I was thrilled to wake up this morning and find out that I won the ‘Draw This’ SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) challenge for the month of March 2025.

 When I saw that the prompt for March was ‘Wild Things’ , I immediately thought of the illustration I drew (above) of a girl in the forest, running with her wild and magical friends. This illustration was inspired by everything that I love, the forest, wildlife, nature and magical creatures. It fitted really well with the prompt, so I entered it. 

Someone on instagram actually congratulated me on the win, before I’d even realised I had won. I replied to her to say thank you, but I didn’t think I’d won, but she assured me by reply that I had, and that it had been announced on the SCBWI website! What a lovely surprise. 

The illustration is drawn with a mixture of materials, including gouache, coloured pencils, coloured chalks and Procreate. 

I don’t think I have ever won an illustration competition before, and it’s such a lovely feeling. The SCBWI are a big organisation, so I hope it gets seen by lots of people in the children’s book industry, and may lead to more illustration projects. Maybe this girl and her friends may become a story of their own one day.