ILLUSTRATORS' Q & A

Hi Yinny and welcome to the forum! Always nice to see another illustrator here as it can be very rare!

I wish I could give you more insight into how results on the illustrator side of the contest works, but it's been very difficult to see any kind of pattern. The last time I submitted I never heard back at all, so I had to query Joni who confirmed that the illustrator winners had already been notified. This was not the first time that had happened, it actually happened 3 other times as well. Then I was in for quite a surprise when one time Joni sent me an email saying I got Semi Finalist, and that the illustrators would now have rankings like the writers side. Unfortunately the following two times I entered I was back to hearing nothing and having to query Joni. So I'm not really sure what is going on with it. I have submitted art for Q3, but as we are only 14 days past that deadline I'd say it will be a couple of months before I hear anything on that. Did you submit for Q3 or are you still waiting on Q2? If you haven't heard anything and you entered in Q2 I'd say give it a couple more weeks. Q2 results for the writers are just coming out now, and the illustrator side has always been a bit slower. I'd say if you haven't heard anything by August then it wouldn't hurt to query Joni.

Imagination Vortex, thanks so much for the insight! Any information about IOTF is news to me so this has been very helpful.
Q2 was my first ever submission and I'm still waiting to hear back. It kind of sucks that there seems to be no consistency in how illustrators are notified. Since Joni's latest general email suggested results will be going up on the website soon, I suspect all the finalists have been notified by now.

You're right, the ILLUSTRATORS were always fewer here, if no less enthusiastic or talented!

We always just figured that it was NATURAL that Writer folks would be verbal and use the forums more.

(We illustrators communicated via cave art and overpass graffiti ... OH! And we sent messages to each other via heavily tagged and spray-painted freight trains! Hear a freight train rumbling through your town at 3 AM some night? An IOTF ILLUSTRATOR may be trying to pass along the buzz! haha.)

You'll know this by now, but here's an e-mail Joni sent:

"The judging results are in! And here are the winners for the Illustrators of the Future Contest—2nd Quarter 2017

Congratulations to you all!
Winners:
Adar Darnov from New Jersey
Reyna Rochin from Georgia
Brenda Rodriguez from Indiana

Finalists:
Adam Mekies from Colorado
Naomi Ovalle from California
Nadia Roldan from California
Whitney Tiedeman from Nebraska
Charles Zacherl from Indiana"

Myself, I'd won an IOTF back in volume 27. All I can say is: KEEP CREATING, KEEP SUBMITTING, and YOU'LL GET THERE !!! Definitely it's a fun win, and the discipline you develop is its own teacher!

Fate favours those who stay with it and keep trying: There are STRONG Quarters where you'd be amazed at the amazing ART you're up against ... and other Quarters where you're just firing on all cylinders yourself and WIN!

Thanks of the response, soulmirror!
Yes, I saw the Illustrator results on the website. I love that the winning entries are now shown - very helpful for getting an idea of what people are submitting. I always feel like I'm questioning myself, "is this really acceptable?" every time I enter the competition 😛