Echo Chernik Named Coordinating Judge in the L. Ron Hubbard Illustrators of the Future Contest

Echo Chernik has been named as the coordinating judge for the L. Ron Hubbard Illustrators of the Future Contest. It is one of the world's largest, oldest, and most prestigious illustration competitions that culminates annually with the publication of the bestselling anthology for new writers and illustrators, L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future. The contest is a career launcher for both the winning writers and illustrators.

The Illustrators of the Future Contest was initiated nearly thirty years ago by L. Ron Hubbard with the assistance of Frank Kelly Freas to help discover new talent in the field of science fiction and fantasy illustrations.

Other contest judges past and present include legends Edd Cartier, Frank Frazetta, Jack Kirby, Moebius, Will Eisner, Bob Eggleton, Larry Elmore, Stephan Martiniere, Cliff Nielsen, Sergey Poyarkov, Dave Dorman, Paul Lehr and Shaun Tan.

Echo has been featured in many commercial design magazine articles for her talents as an artist, business-person and instructor. With over twenty two years of experience as a commercial artist she has become an industry leader in quality art and is constantly in great demand among the highest caliber clients around the globe. Clients include: Disney, Miller, Camel, Coors, Trek, Dos Equis, Hasbro, Mattel, The Sheikh of Dubai, Arlo Guthrie, Sears, Publix, Random House, Penguin and many more.

She is well known for her design of the Celestial Seasonings Green Tea line. In addition to illustration, she has also received awards for her efforts in community service.

As a testament to her talent and popularity, SPECTRUM Fantastic Art announced that her "Run Faster" piece will appear in the legendary publication this next issue.

"I believe it's important to help up and coming artists. Illustration is a passion driven and exciting career, but can be daunting to young illustrators. The illustrators of the future contest really gives them a step up, and I'm thrilled to be a part of that process," Chernik stated. "We have a very intense and exciting new curriculum for the winners this year. It's such an opportunity, all unpublished illustrators should enter!"

As Coordinating Judge for the Illustrators of the Future Contest, Chernik reviews all entries and selects the finalists, semi-finalists and Honorable Mentions. In addition she leads the annual L. Ron Hubbard Illustrators of the Future workshop for the annual winners that have been selected from around the world and who gather in Hollywood to celebrate the year's winners and release the annual anthology that they are now in.

Contest Director Joni Labaqui stated, "Echo is an immensely talented artist and we are delighted to have her on board as the coordinating judge."

Following the 1982 release of his internationally acclaimed bestselling science fiction novel, Battlefield Earth, written in celebration of 50 years as a professional writer, L. Ron Hubbard created [The Writers of the Future writing contest in 1983 to provide a means for aspiring writers of speculative fiction to get that much-needed break. Due to the success of the Writing Contest, the companion Illustrators of the Future Contest was created in 1988.

The intensive mentoring process has proven very successful. The 380 past winners of the Writing Contest have published 838 novels and nearly 4,000 short stories. They have produced 27 New York Times bestsellers and their works have sold over 50 million copies.

The 310 past winners of the Illustrating Contest have produced over 4,500 illustrations, 356 comic books, graced 594 books and albums with their art and visually contributed to 36 TV shows and 46 major movies.

The Writers of the Future Award is the genre's most prestigious award of its kind and has now become the largest, most successful and demonstrably most influential vehicle for budding creative talent in the world of contemporary fiction. Since inception, the Writers and Illustrators of the Future contests have produced 32 anthology volumes and awarded nearly $1Million cumulatively in cash prizes and royalties.

For more information go to http://www.writersofthefuture.com

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