Picture-book illustrators based in South Africa or anywhere on the African continent. Watercolour, gouache, ink, collage, or careful digital work painted by a human hand. You should be able to hold a child's attention across fourteen landscape spreads, leave room for verse overlaid on the art, and paint places and people with respect. We are not asking for a mimic of the current AI look. We are asking for your eye.
Children's Library · illustrator auditions
100% real human art
Arjuna Badger Press is building a picture-book shelf that runs on real human illustration and skill, not permanent machine art. The Little Key is the first open seat. South African and African illustrators are invited to audition.
Honesty
AI is interim only
Machine-made spreads are placeholders, declared openly, until a human painter replaces them.
Credit
Named on the book
Illustrators are credited on the page, in print, and in the colophon.
Print
Hard copy in any language
Picture books aim for real print runs in every South African language and Swahili.
Open door
Your book too
Children's writers with finished manuscripts are welcome alongside illustrators.
What we are looking for
The first commission: The Little Key
A girl named Thembi finds an old brass key and an old cupboard in her grandmother's house. The story is set in South Africa; the tone is warm, quiet, and read-aloud. Read it free at read/the-little-key.html. The cover art is in place; the spread paintings are the audition brief. Replace the interim AI art spread by spread, or show us how you would paint Thembi, the cupboard, and the light in that room.
What to send
Your portfolio link, city and country, languages you work in, and one of the following: two character sketches for The Little Key, one finished sample spread (landscape, 3:2), or three spreads from a picture book you have already published. Tell us your medium, your turnaround, and whether you are open to royalty, fee, or a hybrid. Links only; do not attach huge files to the form.
Where this goes
Accepted illustrators land on the Children's Library shelf with finished, credited cover and spread art. The press coordinates small-batch print through its print marketplace. The long aim: a shelf a child can hold that was painted by people from their own continent.