The Book Illustrators Gallery (BIG) is a key feature of the Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC). It showcases the best picture book illustrations by illustrators and artists from Southeast Asia, those based in Asia and in the global Asian diaspora.

This year, BIG returns with an evolving digital form, featuring a specially curated thematic gallery and open submissions, which will be available online for viewing.

Who Can Apply:
  • Illustrators whose illustrative artwork have been featured in picture books, audiobooks, magazines, comics or graphic novels, both in print and/or digital, under either fiction or creative nonfiction categories, intended for youths and young readers, published between 16 March 2021 and 15 March 2022.
  • Illustrators should be of Asian descent, or are based in Asia or have illustrations dealing with or of Asian diaspora.
  • For illustrators below 18 years old, a signed consent letter from the parent or legal guardian should accompany the application.

  Submission Requirements & Guidelines  

What you need to prepare:
  • Illustrator details (contact details, bio)
  • Book information (genre/category, book bio, ISBN)
  • Additional information (Illustrator's video, About the illustration/s)
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
  1. Each applicant is allowed to submit a maximum of five (5) pieces of illustration, which may or may not come from the same publication. All submissions will be made via the official BIG 2022 Submission form
  2. Illustrations submitted to previous iterations of BIG will not be accepted.
  3. Submissions must be in high resolution (at least 2000px) and as a thumbnail in jpeg (.jpg) format within the online BIG 2022 Submission Form. Illustrations must be saved into a single folder.
  4. All illustrations must be individually labelled with the publication title that they are from and the month/year of its publication. For online publications, a time-stamped screengrab of when the illustration was released must accompany each submission. Name the folder in the following format: BIG2022_[Applicant name] (e.g. BIG2022_Jenny Ng). Compress the folder and upload it as a zipped (.zip) file in the submission form.
  5. Do not send or post the original illustration(s) to Singapore Book Council (SBC). SBC will not be responsible for any loss or damage to the illustration(s).
  6. Through the submission of the illustration(s) for BIG 2022, the applicant agrees to allow SBC to use a reproduction of the illustration(s) for the BIG exhibition online gallery and publicity of AFCC and Singapore Book Council, both online or in print.
  7. The applicant agrees to be included in the online directory for BIG 2022, and allows SBC to exhibit their work for the purposes of BIG 2022.
  8. Applicants are also asked to submit additional information, including but not limited to, video footage and additional write-ups, for the online gallery, whether selected or not.
  9. The selection made by curators is final. SBC will not accommodate any enquiries regarding the selections made by its curators.

SBC strongly encourages artists whose illustrations have been selected to drive their own publicity to create awareness of the exhibition of their work. Artists selected for BIG 2022 will be notified latest by early May 2022. SBC reserves the right to disqualify entries that do not adhere to these submission guidelines.

For enquiries, please contact [email protected]. The deadline for submissions is 13 March 2022, 2359h (SGT).