picture book illustration competition Picture this!, with entries from England, South Africa, Germany and the Netherlands. From the many entries, juries in these countries chose the three most talented new and unknown illustrators. The result is an impressive demonstration of the versatility and originality of the picture book. Picture books have become a worldwide art form at which many try their hand, from newcomers to more established artists. And with good reason, as picture books are now a cherished part of many a child’s and parents’ world. Also in child day-care centres, reading picture books is becoming a regular activity, which often inspires all sorts of further activities. In short: the picture book is here to stay! Nevertheless, coming to notice and finding a publisher often remains a challenge for recently graduated illustrators. That is why publishers, academies and other cultural institutes banded together in 2014 to launch the Picture This! competition: as a platform for upcoming talented illustrators to demonstrate their ability. To bring the winners’ work to attention, this catalogue is distributed online among picture book publishers, art institutes and academies, worldwide. Also, exhibitions of the work by the winning illustrators will travel along art institutes and libraries in the participating countries. On behalf of the juries of the Worldwide Picture Book Illustration Competition, the International Institute for the Picture Book in Society, Lemniscaat Publishers/The Netherlands, Protea Publishers/South Africa, and for Germany the Bilderbuchmuseum in Troisdorf as well as S. Fischer Sauerländer Publishers, we wish you much enjoyment and the artists every success! Jean Christophe Boele van Hensbroek
THE WINNERS
Margriet van der Berg
The Netherlands
Esther van den Brink
Hedie Meischke (honourable mention)
Tonke Koppelaar
THE WINNERS
Simone Goder
Germany
Carolin Motal
Sara-Christin Richter
THE WINNERS
Gabi Boy
South Africa
Danelle van Eeden
LenĂŠ Ehlers (honourable mention)
Pippa Pereira
THE WINNERS
Ellan Rankin
United Kingdom
Caroline Reissner
Gina Rosas Moncada
The winning art...
AVA
Margriet van der Berg
What to do when the people you love don’t treat you well? Where to hide when life gets confusing and obscure?
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This is a story about Ava, a little girl with a strong imagination. She loves to draw and she enjoys nature. Unfortunately, her father
is a dominant and manipulative person, often showing transgressive behaviour. One day, Ava ends up in her self-created fantasy. A forest,
where at first everything seems quiet and safe. But not for long. Will she be able to escape from this nightmare?
M A R G R I E T V A N D E R B E R G is an illustrator
living in Amersfoort. After graduating as a textile designer, she spent several years working in the interior design sector. After one more year of art school at Artez in Arnhem, she started her own label: IsaBella Illustrations. Her main business is designing artwork for postcards and fabrics. Inspired by fairy tales, nature and childhood, Margriet loves to make atmospheric watercolour artworks with dreamy moods – very suitable for illustrating children’s books, which is a long-cherished dream. www.isabella-illustrations.nl
J U R Y R E P O R T The jury quickly agreed
that Margriet van der Berg makes powerful and beautiful illustrations. Each watercolour presents a new atmospheric image that perfectly fits the passage in the story. Whether they show the girl dreamily looking at the swallows, or searching the forest, or crawling away beneath the ground, the environment and character are rendered persuasively each time. Her watercolours support an original and dramatic story in which a girl ends up in her own fantasy drawings. Strong work.
M A R G R I E T V A N D E R B E R G - AVA
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M A R G R I E T V A N D E R B E R G - AVA
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NO TIME! Looking at the world through a child’s eyes: that is what Esther van den Brink tries to do in her stories. In the story No time!, al little girl tries to escape the grasp of the clock. She crawls through a hole in the hedge, in search of a place where time does not exist. In her little life, time is already a domina-
Esther van den Brink ting factor. Repeatedly, all the fun things she does need to stop because “it’s time”. It’s why she has to stop eating, stop playing hide and seek, stop drawing, stop swimming, and so on. When she finds a place where time does not rule everything, she discovers that a clock can also be convenient at times!
