Excuse the self-pimpery but it’s for a cause. Each year, Dan Dos Santos and I ask ten artists to create a 5×7 painting of their choosing. These minis are exhibited at the Society of illustrators and are placed on auction, via eBay. All proceeds go to the Society’s student scholarship fund.
A huge thank you to the artists that have donated ther time and talent to this year’s auction: Wesley Allsbrook, Volkan Baga, Chris Buzelli, Justin Gerard, Greg Manchess, Paolo Rivera, Luis Royo, Greg Ruth, Francis Vallejo, and Michael Whelan.
The SI Scholarships are among the illustrations industry’s toughest awards. Just over 100 students are chosen to be in the exhibit from nearly 6,000 entries—about half of them are given cash awards. Not only do these awards help subsidize students financially, they also go a long way to boost the confidence of young artists (and their nervous parents) by proving that their voices stand out amongst thousands of others. It’s never long before you start seeing the winners out in the world and on their way to becoming the field’s biggest names—John Jude Palencar, James Jean, Tomer Hanuka, Dan Dos Santos and hundreds of others since the Scholarship’s inception in 1981.
So bid and bid again! We picked a pint-size format so that the participating artists can have fun creating them and so that they sell at a price point for more casual collectors.
