Al Rodin wins Sebastian Walker Award for Illustration

Illustration student Al Rodin has won this year’s Sebastian Walker Award for Illustration with his “bold and characterful artwork”.

Set up in honour of the founder of Walker Books, Sebastian Walker, the prize is given every year to a new, unpublished illustration talent.

Deirdre McDermott, picture book publisher and creative director at Walker, said: “We were completely compelled by Al Rodin’s bold and characterful artwork. His painterly style captivated us immediately because he combines highly expressive brush work with real energy to create pictures that excite and entice with their fluidity and motion. With a keen eye for movement and gesture, Al creates truly inclusive artwork that we are positive children everywhere will respond to and enjoy greatly. We look forward to seeing his first picture books and believe that he will grow into an important and original contemporary picture book maker.”

Rodin, a student at the Cambridge School of Art, said his inspirations include William Kentridge, Ben Shahn, Chaim Soutine, Dylan Thomas, The Bash Street Kids, Calvin and Hobbes and Winnie-the-Pooh.

Walker runs the prize in collaboration with the MA course in Children’s Book Illustration at the Cambridge School of Art at Anglia Ruskin University.