J U R Y R E P O R T Esther van den Brink’s protagonist is a small girl. In her drawings, the girl is liter-
ally small, and the exciting scenery dominates: a gap in the hedgerow, a forest with tall trees, or a mysterious tangle of rope. Each time, the author lets her protagonist look forward in time, and the
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Ever since she was a little girl, E S T H E R V A N D E N B R I N K had only one dream: to become an illustrator of children’s books. When she applied to the Academy of Arts in Maastricht, they advised her to choose the painting department so that she would get a proper drawing and painting education. After graduating she worked as an artist for several years, painting large works in oil or acrylic. After becoming a mother she also started illustrating again, after reading to her 3 children and loving all those great picture books rekindled the old flame! She uses ink, watercolour pencils and watercolour for her work, and a little digital help to optimise her illustrations. Esther works and lives in the beautiful city of Maastricht. www.brinkpics.nl
reader looks along with her, in search of ‘a place where time does not exist’. The protagonist displays a different mood on each of the pictures, but always with an inquisitive attitude. Esther is very accomplished at depicting a young child, even if we don’t see her face but must do with a view from behind. ESTHER VAN DEN BRINK
– No Time!
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ESTHER VAN DEN BRINK
– No Time!
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EVIE AND AYO
Tonke Koppelaar
Evie and Ayo are on the hill flying the kite, as on every Saturday afternoon. But on this warm, warm summer day, the wind blows fast and strong. Before Evie knows it, her kite is gone… As an illustrator and animator, Tonke Koppelaar works with both moving and still images. Through her stories, she gently guides you around her world. In her work, detail and subtlety are combined with emotion and playfulness. She likes to play with warm colours, and also to work with ‘wet’ materials. Her work testifies to her determination to never lose her own childlikeness. She is also strongly drawn to minorities; the ones whose stories are yet to be told.
T O N K E K O P P E L A A R graduated from hku University of the Arts in Utrecht, depart-
ment of Illustration, in 2020. She was born in 1996 and grew up in a small village; her favourite pastimes were reading and climbing trees and messing up her knees with skate rolling. In her world, Peter Pan existed, and the trees waved at her, and Mr Reality was best of friends with Mrs Imagination. At the age of 24, she sometimes still longs for that life, where so many things were new and fascinating. Nowadays she lives in Utrecht, a city right in the middle of the Netherlands, where she enjoys cycling, and is still reading and drawing, drawing, drawing… www.tonkekoppelaar.nl
J U R Y R E P O R T Tonke Koppelaar’s work is harmonious in terms of colour and composition. Each illustration takes another and exciting perspective. The minimalistic figures are clear and persuasive, seemingly drawn in one go. The illustrations present a poetic story about helping each other and playing together, in this case with a kite. Although somewhat stereotypical in terms of gender roles – the boy does the carpentry while the girl awaits the result – it is a warm and delightful story as a whole. Tonke manages to say a lot with minimal means.
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T O N K E K O P P E L A A R – Evie and Ayo
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T O N K E K O P P E L A A R – Evie and Ayo
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RINALDO’S VOICE Hedie Meischke
Four brothers and a big black horse: it is an image from an old Flemish folktale that stuck in Hedie’s head. But that is just the setting.
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AND THE WINNERS ARE…
(Honourable mention)
Rinaldo is about an introverted, dreamy child in a loud, opiniated family. The brothers are very noisy, each in his own way, but they’re not
bad. They all want to help Rinaldo, and each in his own way. Rinaldo is trying to fit in, but he misses an inner connection. Luckily, there is a place where it is quiet and full of beauty, where he can hear his own heart. It’s called nature. And with the help of Horse, the brothers
realise that Rinaldo is just fine the way he is. Actually, he is great. Hedie uses non-digital methods only. She loves spontaneous, dashy lines, bright colours and the combination of graphical forms with small details. She mixes all sorts of media, such as the stencil technique, collage, mono type, stamping, charcoal, pastel, ink, paint and even sewing. H E D I E M E I S C H K E grew up in The Hague,
where she studied at the Royal Academy of Arts. She also liked to work on projects for the Children’s Library, such as designing posters, flyers and booklets. When she moved to the countryside, she became an illustrator of nature magazines and also worked as a translator/subtitler. But her real goal and dearest wish ever since she was a child is to make picture books. This goal was inspired by a story-telling dad and a mom who never stopped reading to her and her siblings. Hedie now lives in a romantic old farmhouse in the flat Dutch countryside. Nature and daily life are her inspirations. Hedie works from her emotions; to make art, she needs to feel a connection with her subjects. She likes to keep it light, but with a deeper layer, like a bit of mystery or poetry. And her work is always full of hope and humour. www.hediemeischke.carbonmade.com
J U R Y R E P O R T Hedie Meischke receives an
H e d i e M e i s c h k e – Rinaldo’s Voice
honourable mention for her work, which the jury describes as thoroughly autonomous and experimental. Heide has developed her own unique visual idiom, for which she combines various techniques: stamping, painting and drawing, which are juxtaposed or superimposed on each other. She also applies different styles, alternating abstract shapes with human-like figures and fantasy animals. The horse’s tail is also a wave. And the ground of the forest is a miniature world teeming with life. The striking pictures radiate joy.
