This is an official announcement from the pixiv staff.

This summer, pixiv has decided to hold once again the annual Rookie Award Illustration Contest, “P-1 GRAND PRIX 2011″.

This official project is held with the purpose of giving young talented users a chance of being recognized as artists. After the first contest which was held last year, we have decided to hold the 2nd contest. All pixiv users who aspire to be active in the field of art as an illustrator are cordially invited and join this contest today!

【Holding Period】

■ Preliminary Illustration Contest
From August 1 (Monday) to 23:59, August 31 (Wednesday)

■ Main Illustration Production Period
From September 3 (Saturday) to 23:59, October 13 (Thusrday)

The Preliminary Illustration Contest will be held using the prefecture ranking calculation system which was applied recently. Participants are to tag their submitted works within their respective area (47 prefectures of Japan + Global) and submit their works based on the provided theme in order to particpate. A total of 50 participants will be selected for the next round.

The selected participants for each area is based on the view count from their submitted works. Only a maximum of 3 people will be selected from each represented area, and 50 works starting from the highest view count will be picked in order as the rule for the preliminary contest.　*Depending on the number of participants of any area, the limit for each area might change.

The 50 participants from the preliminary contest will be requested to produce a work for the main contest from September 3 (Saturday) to October 13 (Thursday).

The works produced will be then exhibited firsthand and judged by the number of votes starting from November 4 (Friday) to November 6 (Sunday) at pixiv Zingaro, a colloborated art gallery by pixiv Inc. and Kaikaikiki Inc. After the exhibition, all 50 main works will be announced on the website.

Finally, the winner of the P-1 Grand Prix will be judged by our special juries who will also personally select their own winning artwork. The winners will be awarded an anniversary trophy, prize money, and a special requested to draw an artwork for an article in “Quarterly pixiv”, a publication by Enterbrain Inc.

The following guests will be selected as judges for the P-1GRAND PRIX2011』 :

Teiya Iwabuchi (『Bijutsu Techo』 Chief Editor/Bijutsu Shuppan Holdings Co.Ltd）
Toshihiro Nagoshi (R&D Creative Officer)
Hirokazu Hamamura (Enterbrain Inc. President)
Fujichoko (Illustrator)
Hiroshi Misawa (Painter, Artist Lecturer)
Ryukishi 07 (Scenario Writer)
Mr.(Artist)
ＰＯＰ (Artist and Entertainer)

Contest details will be specified once the  『P-1GRAND PRIX2011』 special homepage is open during the official launch of the event which is August 1 2011.

The previous Grand Prix winners will also be listed in the special homepage.
◆P-1GRAND PRIX2010 Special Page