1 . 2023 Illustration Competition

Welcome to enter for the Communication Arts Illustration Competition, most respected and admired in the industry for creativity in illustration. Selected by distinguished professionals, the winning entries will be distributed worldwide in the Communication Arts Illustration Annual and on commarts. com, ensuring important exposure of the creations. Each winner will receive a professionalized Award of Excellence, made from solid aluminum, and an award certificate. Communication Art’s Award of Excellence is one of the most desired awards. If chosen, winning places you in the highest ranks of your industry.

What To Enter With

Any illustration first published or produced from Jan. 2023 to Jan. 2024 is qualified. Entries may originate from any country. Descriptions in English are necessary for the judges to read.

Entries Can Be Submitted In The Following Formats

Digital Images: RGB images in JPG format with a maximum file size of 2 MB. GIF images may be livelier, but would be turned down, and so would the PNG ones.

Illustration Competition Categories & Entry Fees

For more categories, please download the category PDF.

Late Fees

Entries must be registered no later than Jan. 13, 2024. Entries registered after that date will be charged a fee of $ 10 each. No entries can be registered after Jan. 27, 2024.

4 . While rap(说唱音乐)songs are made up of many parts, the verse(主歌部分)is by far the most important.     1    . Writing rap verses is an incredible method of artistic expression, as long as you keep a few tips in mind.

Begin by free-writing lines about your topic. Using your topic as a starting point, start writing outlines of your thoughts, trying to rhyme(使押韵)the last word in each line. Once you’ve exhausted a set of rhymes, start another one and write lines until you run out of ideas. Explore ideas around your topic until you find the ones you enjoy or know best.     2     this first stage is used to create material to build your verse.

Build a rhyme scheme(格式)around your favorite lines. A rhyme scheme is a pattern that gives your verse structure     3    . If, for example, you rhyme the two lines with the word “me”, then the next two lines rhyme with the word “you”, then you have rhyming couplets. For the rest of the verse, you would usually use couplets in all of your rhymes.

Start with a powerful line. The first lines of your verse should introduce the verse and capture the listener’s attention. Ask a question, make an interesting metaphor, or blow the listener away with skillful wordplay.    4    .

Develop a flow, or rhythm, in your rap. Once you’ve got your words on the page, you need to figure out how to say them. Flow is how a rapper delivers his/ her lyrics in along with the beat. Listen again to the beat you are rapping and practice fitting your lyrics to it.

    5    . As you practice your flow, don’t be afraid to go back and rewrite your verse so that it fits the beat better. If you are having trouble fitting all the words in, find a way to shorten your lines. Once you know what the chorus is, you can adjust your lyrics to fit the song better.

5 . The sound that woke Damian Languell at 8:15 am was so loud that he assumed it came from inside his house. As he got up to investigate, he heard another sound, this one coming most definitely from outside. Looking out of his bedroom window, he spied a tree engulfed (淹没) in smoke about 500 yards away. A car was wrapped around the tree’s base, its engine on fire.

Grabbing buckets of water, Languell and his girlfriend ran to the crash site. The wreck looked worse up close. The car, a 1998 Buick, was split nearly in two, and the tree was where the driver’s seat ought to have been, as if planted there. No one should have survived this crash, and yet there was 16-year-old Quintin Thompson, his terrified face pressed against the driver’s side window, in visible pain. Languell tried putting out the fire with his buckets of water with no success. When the flames got into the front seats, he realized he had to get the boy out of there.

In an act that a police report described as showing “complete disregard for his own safety”, Languell opened the Buick’s back door and crawled in. Thompson was struggling to get free, Languell says. “That’s when I noticed how bad his legs were.” Using a pocketknife he’d had the foresight to bring with him, he sawed through Thompson’s seat belt.

Now that Thompson was free, Languell pulled him out a back window of the vehicle, then dragged the teen to safety before the entire car was engulfed in flames.