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H e d i e M e i s c h k e – Rinaldo’s Voice
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THE MOUSE PRINCESS The Mouse Princess (original title: Die Mausprinzessin) is a contemporary classic fairy tale about a princess who is as small as a mouse and as brave as a bear. The story begins with a royal couple, always favoured by fortune. Young, beautiful and deeply in love, they have only one more thing to wish for: a child of their own to cherish and love. But only a sliver of their portion of luck remains: just enough to gift them the tiniest of royal babies. As years pass by, their little princess grows to the size of a mouse. The royal couple adore their little child and fulfil her every wish -- except for one. Under no circumstances is she ever allowed to leave the castle. Since she is so small and seemingly helpless, her royal parents constantly fear losing her. But soon the great castle becomes too small for a little princess. The night before her eleventh birthday, she sneaks out to explore the world she was always deprived of. There she has to face all sorts of dangers. But what she lacks in size, she makes up in being witty and kind. In a nutshell, the tale of The Mouse Princess is about overcoming your weaknesses and discovering your own strengths.
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AND THE WINNERS ARE‌
Simone Goder
S I M O N E G O D E R is a 26-year-
old illustrator living in Hamburg, Germany. She’s currently attending the Master´s programme in Illustration at HAW Hamburg. Her influences come from many different fields such as music, old movies, books, and of course everyday life. She is also inspired by artists like Beatrice Alemagna, Carson Elis and Brecht Evens. In her illustrations, she prefers to work with traditional materials like gouache, ink and watercolour. She loves experimenting with colours, structures and composition. For her stories, she strives to capture the particularity of the little things and to show the magic of fairy tales, but also of everyday life.
J U R Y R E P O R T Sheltered, as if in a cocoon of light, the long-awaited but mouse-sized
heroine grows up in her parents’ castle. Clear and vigorous watercolour areas, combined with geometric patterns, support the new though classic fairy-tale plot. The contrasts between the mouse-sized heroine and her surroundings are emphasized by the almost page-busting size of the parents’ figures, the bear, and other animals she encounters in the course of her adventures.
S I M O N E G O D E R – The Mouse Princess
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S I M O N E G O D E R – The Mouse Princess
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HOME
Carolin Motal
This story is told without words, as Carolin Motal wants it to be understandable for everyone only by looking at the pictures. The story is about a girl who finds herself homeless after an awful storm has destroyed her house and she fell from a cliff into deep woods. There she meets a lantern. The lantern helps her to find the courage to talk to people and to ask for a place to stay. But after a series of disappointments, the girl loses all hope. When she disappears into a snowstorm, the lantern tries to run after her but is blown apart by the strong winds. Concerned for the safety of her friend, the girl searches for a place to stay just one last time. She reaches a lighthouse, covered in ice and snow. The top is not lit, but she knocks anyway. An old man sitting in a wheelchair opens the door to let her in and helps her to light the lantern again. In return for saving her friend, she runs up the stairs and lights the lighthouse. Now she has found a place where she and her friend belong and they can help the old man run the lighthouse.
