The Illustrated World Series: Champion of Champions

On a bright and sunny August weekend in London, UK (or as bright and sunny as the United Kingdom can be), exceptionally talented digital and classic creators gathered together to compete in the Illustrated World Series. This is an annually organised event that puts top illustrators in a tournament-style competition, competing in head-to-head knockouts until two winners are announced. This year’s three day tournament was held at Samsung KX in Kings Cross, and saw a total of 32 brilliant artists (12 x digital and 12 x classic) competing and demonstrating their talents to a widespread, international audience.

As always, this year’s event was a curated showcasing of some iconic and extraordinary artwork and our very own ScrawlrBox founder, Chris Lambert, was even there in person amidst the action to choose and present the rising star award. So, if you didn’t get a chance to watch the live stream or if you are just interested in hearing what happened, we’re here to give you the low-down on the action, as artists battled head-to-head in 60 minute art-offs to create an A2 illustration inspired by a recent Buzzfeed news headline.

The final for the digital artists saw @AlexMDC and @KingTrou in a creative technological battle for the champion title. The news headline they were given was ‘Flight Attendants Tell Us The Wildest Things They’ve Had To Deal With’ inspiring some hilarious yet sympathy inducing (for the poor flight attendants) artworks. Of course, both creators were outstanding but ultimately the formidable @AlexMDC took home the digital champion title.The final classic round was a clash of styles between @D.Okuart and @Hatch_art (Scrawlrs may recognise this name from a fair few collaborations). Their provided Buzzfeed headline was ‘Wimbledon Standing Ovation For Woman Who Helped Develop COVID Vaccine’ which inspired some fantastic imagery from the pair. The pens of both artists flew across the pages, as they raced to create their masterpieces. Whilst two sensational artworks were created, the wonderful @Hatch_art came away with a well deserved win (we like to think that the lucky HatchXScrawlrBox collaboration t-shirt, that he was sporting for the finals, helped just a little).

The rising star award was created to showcase a competitor that did not make it to the finals but impressed with their artistry and ability to take the event into their stride. This year’s winner was Ava, aka @Stoopidshark, a young female artist with heaps of potential. Ava came all the way from Arizona on her own to enter the competition and although she didn’t make the finals, she knocked out more experienced competitors and wowed the judges with her professionalism and skill. She was unlucky not to progress further but is definitely one to watch in the future. We will be supporting her and her art to see if we can help get her to the finals next year. A potential 2022 winner? Watch this space...

Overall the weekend was full of excitement, creativity and of course, fantastic artwork. Congratulations to the 2021 winners and naturally, a big thanks to The Illustrated World Series, for coordinating such a fantastic event.

 For more information be sure to check out The Illustrated World Series website: illustratedworldseries