Illustration Friday : Open

(Click on image for a closer look)

'Be open', she says (with her arms wide open).

Phew!!! Made it! When I realized today was Thursday, I decided that even though there was'nt much time left I had to make something for Illo Fri. Well, not only because I missed last week's topic but also because this week's topic is special, as Penelope says on the site -

'This week’s topic is “open” (originally submitted by captinamazin.blogspot.com)… but it’s a special topic, so please read on:

Ta-Da!
We here at Illustration Friday are so excited to announce the first ever Illustration Friday gallery show!

Open, a bookstore and art gallery in Long Beach, California in Long Beach, California is sponsoring this week’s topic, “open“, and in a show opening November 3rd — in less than a month — they will display 25 IF entries. Which 25? That’s up to you, the loverly IF community! You get to vote on your favorites to decide which ones go up on the walls.

(The votes will only be visible to Brianna and I, in order to keep with the non-competitive and encouraging spirit of IF. We thought having the community vote anonymously was the best way to achieve that.)

To participate, create a piece for this week’s topic, “Open”, just like every week… and if you’d like to be included in the gallery show voting, just mark that box when you submit. The Illustration Friday community will then be able to see you are participating and can vote for your entry.

As usual, you only have one week to submit your piece. After that, the topic is closed. (You guys are old pros at this!)

To vote, you need to log into the forums with your username and password. (If you don’t have an account in the forums, simply click on the gray star next to the participants’ entries and it will take you to a signup page.) Then click on the Link Viewer to choose faves.

You are allowed only 5 votes. After you choose your 5 favorites, you will not be able to vote anymore… so choose wisely!

You will be able to vote for two weeks (this week and next), after that, we will see which pieces were given the most stars, and they will be asked to show at Open.'

Read more about the show and how you can vote over here.

So considering the huge opportunity the folks at Illo Fri have offered illustrators, it did'nt seem fair to not participate at all. This illustration was inspired by an illustration I did for Illustration Friday almost a year ago. You can look at it here.

Check out all the great illustrations over at the Illustration Friday site.

Cheers!