C A R O L I N M O T A L was born in 1995 in Hamm, a small city in Germany. Her interest in drawing and creating stories was sparked early in childhood, and soon it became the focal point of her life. She graduated from the Adolph-Kolping-Berufskolleg in 2014 in the field of Design, with a professional training as a Design Assistant. In 2016 she started studying at the Münster School of Design, majoring in Illustration. The two years in between were spent developing her skills on her own, learning from others and figuring out what she wants her art to be like. She has yet to find the answer, but impressive colours and deep meaningful stories have always tugged at her heart strings. Being one of the winners of this competition is the first major success in her life as an artist. But for her, this only marks the beginning of a wonderful, exciting journey.
J U R Y R E P O R T The composition of the girl
lying on the forest floor surrounded by dark bare trees exudes a strong sense of loneliness. The girl’s search for a new abode, helped by a lantern, is shown through a sequence of images. Facial expressions as well as the suggestive body language – also displayed by the lantern! – show how both gradually lose courage and hope. In the final spread, the direction of the girl’s glance towards the old man, as she stands at the top of the newly-lit lighthouse, forms a hopeful contrast to the frozen sea spray.
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C A R O L I N M O T A L – Home
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C A R O L I N M O T A L – Home
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WALTER AND ULLI
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AND THE WINNERS ARE…
Sara-Christin Richter
This story about an unusual friendship is set in New York City. The old watchmaker Walter lives a happy but very quiet life with his family. Life simply ambles along, and Walter does not believe in miracles – until one day. And that’s the day the crocodile on Walter’s living room wall starts to talk. The depressed and very bored but gentle reptile convinces Walter to go on a journey through New York, while listening to all the different sounds and whispers of the city. Hidden in a stroller, Walter takes Ulli to different neighbourhoods, and together they discover the city.
S A R A - C H R I S T I N R I C H T E R is an Illustrator from Hamburg, Germany.
Before doing Illustration she trained as an art teacher and worked at different schools with children of all ages. Her extensive experience with children’s playfulness, joy and fantasy now inspire her own storytelling. From 2015-2016, Sara-Christin Richter studied at The New School in New York, which exposed her to a vibrant art and illustration scene. Sara-Christen has been studying Illustration at HAW Hamburg since 2017. She has been interested in puppet theatre and the making of puppets and marionettes since early childhood, making puppet-illustration her favourite form of illustration, although she loves to paint too. She was invited for an Artist Residency in Los Angeles in 2019, where she currently works and lives at the farm of German children’s book author Cornelia Funke. Cornelia Funke and Sara are presently working on a project together. www.sarachristinrichter.com
J U R Y R E P O R T Crafted with love for detail,
the figures and constructed scenery are vivid and lively in the artfully illuminated photographs. The old watchmaker Walter has a striking facial expression as he listens attentively to the sound from the wall. The sophisticated use of lighting infuses the constructed New York cityscape with the atmosphere of a big city. The story of the friendship between Walter and the crocodile also plays with two- and three-dimensionality: the flat image of the crocodile comes to life and emerges from the wall.
S A R A - C H R I S T I N R I C H T E R – Walter and Ulli
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S A R A - C H R I S T I N R I C H T E R – Walter and Ulli
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MR MOLE’S A D V E N T U R E S Gabi Boy Mr Mole (a very meticulous, detail-driven, introverted mole) needs to gather the necessary ingredients to bake his favourite cookies from his Grandma Mole’s recipe book. Grandma Mole is coming for tea in a few hours, and the cookies will be Mr Mole’s special surprise for her. However, he is missing one final ingredient: snail shells. He enlists the help of his best friend, Jake (a care-free, extroverted dog, who is in all of Mr Mole’s adventures.) They find various second-rate, substitute shell options, but Mr Mole will not settle for second best. After risking their lives and giving away a few
personal items to a sneaky rat, Mr Mole and Jake find the snail shells just in time to head home and bake the cookies. While Jake and Mr Mole wait for Grandma Mole to arrive (and for the cookies to cool), they decide to try just one cookie, and end up devouring all the cookies right before Grandma Mole’s arrival. The story ends with Grandma Mole sipping her tea and snacking on a dried earthworm (with a knowing look in her eye), and Mr Mole explaining that he had wanted to make something special for her but had had a very busy day... all the while with crumbs on his face.
