The Mailman Brought Some Gold!

Yesterday, this nice little package came in the mail! even though as I mentioned in a previous post, that I long ago gave up coveting such award, I admit that it was fun to hold this little gem in my sweaty little hands. Thanks to Alyce Heath and the Society of Illustrators Los Angeles and the esteemed jurors that felt my work was worthy of such recognition. Thanks and I will try to not disappoint!

See my award winning work on the SILA site here
Or on Life Needs Art here

SILA Illustration 52 Gold!

Grasshopper Hunter- 13" x 19" digital and graphite- by Greg Newbold.

I am pleased and honored to announce that my painting "Grasshopper Hunter" has been awarded a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators Los Angeles. It will hang in the Illustrators 52 show to be held from March 7-30 at the Center Stage Gallery in Burbank, California as well as on the SILA website. The piece was created for Boys' Life Magazine and continues to be the most awarded piece I have done to date after being accepted into the Society of Illustrators, Spectrum and 3x3 illustration annuals. This award is the first Gold Medal of my career prompting my wife to ask what it feels like to be a twenty year overnight success. Well, honestly, it feels pretty good. Thank you to
the esteemed jurors who I am sure had some pretty tough choices based on the number of extremely talented artists I know whose work was not accepted. Having been on the other side of the equation, all too often it seems, I feel for you my friends. A big thank you to Alyce Heath and everyone at SILA, I am very grateful for this honor.

3 x 3rd Time's the Charm for Grasshopper Hunter

I was informed last week that my Boys' Life illustration "Grasshopper Hunter" received an Award of Merit from this year's 3x3 Illustration Annual. This marks the first time one of my pieces has been accepted into three of the major juried illustration annuals after it got into both The Society of Illustrators and Spectrum annuals this year. I only missed on Communication Arts or it would have been a grand slam for the annual shows I entered. Needless to say, I am pretty pleased. The annual will be published for the first time in hardback and I am looking forward to seeing it reproduced alongside the work of so many other talented artists. Congratulations to all those artists whose work was accepted, especially to several of my classmates from the University of Hartford: James O'Brien; Jim Cohen, Scott Anderson, Q. Cassetti, David Brinley and Scott Bakal as well as former student Houston Trueblood. Hope I didn't overlook anyone.

Grasshopper Hunter in Illustrators 55

Grasshopper Hunter - Digital 11" x 17 by Greg Newbold

I got a nice phone call from the  New York Society of Illustrators yesterday informing me that my piece "Grasshopper Hunter" was accepted into Illustrators 55. It was a nice call to take considering that I have not been so lucky the past couple of years. For those who are unfamiliar with the Society's Annual, this year marks the 55th year of this annual competition which typically accepts around 400 of the years best illustrated works from a pool of around 6000 or so entries. It is pretty stiff competition and it is always nice to get something in the show. The piece also got in the Spectrum Annual earlier this year, so I must have done something right on this one.

Grasshopper Hunter in Spectrum 19

Just got my letter yesterday from Spectrum. Always a good thing when you get one since not getting one means you didn't get in. As always, competition was stiff  and the job arduous for jurors Peter deSeve, Dawn Rivera-Ernster, Jeremy Cranford, Scott Gustafson and John Schindehette. I am certain that the percentage of accepted entries was in the single digits, so I am proud to have a piece included in Spectrum 19: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art. My entry was originally done for Boys' Life Magazine. The book will be published in November through Underwood Books.