Winners South Africa 2022
The 2022 winners from South Africa have been announced: Isabella Kuijers, Linn Hugo, Veronica Bekker.
Congratulations! You can view the beautiful illustrations below.
The jury (Piet Grobler, dr. Mia Oosthuizen, Alida Bothma) wrote the following about:
Isabelle Kuijers
Isabella shows the best technique and drawing ability, as well as an understanding of contemporary picture book illustration. If one can draw this way, why should the colouring work be done with the digital medium? Her use of colour and composition and alternating viewpoints testify to visual intelligence. Her style, coupled with her handling of colour and spaces, leaves room for a picture book that speaks to an alternative audience and makes the transition from picture books that are not primarily aimed at younger children. Her choice of three different points of view promotes context and characterisation, while supporting the emotional state of the main character and space. Her drawing ability stands out. The varying perspectives from which she approaches each illustration are exceptional.
Linn Hugo
The images are interesting and contemporary, even bordering on being obscure. Certainly not mainstream, perhaps not so clearly geared towards the common denominator of “young readers” and therefore not ideal for publishers, but I do feel that experimenting should be encouraged in young work as well. Linn’s entry is the only one that really pushes the boundaries of space, characterisation and medium. The simplicity of her scenes leaves a lot of room for self-interpretation and imagination. I was struck by the playfulness and simplicity in Linn’s illustrations. Her work is a bright spot for me in the sense that she is the only one who plays around a bit with ideas and technique, and does it partly by hand (which is a bonus for me). I like the mixed media combination she uses and the cutting and pasting of paper, combined with watercolours and photos. The unconventional way she runs the text through the illustrations, as well as the layout of the pages and the compositions of her illustrations, make her work exciting, and I would love to watch her in the future.
Veronica Bekker
She has a sound command of the digital medium, thereby creating a good atmosphere using colour, contrast and light sources. The illustrations are beautiful and join a popular style that is currently quite abundant in picture books as well as animation. Each illustration forms a lovely image to look at, while the story concept has potential. The illustrator shows a flair for the picture book genre and the young child as a target market. She manages to get a nice watercolour feeling in her work, even if it is done digitally. She knows how to use her medium, and how to create atmosphere with the textures of the leaves, colour, light, and shadow. There is a magical feeling to her work, but without much character. The illustrations are fun to look at, and I think she will be able to make beautiful books.