G A B I B O Y is currently the owner of a graphic design and illustration busi-
ness called ‘Hello Jack’. She has done a number of commissioned illustrated family portraits, textile designs and business branding. Prior to this Gabi was the co-owner of a baby clothing company for eight years, where she was responsible for all graphic design of textiles, prints and marketing content as well as screen printing. Before starting the baby clothing company, Gabi was a high school teacher and head of the Biology department. She also taught English abroad for two years. She is happily married with two beautiful daughters and two dogs. J U R Y R E P O R T The mole in the story is very
likeable, which could be very important in attracting buyers to pick up this book. The jury wishes it could see more of the mole, who is the main character. The drawings are beautifully executed with all the very interesting and charming details children love to look at. The illustrator seems very comfortable with the way she works. She has already found her voice and appears confident in what she is doing. The illustrations have a warmth to them.
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G A B I B O Y – Mr Mole’s Adventures
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G A B I B O Y – Mr Mole’s Adventures
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LITTLE WONDERS Little Wonders, written by Danelle van Eeden, tells the story of Helena, a little girl who wakes up one morning and nothing is ‘right’. Her hair is too straight, her clothes just aren’t comfortable, the floor is too cold, the sun shines too brightly through her window…and so forth. Her mom suggests that she takes Nora (her favourite soft toy) for a walk to the treehouse by the river, where she can spend the morning thinking about all the things that are bothering her. Later, when she returns home for lunch, her mom will sit down with her, and they can think of solutions to all of her ‘problems’. Her walk turns into an exciting morning, bursting with so many adventures which quickly make her forget all about her state of unhappiness. She loves her life on the farm, and when she returns home, just in time for lunch, she finds that, to top it all off, her mom has prepared her favourite meal. When her mom asks her whether she is ready to discuss and think of solutions as planned, she bursts into laughter as she realises that she has SO much more to be grateful for than she ever acknowledged before. The two of them end up talking about all the blessings (instead of problems) and wonders surrounding them every day on the farm, feeling grateful and in love with their life.
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Danelle van Eeden D A N E L L E V A N E E D E N is a mother, illustrator and entrepreneur. She lives on a family farm near Worcester where she grew up. Here, every day is an inspiration with never-ending opportunities. She matriculated in Worcester and then obtained a B-Tech degree in Food Services Management at the then Cape Technikon Hotel School. Although she has many years’ experience in the food industry, she’s always loved drawing. When her daughter was born five years ago, she started teaching herself different Photoshop techniques, and now she’s writing and illustrating her very first book, in which food is a major theme. www.danellevaneedendesign.myportfolio.com
J U R Y R E P O R T Danelle van Eeden’s work
demonstrates an ability to capture the essence of a personality and the situation: an only child going about her day and experiencing small little ‘blessings’. This is one of the few examples amongst the entries for this competition where the digital medium was used in a careful and sensitive manner. Danelle uses the medium in a poetic yet pragmatic and economical manner and is not ‘overwhelmed’ by all the digital effects to her disposal, like several of the other illustrators. The colouring and compositions are intimate, varied and sensitive.
D A N E L L E V A N E E D E N – Little Wonders
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D A N E L L E V A N E E D E N – Little Wonders
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OF COURSE! Ghia and Mateo have been looking forward to today. Their aunt Pipi is on her way to collect them with her red Vespa, and then their adventure will begin! Pipi hasn’t got any children of her own and she enjoys spoiling her brother’s two kids. But sometimes she doesn’t know where to draw the line – it doesn’t matter what they ask, she always gives in. The results are often funny, but sometimes they also learn valuable lessons. (And sometimes Ghia and Mateo’s parents get extra grey hair). One thing is for sure – when these three are together, they always have fun! The illustrations are done in gouache, water colour and coloured pencils (aquarelle and polychromos). P I P P A P E R E I R A was raised in Cape Town and has lived there all her life. She did a BA in Graphic Design at the University of Stellenbosch. After this she did a BA in Fashion Design at LISOF in Johannesburg, graduating in 2010. Her love for creating has always been divided equally between fashion and illustration, so after she finished her studies she decided to move into the world of fashion. She started as a fashion stylist at a publishing company, quickly moving on to decor and then props and wardrobe. About five years ago she started illustrating a children’s book as a creative outlet. About three years ago she finally quit her permanent job and went freelance in order to put in a concerted effort to become a professional illustrator.
