We are excited to announce the winners of the 2023 Wacom Student Character Design Contest. The contest was a huge success, with submissions from high school artists across the United States throughout the months of March and April, 2023.
About the contest
The Wacom Character Design Contest was open to any student, over the age of 13, enrolled in a high school art or Career and Technical Education (CTE) course in the United States. Students submitted their own original character designs, which were then judged on shape, color, dynamic pose, and overall design by a panel of industry experts. Our judges included:
- Joshua Leonard – Character Designer, creator of Team Supreme
- Mike Morris – Episodic Director, Story Artist and Animation Supervisor
- Meredith Giltner – Director of Visual and Applied Arts
The first place winner will receive a new Wacom Cintiq 16 pen display. Second place will receive a Wacom One pen display, and third place will receive a Wacom Intuos Pro pen tablet. There were hundreds of entries from around the country, but we could only pick three winners. Here they are:
The winners
1st Place Winner: Amanda Arant, Colorado
2nd Place Winner: Jayna Valdez, New Jersey
3rd Place Winner: Miles Solevad, Washington
We would like to congratulate all of the winners, and thank all of the participants for their amazing work. Each of the judges noted how impressed they were with the quality level of the artwork and how difficult the judging was.
The winning entries will be featured on our Education social media channels: Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook at @wacomedu. We hope that these entries will inspire other students to pursue their creative endeavors. Please follow us to see more of the student artwork, as well as to learn about future contests and activities with Wacom.
We would also like to thank our judges for their time and expertise. Their insights were invaluable in selecting the winning entries. We are excited to see what the future holds for these talented young artists!
