I'm a judge for Picture This!

Calling all aspiring illustrators from the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, Italy, and South Africa!

May 09, 2025

I've got some exciting news to share: I’m going to be a judge for the illustration competition of...

I’ll be judging together with fellow Dutch illustrators Sophie Pluim, Jan Jutte and publisher Jean Christophe Boele van Hensbroek.

But what exactly is Picture This!?

This illustration competition was initiated in 2017 by Dutch Publisher Lemniscaat, in collaboration with Walker Books, (UK), Camelozampa (Italy), Protea Boekhuis (South Africa) and the Burg Wissem Bilderbuch Museum (Germany). Each country has its own participants, and each one eventually selects three winners.

The winners get some pretty exciting opportunities, because their work is put in the spotlight with the goal of being published internationally. An international catalogue will be created, featuring all the winners from the participating countries, and this will be presented to various major picture book publishers during the Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2026. That really increases your chances of getting commissioned as an illustrator.

(Take a look at past winners here! )

Talking about the presentation of the winning illustrations at the fair..

I have a little anekdote about that.

This year, I was at the Children’s Book Fair together with Lemniscaat and my husband Coen, helping out at the stand. Coen had done his best to hang the frames with the Picture This! winning illustrations, but there was something wrong with the hanging system. Because… the frames just kept sliding off the wall. 😱

Coen and I to the rescue! But no matter what we tried, we just couldn’t fix it. In the end, after one of the frames actually broke, we decided to take the prints out and hang them up without the frames. And finally, those stubborn images stayed in place!

Below, I’m sharing two photos I took at the fair. The first one shows the Lemniscaat stand the day before the fair opened. (You can already see the frames starting to slip and slide their way down.) The second photo shows our final solution: out with the heavy frames! And without the reflective glass, the illustrations were suddenly so much easier to admire and take pictures of. It was a Win-win in the end. (And we learned a wise lesson for next year: Don’t bring frames.)

Would you like to participate? That’s great!

But take note:
If you want to enter, there are a few requirements.
First of all, you can only participate if you’re an illustrator from the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Great Britain, or South Africa. It’s also important to know that your illustrations must not have been previously published as a picture book. So you can only take part if you haven’t yet published a picture book with a publisher. Previous publications in educational books or other genres (like book covers, poetry, adult fiction, etc.) are totally fine.

Check out the instructions for your country on the homepage of the Picture This! website. Don’t forget to review your country’s FAQ, and if you have more questions, you can contact them through the website. (not through me 🙂 )

Deelnemen kan tot en met 31 mei 2025.

Lastly: My Tips

My tips are already available on the Dutch section of the Picture This! website (in the tabs). While I’ll only be judging Dutch and Flemish contributors, I hope my tips might also be useful to participants from other countries, so I’ve decided to translate them for you.

Here they come:...

Dear Picture This! participant, I’m thrilled that you’re joining the competition.

I’m happy to share with you what I find engaging in illustrations and what I’ll be paying attention to. But I’ll also add some disclaimers, because I mainly want to encourage you to create what you want to create. Of course, you can use the jury’s tips to strengthen your illustrations and/or story, but don’t try to force it. Illustrations that come from within are often the best.

Color use comes first for me.
Color is the first thing I notice in an illustration, and it immediately sets the mood. With color alone you can already say so much, without needing a bunch of extra elements.
Disclaimer: That doesn’t mean pale palettes, grayscale or black-and-white illustrations (with or without a spot color) can’t be compelling. In fact, those choices can enhance or even beautifully complement your work. Experiment and discover what fits the story you want to tell.
An illustration should captivate or astonish.
I want to feel what the image is telling me, and I love it when characters (if they’re part of your story) truly “come alive” and can show me their situation without uttering a word. I’m drawn to illustrations that need little text or explanation. First you look, then you read.
Disclaimer: Of course there are moments when you do need more text than others. Follow whatever works best for you.
I really enjoy images where multiple things happen, and, if it fits the context, where there’s a touch of humor (the so-called “busy” or “seek-and-find” illustrations).
Disclaimer: That doesn’t mean that every illustration in your book has to be like that. Not every scene calls for that level of detail or for humor even. And not every illustration benefits from bold color either. Sometimes the opposite—a simpler, quieter image—can be more powerful.
Trust your instinct: when you choose an image, consider whether it needs lots of detail or just a few key elements.
Lastly: unity matters.
You’re submitting illustrations for the same story, so they need to feel like a cohesive set, a clear through-line.
Disclaimer: That doesn’t mean every piece must look identical. In fact, variation can be refreshing. But if you have recurring characters, make sure they remain recognizable. And keep your overall style consistent. Feel free to experiment with different materials, but do it in a way that still makes everything feel like it’s part of the same illustrated world.
Good luck! But most of all: enjoy making exactly what you want to make! 💕

Well, that’s it!
It’s going to be super exciting. The jurying should take place in July 2025.
If there’s any news, I’ll be sure to share it.

And if you decide to participate, I wish you LOTS of fun and success!

With love,