The Winners of Black Celebration in the Future Art Contest

The Black Celebration in the Future Art Contest has come and gone, and congratulations to the three winners as well as to all the amazing artists that entered!

First off I want to thank the hundreds of people who donated to Swordsfall’s first every art contest! We couldn’t have done it without everyone! I hope that in the future these kind of art contests become more of a standard. Being able to guarantee money for each of the artists who entered really changes things.

The Award Show

For the results, I decided to do an Award Show on the Swordsfall Twitch to show off all the fantastic art and give the artists themselves a shoutout. Plus I thought it would be nice for the artists to get real feedback. The kind they can take it to heart.

I didn’t want to judge it myself so I tapped some real star power to do the judging with me.

• Aabria Iyengar – DM and Member of HyperRPG
• Ytasha Womack – Writer of the book Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture
• Anairis Quinones – Voice Actress for Mirko in My Hero Academia

Unfortunately, Anairis was unable to join us on the program, but she was able to send me her choice of winners so I was able to take her picks into account. Besides that though the event was a lot of fun and I hope that they were all able to get some real exposure from the broadcast.

The Winners

When it was all said and done we crowned one Grand Prize Winner, a Second Place, and Third Place.

The Grand Prize was Joshua Clarke with We Contain Universes! The piece was just so highly detailed and colorful that it’s clear why it’s the winner. Its not only an art piece that shows a really happy view of a black future but just fantastic character design work across the board. This piece is practically a where’s waldo, but with black folks. The more you look at the piece the more you’ll find. This is a poster you find yourself lost in.

The Second Place went to Mikhal G with The Future Is. This piece looked like a page straight out of a sci-fi manga or comic book. The posing of the character on the left is uplifting in that classic sci-fi way. But just the sheer blackness of the character makes it pop in a way that we so rarely see. And the third panel that mixes three scenes together gives me all sorts of questions on the setting.

The Third Place went to Felicia Daniels with Ladies Night. The vibe of this piece was just off the charts. Not only is it a great art piece but it captures that essence of friendship perfectly. Not only in a realistic way, but in a classic RPG party sort of way. It’s a future where the party…well parties after an adventure!

With 40 entries there were plenty of pieces to also highlight besides the three winners. Make sure to watch the Award Show to hear all our thoughts on all the pieces. And then head to the official page to see all the entries and note those names.

There’s 40 names you need to remember when you’re looking for artists. Make sure to reach out to them and follow them on social media and let’s keep the PoC art going!

To see all the entries head over to the official Black Celebration in the Future page!