V&A Illustration Awards 2007: Student Category

The student category was judged by illustrator Olivier Kugler, and academic and illustrator Geoff Grandfield. The Awards have been increasingly recognizing the influence of new media on illustration. For the first time, student entrants have applied and been judged online. The sheer range and high standard of entries confirm the exciting and varied potential of illustration.

The Student Illustrator of 2007 received £1,300 and the commended students £300 each.

Student Illustrator of 2007

Leah Fusco

University College for the Creative Arts, Maidstone

'The Long Man' is concerned with the idea of heritage; how events and landmarks can shape and give an identity to their surrounding area. Drawing on location is an essential working method for me in terms of creating ideas and becoming involved with my subject matter.  I have focused on the Long Man of Wilmington, a chalk figure located on the South Downs, as I was drawn to the history behind it and felt that the figure was an interesting example of how illustration can be used in an alternative context.

My book describes a journey to and from the Long Man, using text only to provide directions to the landmark. I wanted to give a sense of the English countryside, particularly tourist spots, and to explore subtle stories that I discovered along the way, executed through a pictorial narrative. I generally use pen, ink, charcoal and graphite stick on location and then work from my images in gouache, watercolour and acrylic, with my final outcome combining both of these techniques.'

Visit Leah Fusco's website

Student prize-winner

Laura Clark

Edinburgh College of Art
'For my picture book version of  'The Happy Prince' I took inspiration from ancient Persian and Indian art as well as books such as 'And Miss Carter Wore Pink' by naïve painter Helen Bradley. These works show the world as a pattern of flat shapes, where every figure is a symbolic representation used  purely for the purpose of narration.

I see picture books as a kind of theatre and I wanted to reflect this in my approach to illustration. The people I've painted are not real people in a real place, but more like puppets acting out their parts in front of a stage set. I think Wilde's tale has a fable-like quality to it which lends itself to this treatment.

I start each page by composing the layout. My favourite part is thinking of all the little stories and characters to put in the background, which is fast and fun. Painting them in afterwards, however, is sometimes a different story!'

Visit Laura Clark's website

Student prize-winner

Assim Heetun

University of Hertfordshire

'I love pattern, especially complex patterns like Asian mehendi [body art]. Whenever I draw something I try to add as much detail as possible to bring it to life. I work both on the computer and by hand. Most pieces start out as separate sketches which I then play around with digitally, adjusting the size and composition until I'm happy. For this piece I drew a rough of each character then scanned each one into the computer to work on them further.

'What Would Make the World a Better Place?' is about childhood beliefs. Children believe the strangest things about the ways in which the world around them works; factories make clouds, stars make twinkling sounds, monsters live under the bed. Wouldn't it be great if they were all true?'

Visit Assim Heetun's website

Student prize-winner

Adam Newton

Kingston University

''The Hangover' is a stream-of-consciousness imaginary journey inspired by my wandering thoughts on New Year's Day 2007. It was originally created as a one week project run in conjunction with 'Le Gun' magazine. The story is of a young man in a delicate state who is whisked off from breakfast by the Madonna and her mischievous son on a hallucinatory adventure to a world where books come to life and people find themselves transformed.

My inspiration came from religious icons, the writing of James Joyce and the paintings of Picasso. I was keen to employ very quick mark-making when creating this image, an approach that resulted in a process of continual re-drawing and of not being precious with the work. Large, messy charcoal shapes were tamed with more considered linear work in pen and pencil, before being brought together digitally and arranged into the final composition.'

Student prize-winner

Hannah Rollings

Kingston University

'These pages are from my book, 'Utterly Mindless Thrills: a Peep Show into the Romance Novel', which was inspired by my interest in romance novels. My work shows what these books are all about in the end: sex. I have taken the raunchiest snippets of text from the novels then manipulated the wording, and used gouache paints and sections of found fabric to create my images.

I then arranged the layout of each image digitally. My illustrations portray the stereotypes that are associated with the romance novel and my book reflects the predictable pattern that they all follow. The novel's covers have also inspired me. I love corny romantic scenes and took inspiration from James Bond films and cheesy postcards.'

Visit Hannah Rollings website