J U R Y R E P O R T This artist’s brilliantly detailed, over-
the-top (and unapologetically pink!) illustrations are a feast for the eye. You can’t help adoring all the pink sweets and treats, figs and salami and onions, and even a pink iguana. The visual humour in this illustrator’s work is fantastic. Looking at the images you can get lost in all the wonderful detail hidden in her work. The use of different perspectives makes the work even more original.
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Pippa Pereira
PIPPA PEREIRA
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Of Course!
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PIPPA PEREIRA
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Of Course!
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THE TROMBONE PLAYER
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FROM VIENNA
Lené Ehlers
Franz is a professional trombone player in Vienna. He is the best trombone player, and all the orchestras want him to play in their concerts. Franz knows he is the best and often thinks of himself as a genius. But one night, after a show, something comes over him. He just can’t stop playing the trombone, no matter how hard he tries. He takes to the streets in search of help, but wherever he goes, people enjoy his talent and think he is a street artist. The more he tries to explain, the faster the notes flow from his trombone and people get so excited, they start dancing in the street! Franz drives through the streets of Vienna on his Vespa, searching for a way to get rid of the curse. When the clock strikes midnight, Franz accepts that he won’t find any help. He parks his Vespa on a little square and decides to perform a show all by himself. ‘I might as well!’ he thinks. What happens next, is incredible… L E N É E H L E R S is a creative living in Cape Town. She studied graphic design and completed a post-graduate programme in Illustration. She then broadened her creative practice by becoming a florist as well. Her Illustrations have taken her internationally to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Italy, where her work was part of a prestigious worldwide traveling exhibition. Her illustration style is bold, playful and individualistic. Her use of colour is striking and her creative process consists of always surprising herself by what happens on the blank page. She uses mixed media like oil paint, acrylic, gouache, ink, pencils and collage to create her unique pieces. Humour and playfulness are important themes in her work.
J U R Y R E P O R T Lené Ehlers’s illustrations are refreshingly
different to what one is used to seeing in a picture book competition. She works in a bold and individualistic way that is original and catches the eye. Her way of composition and colour-use shows her self-confidence. The hand-written text works well with this out-of-the-box style. The jury would have loved to see more of a close-up of her main character, as one tends to identify better with a character you know more about. It will also help children to enjoy the book more if one can come closer to what is happening, and not only feel like an onlooker from a distance. L E N É E H L E R S - The Trombone Player From Vienna
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L E N É E H L E R S - The Trombone Player From Vienna
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BELFAST ZOO This submission is a children’s picture book, based on a true story. In Belfast Zoo during ww2, there was a baby elephant called Sheila.
She would get scared during the air-raids, so her Keeper decided to sneak her home. It was a big secret... until the incident...
E L L A N R A N K I N is a Northern Irish Author, Illustrator and
Picturebook maker, recently graduated from Cambridge School of Art with an MA in Children’s Book Illustration. A huge animal lover, her stories usually centre around animals and the silly stories that she reads about them in the news. She is also inspired by cinema and history and loves nothing more than to create an environment using historical references- whether that be a 1980s jacket or a 1930s living room. She likes leaving clues about the character within images, so keep an eye out when looking at her work! When not illustrating, she is generally found cuddling her dog, playing video games or thinking about all the foods she would love to eat but probably shouldn’t. www.ellanrankin.com
J U R Y R E P O R T Ellan has uncovered and
illuminated a delightful true story from Belfast Zoo during World War II. The shared adventures of keeper and elephant are brought to life through a sequence of comical, playful and sharply observed illustrations. Ellan’s ability with colour, composition and use of media is evident, as are her storytelling skills which beautifully articulate a charming relationship between the two main characters.
