Last night saw the presentation of the 2014 V&A Illustration Awards, and we are pleased to announce that Helen Musselwhite was chosen as our overall winner.
Helens’ winning work was entered for the Editorial category and accompanies an article in Dance Gazette by author Audrey Niffenegger called, ‘Ten Myths of Creativity’ which explores the ups and downs of being a creative person. The illustrations are made from meticulously crafted paper sculptures which were hand cut and built up in layers from different weights and types of paper.
Helen says, ‘I focused on the extremities of the creative process – the joy, that light bulb moment when you know you’ve nailed it, and the crushing feeling of despair and insecurity when the creative juices aren’t flowing and you feel you’re on the edge’.
Helen has been working as a paper sculpture illustrator from her home studio on the southern edge of Manchester for the past 8 years.
The winner of our Book Illustration category is Yasmeen Ismail for her joyously playful illustrations in Time For Bed, Fred (Bloomsbury Children’s Books), which also happens to be her debut as a children’s author. Yasmeen studied at art school in her hometown, Dublin and graduated in 2002. After running a successful animation production company for four years, Yasmeen found herself writing and illustrating picture books.
Winning the Book Cover Illustration category is Anne-Marie Jones’ painterly work for a new Folio Society edition of Sons and Lovers. Anne-Marie studied Illustration at University College Falmouth and now works as an illustrator combining painting with digital reworking.
Our Student category winner is Grace Russell who recently graduated from the University of Westminster. Her work ‘The Wild Places’ was praised by the judges for showing a strong compositional sense, a willingness to experiment and a unique visual language.
The judges were particularly impressed with the scale and intensity of Student Runner-up Vivien Chan’s work in which she documented the fashion event London Fashion Scout. Vivien is currently studying at Kingston University.
Come and see the winning work displayed outside the National Art Library from 3 June until 2 July 2014, or view the Illustration Awards online
