Emerging Artists Contest

The Dream Foundry Contest for Emerging Artists is an annual no submission fees contest with cash prizes! Every year our contest coordinator selects ten finalists from a pool of submissions from artists around the world. Then our pair of judges choose three winners. In addition to their cash prizes, winners get featured at Flights of Foundry, an annual convention where professionals from all over the industry come to discuss all things related to the speculative arts.

You can see a list of past finalists and winners on our Winners Page.

First Place, Monu Bose Prize for Art: $1500

Second Place: $750

Third Place: $400

Submissions are open from 13 April, 2026 through 8 June, 2025. That includes all time zones.

Eligibility

This contest is for artists who are relatively new to paid illustration work for speculative publications in English. To be eligible for this contest, all the following rules must apply to you:

  • You are starting out as a speculative artist—someone who paints or illustrates anything that falls within the Fantasy or Science Fiction spectrum—, and your lifetime earnings for art are $1000 (USD) or less.
  • You have never been nominated for any speculative fiction awards for art (Hugos, Locus, World Fantasy Awards, Ignyte, etc), including fan categories.
  • You have not been published in art industry magazines such as Infected By Art, Spectrum, ImagineFX, etc.
  • You are not a previous winner of the Dream Foundry art contest (previous finalists can submit again).
  • You don’t use any AI program like MidJourney, Stable Diffusion or others to generate art.

Please note that we are trusting you to be honest regarding your own eligibility. We may disqualify any entry that does not uphold the spirit of this contest’s goals, or disrespects its guidelines; such determinations are decided by the Dream Foundry and are not open to debate.

Submission Guidelines

Submit 3-5 pieces for your portfolio. We prefer low resolution jpeg files, but can also accept pdf and docx. Those illustrations don’t need to be exclusive for the contest, and they can have been previously posted on the internet. Please include a title for each of the works, and specify which media you used (e.g. watercolors, mixed media, digital art, etc). If you have an online portfolio or any social media link with your art, please link those in the form.

All entries are final. No revisions are accepted.
No multiple submissions (do not send more than one portfolio.)
No AI generated/DALLE/MidJourney/Stable Diffusion images, under any circumstances.
Entries can be from any country.
All entries must be original artwork (no fanarts). Illustration/painting work only (no collages, photo manipulations, photography, etc).

Please Don't Send

We are looking for speculative (science fiction, fantasy, weird, horror, etc.) themed artwork. Please don’t send us artwork without a speculative element.
Nudity, sex, and violence can be depicted, but should not be graphic. No erotica or gore.
No fanarts, no collages, no photomanips.

Judges

Becca Farrow

Becca graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a BFA in Illustration. Her comics and illustration credits include work for BOOM! Studios, Valiant Entertainment, IDW Publishing, Lion Forge, Marvel Entertainment, and Fantasy Flight Games. Most recently, she completed the interior art and cover for the First Test Graphic Novel adaptation, published by Random House Graphic in July 2024.

She currently resides in Wisconsin, where she takes too many pictures of her dog Finn, and has a habit of drawing until her hand falls off.

A smiling woman with curly hair that falls past her shoulders, looking directly at the camera, and wearing a black shirt with white piping along the arms.
An illustrated drawing of a female head, hair pulled back in a high bun, square glasses, and rosy cheeks

Hannah Vardit

Hannah Vardit is a Minnesotan living in Brooklyn, NY. She has worked for publishers such as Marvel and Boom, but is better known for her self-published work.

Coordinator

Ilinca Barbacuta (she/they) is a comically Canadian creator based out of not-that-sunny-but-sunnier-than-you’ve-heard Vancouver, BC. An artist and writer, her work has appeared in Undercities: An Anthology, Moonlight: A Queer Werewolf Anthology, Carpe Noctem: Vampires Through The Ages, and a handful of other independent zines. She organized Malaise, a short fiction horror anthology from marginalized creators and Hiraeth: A Longing for Home, an artbook based around what “home” means to the various artists featured. Ilinca likes creating stories about monstrous humans and humane monsters, reading an obscene amount of Arthuriana articles, fancy hot chocolates, fun facts about eels, crying about fictional space frogs in d&d, and being right but will accept humbling if it’s funny.

Questions

Send all questions to art.contest@dreamfoundry.org

Submit