The Kelpies Prize for Illustration

Enter the Kelpies Prize for Illustration 2027 now!

The deadline for entries is Sunday 7 March 2027 at midnight. 

To enter the Kelpies Prize for Illustration, you must respond to the following brief using our online entry form. You will also be asked to provide some information about you.

Submit five illustrations for a children’s book about Wild Scotland

We’d love to see artwork that explores the untamed side of Scotland. Here are some suggestions of approaches that could appeal to child readers:

• Adventures in the Scottish wilderness: narratives could explore what remote parts of the Highlands and Islands and the unexplored depths of our surrounding seas are still ruled by wildlife or ancient magic
• Rewilding Scotland’s landscapes: illustrations could highlight contemporary stories about the reintroduction of wild animals into the environment long after human activity has driven them from our shores.
• Historical Scotland: ideas could come from the exploits or rituals of past civilisations, before law and order as we know it now was imposed.

Illustrations can be any format size created in any media. At least three must be in colour. Any black and white artwork must be rendered tonally; we will not accept plain linework.

We welcome entries to the Kelpies Prizes from people whose backgrounds are not well represented in children’s books, including under-represented ethnic backgrounds, disabled, neurodivergent, LGBTQIA+, minority faith, care-experienced, working class or low income backgrounds. (Note: entrants must live in Scotland.)

Read our guidelines for full details of what we’re looking for, and don’t forget to check the terms and conditions, which includes a new section on AI and the Kelpies Prize for Illustration.

The Kelpies Prize for Illustration recognises and celebrates the unique value of human-created work. Entries to the Kelpies Prize must be the original work of the author. Writing generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools is neither original nor your own work and cannot be entered.

The deadline for entries is Sunday 7 March 2027 at midnight. 

We look forward to receiving your entries!

The Kelpies Prize for Illustration 2026

Massive congratulations to Susan Mitchell, the winner of the Kelpies Prize for Illustration 2026!

As well as receiving a £500 cash prize, Susan will now embark on 9 months of mentoring with the Floris Books design team. We’re excited to see her talent and ideas develop during this process!

History of the Kelpies Prize for Illustration

The Kelpies Prize for Illustration was launched in 2014 as the Kelpies Design & Illustration Prize. Previously focused on cover design, entrants were asked to submit a complete design for the cover of a Kelpies book. In 2019, we changed the format of the prize to reflect our new aims of nurturing and developing children’s illustrators in Scotland, asking entrants to submit a selection of illustrations suitable for a children’s book as opposed to a cover design. In addition, we introduced an all-new prize package including a mentoring programme with our experienced design team.

Find out about our past winners.