Although Thompson suffered multiple fractures (骨折) to his legs, spine, and face, a social media post described him as “looking great, smiling, and joking.” Languell thinks about that day often. “My heart goes out to Thompson. When you are that close to that level of hurt, you feel it so directly.”

7 . Population data for European mountain birds have been for the first time combined in a recent study, with worrying results: the abundances of mountain-specialist birds has declined by as much as 10% in the 2000s.

Ecological communities in mountain areas include species not found in any other habitats. These species are also very susceptible to climate change, as global warming is reducing their liveable habitats. In principle, species may relocate further up the mountains, but closer to the top their habitat inevitably shrinks.

According to the new article, the abundance of European mountain birds has in fact declined in line with climate change projections.

The recently released study examined the population trends of 44 bird species in the 2000s in the mountain and fell regions of Fennoscandia, Great Britain, the Alps and the Iberian Peninsula. A decline was seen in 14 of the observed species, while eight of them saw significant increase.

“On average, population decline among the species studied was 7% over the 13-year research period, making the situation of mountain birds distinctly worse compared to, for example, European forest birds, whose numbers did not change during the same period,” explains Aleksi Lehikoinen, an Academy of Finland research fellow at the Finnish Museum of Natural History Luomus (part of the University of Helsinki), who headed the study.

The situation is the direst for species that only inhabit mountain regions and are unable to live in other European environments. For these species, known as mountain specialists, the numbers dwindled by as much as 10% during the monitoring period.

9 . If something that you’re doing doesn’t challenge you, then it doesn’t change you. We all need some normal stress in our lives, after all.     1     So challenge the following limits:

1.Figure out what you’re scared of and do it continuously.

If you’re a salesman, and you’re scared of talking to people personally or over the phone now, instead of being scared and thinking you’ll fail, spend at least five minutes a day to pick up the phone and make a call.     2     But don’t stop on the first try! Eventually, you can look at fear in the eye and say, “Go on. I’m not scared!”

2.     3    

Make sure this hobby is not linked to your career; you have to relax and relieve your stress while performing this. Some examples might be cooking, sewing, painting and so on. Apart from helping you challenge yourself, taking a class for your hobby may also give you extra income.

3. Set aside at least nine minutes a day for physical exercise.

    4     A simple 9-minute run around your neighborhood can do wonders for yourself. Exercise can not only help you maintain your regular weight, but also make you feel better about yourself.

4.Travel and allow yourself to be interested in new people.

Don’t just limit yourself to your fellow travelers, try to connect with the service staff. You never know what kind of people they’re going to be. Get out of your house or go online to book your ticket right now.     5    

10 . How to calm your teen

A major source of teen stress is school exams, and test anxiety is not uncommon. When you recognize your teen is under stress, how can you help your teen stay calm before an exam?

Be involved. Parents need to be involved in their teen’s study.     1     What he looks for is your presence — to talk, to cry, or simply to sit with him quietly. Communicate openly with your teen. Encourage your teen to express his worries and fears, but don’t let him focus on those fears.

Help him get organized.     2     Together, you and your teen can work out a timetable in which he can study for what he knows will be on the test.

Provide a calm setting. Help your teen set up a quiet place to study and protect his privacy.

Give him a nutritious diet. It’s important for your teen to eat a healthy, balanced diet during exam time to focus and do his best.     3     If this happens, encourage your teen to eat light meals or sandwiches. A healthy diet, rather than junk food, is best for reducing stress.

    4     Persuade your teen to get some sleep or do something active when he needs a real break from studying. Making time for relaxation, fun, and exercise is important in reducing stress. Help your teen balance his time so that he will feel comfortable taking time out from studying to spend time with friends or rest.

Show a positive attitude.     5     Your panic, anxiety and blame contribute to your teen’s pressure. Make your teen feel accepted and valued for his efforts. Most importantly, reassure (使安心) your teen that things will be all right, no matter what the results are.