(Photo: CGTN)
Four illustrators of Chinese descent will receive "Illustrators of the Future" awards at a literary award gala on April 5 at Taglyan Complex in Hollywood, California, according to Author Services, Inc. and Galaxy Press, the event's organizers.
The 30th Annual Illustrators of the Future will honor a total of 12 illustrators in 2018 (three winners in each quarter) from around the world for their excellence in the genres of Science Fiction and Fantasy.
Sixteen-year-old Chinese girl Alice Wang is the youngest contestant ever in the history of the illustration award. Her work "Art of the Ages" impressed the judges and made her one of the fourth quarter winners.
As a digital artist, Alice Wang draws upon her own technologically immersive adolescence in her seemingly futuristic illustrations. Her figurative works are characteristically detailed and pensive.
Qianjiao Ma, another Chinese winner of the award, works as a concept artist whose clients include Warner Bros. and Universal Studios, and she has also contributed as designer and painter for the Netflix Original "Disenchantment" and TBS's "Final Space."
Winner Aliya Chen, a Chinese American born in 1998 in Buffalo, New York, and currently a major in computer graphics at the University of Pennsylvania, told Xinhua the award is important to her as it will encourage her to make something out of her passion for illustration.
"It is very important to me because it proved to me that illustration, which is my passion, didn't have to be limited to a hobby," Chen said. "I think it's a very common idea that creative pursuits become less and less 'worthy' as we get older, especially as career choices, but this competition allowed me to realize that an artistic profession is entirely possible."
Yingying Jiang, who is Chinese British, earned the award by two of her works named "the Apothecarist's Apprentice" and "the Lady of Shalott."
In the 30 years of the Illustrators of the Future Contest, there have been 346 winners. The 346 past winners of the Illustrating Contest have produced more than 6,000 illustrations, 360 comic books, and visually contributed to 68 television shows and 40 major movies, according to the organizers.
In the meantime, the 35th Annual Writers of the Future awards ceremony will also be held. Past winners of the writing contest have produced 32 New York Times bestsellers and their works have sold more than 60 million copies.
