WIA2022 Longlist Highlights From The Professional Alternative Publishing Category

Sailamaa : Art of Abundance – a graphic novel, four pages

A personal project that became an entry for The Graphic Short Story Prize 2021 organized by Jonathan Cape and Comica together with The Observer.

Sailamaa wanted to explore how the economic crisis during her youth had a deep impact on her generation in many ways and she wanted to draw a response to this.

The illustrations started as rough sketches on paper, and then were created digitally in Procreate.

José Manuel Saraiva : Ghosts of the city of Porto.

José created this book as part of his personal reflection about death and how peoples lives may continue in a place after their death. This book tells the stories of Porto City ghosts.

The Illustrations were created digitally and as a  limited illustration book and gallery prints.

José Manuel Saraiva is an Illustrator based in Porto, Portugal.

Fernando Cobelo : Sono qui (I’m here)

Sono qui is a book created, produced and illustrated by Fernando Cobelo, based on the stories of 11 immigrants coming from 5 different continents and living in Italy today. A manifesto that, in the words of the author, wants to pay homage to the country that made him the person he is today.

The book was made to celebrate Fernando’s first 10 years of moving to Italy from Venezuela.

The books were made in a limited edition run of 150 and created using screen prints and two colour risographs.

Fernando Cobelo is an award-winning illustrator born in Venezuela and based in Turin, Italy.

Louise Lockhart : Along The Pier Concertina Book

Along The Pier is the follow up to Louise’s first book Up My Street. It’s a 10 panel concertina book that stretches out to 1.35 metres long to display a row of shops.

Celebrating the uniqueness of the British seaside, she was inspired by real shop fronts from around the northern coastlines of the UK and lovingly paid homage to them in this colourful book. Lithographed in 3 pure spot Pantones.

Louise Lockhart is an illustrator living in an old mill in a small town in England.

RUOYAO WU : NEW YEAR ADVENTURE

This 62 metre nonstop illustration work was created to tell the story of the traditional Chinese Spring Festival and revive the lost cultural values.

During home quarantine in 2020, Ruoyao discussed the Spring Festival with her family and collected many stories from over 30 years ago, which provided sufficient materials for her visual creations.

Starting with pencil sketches and finishing in Photoshop, it took her two years to finish as there were six versions and she finally presented it as a traditional scroll.

Ruoyao Wu is an illustrator from Chengdu, China.

Tatia Nadareishvili : The Man Who Loved Literature – limited edition book

Tatia was commissioned to create this limited edition illustrated book of “The Man Who Loved Literature” by a famous Georgian writer, Guram dochnashvili.

It was commissioned by the Saba Literary Prize, and the story itself is one of the most beloved texts in Georgia.

As the story involved a lot of metaphors, Tatia I took one color as the metaphor and used this for all the illustrations. The Illustrations were created using monoprints and pencil drawings, scanned and finished in Photoshop.

Tatia Nadareishvili is an Illustrated based in Tbilisi, Georgia.