Every year American Illustration has a juried competition for it’s big publication. To be in the book you have to submit your best work from just that year to be judged by a panel. If you are chosen you get your illustration as a full page in the big, always nicely designed hardcover and you get invited to a party/ gallery show of the printed pages in New York City. Back when I was a senior in college I tried to get into the book and only got chosen not selected which meant I got on their website but not in the printed book. I got to go to the party and gawk at the name tags I recognized of all my favorite role model illustrators. I didn’t try to get into the book again until this past year when I submitted my camera pattern on a whim. This time I actually made it in the publication which I was excited about and went to the party and actually realized I was friendly with some of the people there which was a good change from five years ago. I can not tell you how many of the people I’ve posted about on this blog that are in this book too- Chris Ware, Marcel Dzama, Evah Fan(who did the cover art), Tom Neely, Calef Brown, Jonathon Rosen, Sara Fanelli, Mike Bertino, Martha Rich, Jillian Tamaki, Adrian Tomine, Henning Wagenbreth, Esther Pearl Watson– those are just the ones I noticed flipping through. So basically this book could be a companion book to this blog. Pick up a copy of the book here or submit your work for next years publication here.

© Julia Rothman 2007