Blown Covers

The winner of this week’s contest is this lovely thought by Tim Foley. Here he combines in one picture many of the heartwarming thoughts surrounding Mother’s Day. The reader follows Mom in shifting his or her attention first to a son whose hand is held to guide and protect him, and then to a son whose arm Mom can lean on. Aw!

Thank you to everyone who submitted this week! It was wonderful to see so many new names in the mix and Mother’s Day was an especially fun topic for this mother-daughter team to flip through. Here are the 12 runners-up with Francoise’s editorial notes followed by the full roster of submissions we received. As always, we encourage you to look at and learn from each other and we’d love to hear which ones you liked and why. 

Have you called your mother? Don’t worry. It’s not Mother’s Day yet! But it will be soon. The New Yorker often runs a mother themed cover that week, giving you a heads up. Take your inspiration from these wonderful covers below and send me your sketches. If you’ve never submitted before, let this be your week! 

— Edward Sorel

— Carter Goodrich

— Ian Falconer

— Bruce McCall

To enter each week’s contest, please send sketches on this week’s theme. Use the submissions page or email jpegs to blowncovers@gmail.com. I prefer sketches to finished work and good ideas to good drawings. The deadline is Thursday at noon (NYC time). The themes on the Blown Covers website closely mirror what I suggest to the New Yorker artists I already work with. This blog and contest are informal and not affiliated with the magazine but I’m always on the lookout for ideas. Please keep submissions confidential in case they are selected for later publication. The winning sketch (according to my own subjective whims) will be posted here on Friday.