blown cover contest

A couple months ago I stumbled onto this really neat weekly drawing contest from the NewYorker's art editor Françoise Mouly called Blown Covers. Although it is not associated with the New Yorker it gives you an insight on what the editors look for in a cover illustration for the New Yorker. The winner and the top 12 submissions are announced on Fridays with comments from the editors. I'm learning a lot from this and it's really neat to see all the ideas and and various styles from the submissions.

Weddings : My latest submission made it to No 10
Above is my latest entry. I was Runner up #10. I've been submitting my sketches ever since I found out about it and I made the top 12 a couple times, which is awesome! 

Submissions that made it to the top 12 so far (in chronological order):

Weddings : Runner Up #10
The one-point perspective of the bridge seals the kiss and gives it gravitas. Besides, that is the bridge that would take this Brooklyn couple to City Hall. 
The Gays - Runner Up #11
Support for gay marriage or opposition to it is a political issue right now and this image expresses that thought clearly by painting one symbol over the other. And since they’re both striped flags, there’s something there.
The Rich and the Poor - Runner Up #11
Sweet! Cartoonists can do so much with facial expressions and body gesture (not to mention pink.) It showed good thinking on the part of this artist to move away from ostensible signifiers (no top hats or poor people here) and simply comment on the attitude.
Love in the city - Runner Up #7
This is a simple trope, but it's also a good composition. The image uses an extreme close-up on the birds with an extreme long view behind them (you can see New Jersey!)




Submissions that didn't quite made it : 
 

There's still time for me to take the winning position before the end of the year! Stay tuned to find out.