Artwork Submission Guide

Why Create Artwork?

 

There are three main reasons Hope of Heaven for Teens publishes submitted artwork, which we hope will make positive impact in someone’s grief journey. 

 

1. Art can visually communicate emotional and theological truth statements that words sometimes cannot.

 

The phrase ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ reveals the power an image can have. Just like certain things can only be communicated with words, a piece of artwork can communicate symbolic messages that would be hard to express in words. The piece can powerfully help someone else reflect on their perception of God or understand a dimension of their grief journey that felt hard to conceptualize before. 

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Your creation could become a piece of someone else’s testimony! God can use your artwork to help someone understand where He is in their lives.

 

     2. Art can be a beautiful way to allow yourself to personally reflect on your relationship with God in your grief journey.

 

Sometimes the process of creating artwork can be really beneficial to you. Even if you don’t end up submitting it, creating a piece can be a great chance to experience relationship with God as you make it. Today’s art community universally agrees that the thoughts and emotions you experience while creating a piece are just as important as the visual product you create. 

 

Your personal reflections you had as you create a piece can be helpful to other Hope of Heaven for Teens site visitors. In any case, if you like art, creating a faith-based piece could be a great way to spend time with God and use a gift He gave you.

 

Mediums We Accept

 

Hope of Heaven for Teens accepts almost all art mediums. The list below probably does not cover everything we would accept, so if you have a piece in another medium, please email hopeofHeaven4teens@gmail.com to ask about your medium.

 

• Drawings - Charcoal, graphite pencil (All mechanical and wooden pencils fit in this category.), colored pencil, chalk / oil pastel, watercolor pencils, gel pens, illustration markers (or any other marker type), or designs produced using a digital vector / pixel drawing app

• Paintings - Watercolor, oil paint, egg tempera, or acrylic paint

• Ceramic pieces - Iron casting, any metal, or any clay type (Any size is welcome as long as you can take a photograph fully showing the piece. Feel free to take multiple if that is helpful.)

• A photograph - This could be either of a scene you set up or a scene you’re observing. (We do have some important guidelines on photos listed below in the ‘submission guidelines’.)

• Homemade jewelry - Anything from kids’ beads to special charms used from a craft store are welcome as long as you made the jewelry piece!

• Glass pieces - Stained glass pieces, mosaics, or glass-blown ceramic pieces

• Needlework pieces - Cross stitch and embroidery especially would be easiest to create a communicative art piece with, but you can also use crochet, knitting, plastic canvas stitchery, needlepoint, stitch applique, hand sewing, machine sewing, loom knitting, loom weaving, macrame, latchook, rug weaving, or any other needle art

• Fabric pieces - Tye-dyed fabrics, a fabric-painted piece, a fabric-marker piece, etc.

• Special memorial crafts (such as jar luminaries, pipe cleaner designs, etc.)

• Printmaking pieces

 

Submission Guidelines

 

Any piece you choose to create and submit should fit within our four sets of guidelines for artwork.

 

1. All submissions must be consistent with the Hope of Heaven for Teens Statement of Faith (which you can access in this link: https://www.hopeofheavenforteens.com/our-statement-of-faith).

 

This does not mean that every single piece needs to directly feature scripture, Christian symbols, or a depiction of Jesus. All artwork should be faith-based though. This means that the piece should honor God’s attributes and biblical values through the overall message, even if God’s presence is not specifically communicated in the artwork.

The Hope of Heaven for Teens management team will not publish pieces containing extreme violence, immodest imagery, or celebrating immorality.

 

    2. All artists involved in a piece's creation should be listed on the submission form. 

 

In most cases, this just means that the artwork is exclusively your own creation. If a friend or family member helped you create the piece, please list their first name along with yours in the submission form.

 

Hope of Heaven for Teens does not accept artwork that was created using any AI (Artificial Intelligence) model at any stage of the process. If you’re experiencing the temptation to use AI in artwork, please remember that no piece you submit needs to be ‘perfect’. AI may be able to ‘touch up’ your piece or save you time creating, but then your piece would not reflect your journey or thoughts in a meaningful way. It might look pretty, but it wouldn’t be beautiful. Artwork is most impactful when it is yours. 

 

If you have a piece you want to submit, please remember not to judge tiny imperfections in the details that you, as the artist, easily notice. First of all, most viewers will not notice the tiny details you spot. Second, God perfectly uses imperfections. Don’t be afraid to submit even when you may still notice slight flaws.

 

    3. Please make sure your piece does not contain:

• A depiction of a trademarked fictional character

• A trademarked company / organization’s logo

• A distinguishable, nonfictional person’s face

• Visible location-identifying information (Example: A specific street sign or home address number in a photograph.

 

These guidelines are important because they protect other people’s artwork and your privacy.

 

      4. For photographs, if you did not set up the scene you plan to capture, please get permission from the property owner before submitting it. 

 

Ideas for Pieces 

 

This list is only a starter list of ideas. Hope of Heaven for Teens gladly welcomes any piece fitting within the four guidelines above. If your piece or piece idea does not sound like anything on this list, please submit it anyway!

 

• Word art of a Bible verse that you’ve found impactful to your grief journey

• Word art of a song lyric or quote that you’ve found impactful to your grief journey

• A pictorial depiction of one of God’s characteristics (Love, mercy, capacity to grieve, faithfulness, etc.)

• A pictorial depiction of a portion of your relationship with God or your grief journey

• A pictorial depiction of a portion of a general grief journey (prayer, lament, perseverance, etc.)

• A pictorial depiction of being supported by someone else during a grief journey

• A pictorial depiction of supporting someone else in their grief journey

• An abstract depiction of an emotion one experiences in grief

• A depiction honoring your loved one’s memory

• A depiction of a specific aspect of Heaven, the general landscape, a reunion scene with loved ones, etc.

 

Submission Steps

 

• Take a quality picture of your piece (from a straight angle with even lighting, usually daylight works best for this) or scan it onto your device

• Prepare an under 200-word description of your piece (Please do not use AI to write this.)

 

The description is a great place to share

• Why you created the piece

• Any symbolic meaning within the piece

• How the piece relates to God or your grief journey

• Any thoughts or emotions you experienced while creating the piece

 

We encourage you to write like you’re describing the piece to a friend. We will edit for grammar and spelling. The description does not need to be perfect, just authentic.

 

• Log into your Google account to access the Google Form (Artwork Submission Form) or email hopeofHeaven4teens@gmail.com with the subject line ‘Artwork Submission’ if you do not have a Google account.

• In the Google Form or email, please include:

• Your first name & then the first name of anyone you worked with to create it. (You can choose to type ‘Anonymous’ if you want.)

• Piece Title (Encouraged, but not required)

• Your piece description

• Your agreement that your piece follows all guidelines 

 

  We will review your submission within a week or two, so thank you in advance for your patience.

 

Conclusion

 

Thank you for considering sharing your artwork with other website visitors! with fellow readers in this online community! We look forward to viewing any piece you decide to submit!