On the 15th October 2014 we launched an art competition, inviting you to create a piece of artwork using ink. Just over 1 month later the competition closed, and we were delighted to receive 73 wonderful and diverse entries Illustrators James Mayhew and Jackie Morrishave selected a winner and 2 runners up, on the basis of creativity and innovation with the medium of ink, from a shortlist of ten.

The Winner

  Conor Collins - A word painting created using thousands of journal entries marking from the day my heart broke to the day I recovered. Some entries are funny, some sad but all are honest entries about what I thought and felt. Please do zoom in and have a read!                                   Judge 'Jackie Morris' said of Conor's drawing, 'It spoke to me so strongly. I love the artist who uses words to make an image. I love that the words were written over time, and map a journey from break up and misery to happiness. I love that the image could be dancing, or could be falling. It's ambiguous. There is an inherent cleverness about this piece. And I love also that the prize may be used to make more images of similar intensity. Writing is so important in my life. Writing helps me make sense of the world, helps me to sort things that perplex. Writing down thoughts helps me to clarify. So, the use of the journal to write away heartache into recovery and then the destruction of it to create this image, well, I guess that is why for me this image has to be the winner.’ close up (please have a read)  

The Runners-Up

    Lisa Jackson - I used a fountain pen and brush pen. The trees I drew on a separate page then placed that page behind the other. I stuck the pages to my monitor so its light would make the trees shine through. I used oil to make some parts of the paper more see-thru. :)           Steve Harding - I created this hare art using ink pen with a series of dots and lines  

The Shortlist

    Ian Hedley - Autumn Tree. I used a straw to blow ink blots around to create the leaf effect, using seven different fountain pen inks on watercolour paper. The trunk was painted with an eighth ink and a brush.           Alan Hunter - walk through forest created using ink drops and a sharpened bamboo stick     Jack Gater - This image captures the impact of Monteverde Green upon water. I put the ink into an eyedropper and then squeezed the ink from a small distance into a plate of water. It took many attempts and I was pleased to see this as the end result. I hope you enjoy!     Attila Sultis - I've made this sketch in part of a school project. When I was done with the building itself I wanted to add some dissolving affect. I was using a hard haired paint brush to spatter the ink what I've blotted up some places. First try with this technique.         Matt Roff - This illustration titled Mystic River, was created from many small drawings using ink, blending them into a larger piece on Photoshop, projecting it off of acetate, to redraw the A1 size illustration as a final piece again using ink               Petr Sirucek - Mixing blue and green.As you see,I let the mother nature to mix the inks.Splitted a white rose stem and dipped one half in blue and the other half in green ink.Then I just draw the background using inks of course and put it together with the colored rose   Tonka Uzu - I made this illustration for a book based on the Bremen musicians story. I usedpen brushes with sepia and blue calligraphy inks for the figures and a normal brush for the vegetation. I then added the finishing touches digitally.