Students in an Illustration department Wintersession studio create music-inspired murals that bring local educational spaces to life.
RISD Illustration Students Shine in Society of Illustrators Competition
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The Society of Illustrators has announced the winners of its annual Student Scholarship Competition, and 14 of them (selected out of more than 4,000 entries) are current RISD students and recent alums. The winning RISD illustrations garnered a total of $9,800 in scholarship awards.
“Highly visible competitions like this one are significant moments of recognition for students,” says Illustration Department Head Robert Brinkerhoff. “For most students, it’s the first instance of being noticed by the professional community, and those who attend the exhibition and awards ceremony in New York City get to know some of the most important names in the field. It’s a big deal.”
Indeed, members of the society—the oldest nonprofit organization dedicated to the art of illustration in America—include such notable names as Norman Rockwell, N.C. Wyeth and Rube Goldberg. A jury of professional illustrators and art directors select the most outstanding work created each year based on quality of technique, concept and skill of the medium(s) used.
Senior Qingyang (Tiffany) Zhu 25 IL won one of the largest prizes—the $5,000 Warby Parker Visionary Scholarship—for Walking (see detail, top photo), which incorporates mixed media, watercolor, gouache, color pencils, pastel and acrylic. “For me, illustration is not only an artistic expression, but also a way to reflect on social issues, such as families, communities and mental health,” she explained in a recent online interview about her practice. Zhu had two illustrations accepted into the exhibition.
Recent graduate Lily Hipp 24 IL, whose practice focuses on character design, took home the $2,500 Nancy Lee Rhodes Roberts Scholarship for a digital piece reflecting on the wolf inside called Little Red. Seniors Sarah Ruyle 25 IL and Kate Tsai 25 IL both earned awards for excellence in animation, $1,200 for Ruyle’s three-minute Lonely Dude (watercolor, gouache, color pencil, digital animation) and $500 for Tsai’s short Departure (Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere, Procreate, Blender). “My art style is all about bringing vibrant environments to life, while also weaving captivating stories into every piece,” Tsai says.
Junior Allie Abraham 26 IL won the $350 Nick Meglin Drawing from Within Scholarship Award for The Electric City (ink, digital), and sophomore Lydia Smithey 27 IL earned the $250 Norman Rockwell Museum Award for the terrifying On Thin Ice (digital).
Other RISD illustrators recognized for their work include Claire Hua 27 IL, Yaoren Liu 26 IL, Sarah Mason 25 IL, Astrid Schoenly 25 IL, Felix Xu 25 IL, Huiyun Yang 25 IL, Peishan Yu 24 IL and Kerrie Mi Zhuge 27 IL.
“Of course, these recognitions are not the only indicator of a program’s caliber,” Brinkerhoff notes, “but it says that we’re doing really well. We never orient our coursework to improve the likelihood that RISD students will be selected. It just happens organically because we have fantastic faculty guiding good conversation and instruction within our community.”
The exhibition will be on view at the Museum of American Illustration in NYC from May 7 through June 7, 2025 before moving online, allowing the winning pieces to inspire other aspiring illustrators. This year’s opening reception and awards ceremony will be held on May 9.
Simone Solondz
April 8, 2025
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