Steven Guarnaccia

Over 3000 entries have been submitted for the 2017 Illustrator’s Exhibition. What are the main criteria for selection?

I’ll be looking for artists who succeed in creating a world, either a representation of the world we live in (or something like it) or a purely personal, internal world.

What do you reckon are the main and most innovative trends in children’s illustration on a global level?

I think that humor plays an increasing role in children’s picture books and some of the best illustrators working have a strong design sense.

What’s the main advice you would give to an emerging illustrator who aims to make a living from his/her own art?

All artists today need to be authors, that is, creators of their own worlds, whether making pictures for books or online or for the press, or for gallery walls.

Who do you reckon is the must-know artist to those wanting to embark in a career as illustrators?

It depends on the area of creative work (children’s books, comics, animation, etc.) and what part of the world we’re talking about. In any case, the idea of a canon (a group of artists that most other artists and non-artists recognize as being significant) seems increasingly distant from today’s reality. There are so many artists making work for so many different platforms and there is so much self-and niche-publsihing, that a coherent list of must-know artists is hard to compile. I think the one thing that young artists need is a greater sense of the history of the field and its creators.