Winning the Jun Kawana Grand Prize at HB WORK Competition Vol. 7 and Thoughts on Illustrator Competitions.

The other day, I won the Grand Prize from Jun Kawana at the "HB WORK Competition Vol. 7" hosted by HB Gallery.

It is a prestigious award and I am very honored, but since this result came after many twists and turns, I would like to reflect on competitions for illustrators or artists based on my own real-life experiences.

First, here is my award history to date.

・74th Yamaguchi Prefectural Art Exhibition: Honorable Mention
・12th Yamaguchi Emerging Artist Grand Prize
・78th Yamaguchi Prefectural Art Exhibition: Selected
・2025 Yamaguchi City Art Exhibition: Selected

As someone who was born and lives in Yamaguchi Prefecture, I have been applying to art-related public exhibitions within Yamaguchi Prefecture rather than illustration-specific ones. I have written articles on Note about the prefectural art exhibitions, and I have experienced a cycle of winning and losing.

The result of the public exhibition just before I applied to HB WORK was being selected for the 2025 Yamaguchi City Art Exhibition. However, I personally could not feel a strong sense of accomplishment from that result. Because of that, I felt as if I had been abandoned by public exhibitions, or perhaps I had abandoned them myself, and I was thinking about stopping my applications to public exhibitions and competitions altogether.

I had also applied to illustration-related competitions like "The Choice" and "TIS Public Exhibition," not just art-related ones, but I was rejected. So, I didn't feel like applying to something that changed direction. However, it wasn't just a vague decision to quit because I wasn't winning; it was also because I realized that winning a competition is not necessarily the only path to success as an illustrator or artist, and that it is not good to be too bound by a stage where elements like the judges' preferences, timing, and luck play a strong role.

I am in my eighth year as an illustrator, and since I had applied to some kind of public exhibition or competition every year without fail, I had started to read trends, become conscious of the judges, and my goal had become winning an award. I won't say that is bad, but it might be similar to the idea that you have to graduate from an art university to make a living with art.

Also, I think I was a bit tired. Perhaps I wanted to draw just for the sake of liking it, without thinking about awards, or even more so, without thinking about work.

As an illustrator, I wonder if it is okay to not be conscious of work at all, but it might be the same feeling as worrying about the number of likes on social media. While that is a good aspect of the modern age, there may also be negative sides to having some kind of evaluation constantly attached to your work.

However, even while saying that, looking back now, I don't think I was completely ignoring work. That is because, at the time, I was interested in book cover design work, or rather, I was hooked on reading, so I was inevitably living with thoughts of work somewhere in my mind. Even if I was drawing without thinking about anything, it might have naturally come out in my work.

While I was saying I wouldn't enter any more competitions, I happened to see a post for "HB WORK" on my timeline. Since the judges were book designers, and I wanted to do book cover work and had been researching book designers, I knew all of the judges' names. I thought that the work I had been drawing without consciously thinking about it might actually look like book cover art, and if the judges were book designers, it might resonate with them.

I had experienced many rejections, so I had no resistance to entering. And since it wasn't a piece I had drawn with a competition specifically in mind, the pressure was off in a good way, and I thought, "I have nothing to lose, so why not enter?" and ended up applying to the competition.

And the result was the "Jun Kawana Grand Prize."

Of course I was surprised, but I was also a bit calm. I had mixed feelings—happy, but also a little sad and lonely—wondering if it was really the case that even if I had been rejected recently, I could win a Grand Prize just by changing the venue.

But that might be what makes it interesting. Winning an award doesn't necessarily mean your life will change drastically, although for some people it does. Whether that is due to the influence of the award itself or because of the people around them who saw the award, there are many forms it can take, but I do think you can't say that award history is completely irrelevant. That said, it is also a fact that you cannot say you are a failure just because you have no award history.

But still, there are places you cannot reach no matter how hard you try on your own, and I realize that there are parts you can only reach if someone scoops you up, so I am happy to be able to win an award. I want to make sure I don't get complacent about it, though.

I have seen many discussions online about whether you must graduate from an art university to make a living with art, or whether art school is irrelevant, and the very idea of making a living with art has expanded significantly, and there are various titles. When that happens, the ways to become an illustrator differ, and there are infinite ways to succeed, so it is a personal matter for everyone.

The story of this competition is the same; betting your career on it is one way, and some people say they are afraid to apply. Those people don't have to force themselves to enter, and even those people are often working hard, so I think you don't have to overthink it, worrying that you have to enter just because someone else won an award.

I have been thinking lately that I would like to do some entertainment-related work. Initially, I admired that field, gave up on it on my own, and changed direction, but then I started working in a completely different field, and eventually, I started getting offers from the entertainment side. It really is a world where you never know what will happen.

What is wrong and what is right—but maintaining a clear line as a business, as work, and as a contractor is important. If you leave that ambiguous, you will end up suffering, and it might even cause trouble for other people in the same industry.

It is a world with a high degree of freedom—which is the nature of art itself—and while it can be fun, difficult, and demanding, I felt that if you are someone who has chosen to live in this world, you have no choice but to move forward with resolve.

Perhaps I have jumped ahead a bit, but ultimately, it comes down to how you want to be. I hope this article provides some hope to those who are feeling exhausted by competitions. More broadly, I hope it reaches those who want to make a career out of drawing. Of course, I feel that I still have a long way to go, and I want to continue learning many things. However, I feel very fortunate to be able to think about my work as something that is a part of my own life.

Finally, here is the comment from Jun Kawana regarding the HB WORK Competition Vol.7 and the winning work.

<Jun Kawana's Comment>

The true thrill of realistic illustration likely lies in the emotion viewers feel when they see things they usually observe depicted in even greater detail. However, this piece creates areas that are not drawn by using high contrast, forcing the viewer's perspective to be guided toward the areas that are depicted. Although this is something our eyes do daily when we look at any scene, it is not something we experience very often when looking at illustrations like this. It was very refreshing.

I am extremely happy to have received a comment that so beautifully articulated what I usually think about and strive for when I draw.

If you submit your work to the right places, there are people who will look at it carefully. Encountering those opportunities is a matter of luck, but seizing that luck is up to you.

These are the jobs I received as a result of winning the award.