Semi-Finalists Chosen for "Purple Rules" Illustration Contest!

Because the quality of illustrations was so high, we decided to not only award the two entries with the highest number of votes a spot in our semi-finals, but we also chose the third place entry and a single "Author's Choice". 

These four artists will now have the chance to create thumbnail sketches for the entire "Purple Rules" story. From those sketches, we'll choose one lucky person to illustrate the final book. Throughout the next 14 days we'll be documenting the process on our Instagram and Facebook, so follow us for updates and a chance to share your own feedback. 

Also, we want to add a friendly reminder that all proceeds from the final book will be donated to Artolution. While we're excited to make a meaningful difference to Artolution's fundraising efforts in the future, we'd also like to encourage our fans, readers, and contest participants to donate now to support this amazing organization in their current struggle to provide digital access to program participants while quarantined/social distancing.

Without further ado, meet our winners below! 

1. Zainab K from the United Kingdom. 

Thanks to all of your votes, Zainab was one of our top voted entries. She gained popularity quicker than any other submission and we want to thank everyone who participated! She's clearly gotten all of your attention and now we're excited to see what else she comes up with :) 

From her initial entry, Zainab wrote: 
 "When first reading the Purple Rules passage, I immediately had a creative vision of what I thought would represent this part of the passage the best. I weirdly got inspired by Doodlebops! Which is a tv show which has each character assigned to their own colour. Therefore I made sure each character had their own monochromatic outfit as well as ‘aura’, just like in the Purple Rules book. In this piece I wanted to portray an easy understanding story suitable for those of 5-12 years old. The chosen passage includes Jefferson Blue going up the the Purple King with a colour cure, therefore I had the intention to make Jefferson Blue kneel before him despite the kings ‘scary vibe’."

2. Gi P from Canada

Gi was also in the top two highest voted entries. One thing we like about this entry is that it takes the modern cartoon/anime style and adds Gi's unique personality. 

Gi originally wrote about this entry she completed by using "whatever pens and paper I can find and the coloring was done on my phone": 
"I used this passage because I really wanted to show the dynamic between the king, acting bigger and better then everyone else, and Jefferson, a smaller, but certainly not weaker character. While the king intimidates and controls with brutal force and a facade of strength, under all the robes and crown and behind his anger, is fear for the things he doesn't understand- the other colors of We. I wish I didn't have to choose, because I have so many ideas for the illustrations for this story!! I have always loved bright fun colors and I really believe this story should be shared with children everywhere! If I'm being honest, I spent a lot of time redoing this piece because I really want to show my passion for this project. If I get the honor of illustrating the rest of this story i will put all heart and soul into it, because i just know that i would have loved this story as a kid, and I know that kid would be so proud to see that one day they got to tell stories like the ones on their shelf. Anyway, sorry for the babbling, I just want to add that I've done a picture book before for school, but I never did full page spreads like this, so I hope the formatting is okay! If not, I will happily redo it. Thanks for your time! And whether it's by me or any of the other INCREDIBLE entries, I cant wait to see this story come to life."

3. Charlene K from the United Kingdom

We decided to allow the entrant with the third highest number of votes to continue on as a semi-finalist because we loved Charlene's work so much. This image was one of the most dramatic, which caught our eye since this is, at it's core, a dramatic book. 

Charlene wrote this about her entry, which was done using ibispaint x on her phone: 
"So after reading the story the purple king seemed stuck up until the very end but his soldiers didn't do much so I thought it would be fun to make the king seem and look flamboyant and over exaggerated. And I made the soldiers all the same because the seemed to be used by the king as objects to suggest to his 'immense' power. To make the design of the king i drew inspiration from the character Hades from Hercules and overall just slimy characters. Thank you for considering this."

4. Mailelauhulaliakauanoe H from Hawaii

We chose Maile as an "Author's Choice" pick because we couldn't stop coming back to her illustration. It was just so different than the others. Additionally, her explanation about her illustration in our "Author's Favorites" blog post really touched us. We can't wait to see what she does next!

Here's what she wrote in her initial post:
When I read through YayGrr's poem, I really felt the relevance to current times. There's a lot of separation and isolation because of people who don't see that we are all crazy, unique parts of a wonderful, diverse whole! So, I wanted to make sure that any characters that are seen when you're reading the book look like real people (well, as real as you can get when you're bright pink...). I also wanted there to be a sense of, "this is a lesson that applies to the real world out here, not just to these zany-looking characters in a kids book." They look fun and cartoony, but also modern and relevant