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Ellan Rankin
Flash forward 50ish years, a mysterious old photograph was found with an elephant in someone’s garden. A hunt is on to find this mysterious woman in the photo. However, as an old lady takes her granddaughter to the zoo she’s oblivious to all the fuss, she only has eyes
ELLAN RANKIN
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Belfast Zoo
for her old friend. As we weave through this book, we discover stories of Belfast during WW2 to the future. The book explores these many stories… including an incredible act of kindness in a difficult time… through an old lady sharing her stories with her granddaughter.
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ELLAN RANKIN
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Belfast Zoo
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THE SECRET GARDEN The Secret Garden is a reminder of the world beneath the water surface. A world we don‘t know well enough. The book is about a little gardener who takes care of his garden in the deep sea. The gardener lives in a fantastic world that is hidden from us, in a world that people do not appreciate, that we humans only destroy and exploit. Here he experiences a nature that is full of miracles. Coral trees that bloom, jellyfish that illuminate the night sky, rays that bring stories from far away. Looking out of his window, we only can start dreaming and hope that this world will continue to survive for a long time.
Growing up in the land of The Blue Rider (Kandinsky, Macke, Franz Marc…), C A R O L I N E R E I S S N E R was inspired early by the imaginative fantastic picture world of this lake and mountain landscape. After successful years in the field of communication design and media design in Munich, she has been working as a freelance artist since 2016 and has been enrolled since then at the HAW in the lllustration Design Department. In 2019, during a semester abroad at the Griffith University in Brisbane / Australia, she discovered her love for fantastic natural worlds and the small hidden details. www.caroline-reissner.de
J U R Y R E P O R T The Secret Garden presents the
reader with a fantastical marine world, abundant with magnificent and beautiful sea life and cared for by a mysterious, diminutive gardener. Caroline’s ambitious, dramatic compositions, vivid tonal contrasts and skilful use of media combine to great effect. We are immersed in a deeply atmospheric, dream-like environment which draws the viewer in to its unfolding narrative. The Secret Garden serves as a celebration of our often times hidden planet as well as a reminder of our duty to protect its future survival.
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Caroline Reissner
C A R O L I N E R E I S S N E R – The Secret Garden
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AND THE WINNERS ARE…
C A R O L I N E R E I S S N E R – The Secret Garden
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IF I WERE If I Were is a prose poem about nature written by the Spanish writer Pilar López Ávila. Written with short sentences whose endings link to the beginnings of the next ones, it represents the desire of embodying nature, of becoming
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Gina Rosas Moncada
everything it represents. In a world that insists everyday on harming and destroying nature in a thousand different ways, the desire to embody it represents the need for living beings to live in harmony on this planet. The open
ending suggests the identity of whoever desires to be nature; a person who recognises his/her inability to become what he/she longs to be, but who nevertheless possesses something very valuable: his/her own life. If I Were is a wakeup
call to preserve nature, which is inextricably linked to human beings. We are nothing without it and it is nothing without us.
G I N A R O S A S M O N C A D A is a Colombian-born illustrator and printmaker based in Hamburg. She studied Visual arts in Colombia and Illustration in Hamburg. Her work has been exhibited worldwide, for example in Italy, China, Japan, Korea and Germany. Besides book illustration, she is particularly interested in printmaking and editorial illustration. She is inspired by the traditional folk music of Colombia and Latin America generally, as well as by the natural environment in her homeland. www.ginarosas.com
J U R Y R E P O R T Gina’s response to Pilar López
Ávila’s prose poem If I Were results in a timely sequence of illustrations that explore our relationship with nature and how we might consider our futures together. Gina’s work skillfully exploits digital media in an expressive and experimental manner. The richness of the multi-layered images indicate a sophisticated understanding of both traditional and contemporary print methods. The compositions are grand in scale, with the colours and textures forming abstract patterns, leading us into a world of wonder and imagination.
G I N A R O S A S M O N C A D A – If I Were
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AND THE WINNERS ARE…
G I N A R O S A S M O N C A D A – If I Were
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T H E C O M P E T I T I O N I S S U P P O R T E D B Y:
Lemniscaat Publishers (nl) The International Centre for the Picture Book in Society (gb) Protea (sa) | Walker Books (gb) The Burg Wissem Bilderbuch Museum Troisdorf (de), S.Fischer Verlage/Sauerländer (de)
