Art Contest Entry Form

Thank you for joining us for Toshocon ! See you Monday, June 01, 2026.

Entrant(s) must be between the ages of 12 and 19, with very limited help from persons above that age.

Entrant(s) must live within the state of Utah and winners must pick up any awards in-person, either at the event or shortly thereafter.

Entrant(s) can work individually or in teams of up to four. Teams are more commonly seen in the comics format.
If submitting a team entry, the role(s) of each team member should be clearly identified.
Each work will be considered a single entry and team members will split the prize if awarded.

Entrants may submit a maximum of one entry per category. Group submissions are allowed, but the limit of one entry per entrant/group still applies. If entering as a group, please submit your entry only once.
Multiple entries by the same teen (using different aliases or email addresses) will be disqualified.
Entrants cannot enter in both experience levels for the same category.
Judges will not know the identity of the artists as they judge, but entrants are limited to winning in one category. If the same artist(s) wins in multiple categories, one will be skipped over for the artwork rated next highest.

Entries must be related to anime, comics, manga, Japanese culture, or video games.
Entries must be uniquely created for ToshoCON 2026 and not previously submitted to other contests.
Entries must be wholly owned by entrant(s). All artwork, dialogue, and plot must be original, unpublished content.
- Art (and text) must be the original work of the participant(s), whether creating a well-known character or an original character in the anime style. Redraws or takes on a specific scene or image from an anime are permissible, but must be the artist’s version and not traced or otherwise copied directly.
Excessive violence and sexual content are not allowed. Profanity, gore, nudity, obscenity, and self-harm is not allowed. The event committee has final say as to the eligibility of the entry.
Multiple page entries are most commonly seen in the comic or 3D formats. Limit of five pages
- All pages should be included within a single document; the PDF file type is recommended as this will allow the pages to scroll in page order when viewed.
- If panels, or images, require viewing in a specific order—left-to-right, right-to-left, or top-to-bottom—please indicate with arrows, numbers, etc.

Entries must be wholly owned by the participant(s).
AI-generated is not allowed.
Digitally drawn images are allowed, as long as it is your own work. No clipart or copyrighted images may be used.
When a collage technique is being used, the resulting artwork must be highly transformative—creating a new aesthetic that makes the original elements unrecognizable.

Contest applications open Monday, June 01, 2026.
Entries must be submitted to the committee no later than Saturday, July 18, 2026 11:59 pm MDT.
All entries must be submitted electronically via scan/upload/email.
Online voting for People’s Choice award begins on Wednesday, September 02, 2026 and closes on Friday, September 11, 2026 5 pm MDT.

.jpg, .png, .pdf, .jpeg, or .gif file types are allowed.
Image files uploaded to the ToshoCON website cannot exceed 10 MB.
Entry files less than 10 MB are preferred, but if the entry file must exceed 10 MB—such as when dialogue bubbles in a large comic file become unreadable at a lower resolution—a share link issued by a cloud service such as Google Drive or Dropbox may be entered in place of an uploaded file. The shared URL must directly link to the image file being submitted.
If you need access to a scanner to digitize your work, visit any County Library branch for free scan-to-email services.

First place awards, second place awards, and honorable mention winners for all categories one, two, and three, for each experience level, will be determined by selected judges.
The number of prizes and categories awarded are subject to change dependent on the number of submissions received.

Online voting for People’s Choice award begins on Wednesday, September 02, 2026 and closes on Friday, September 11, 2026 5 pm MDT.
The use of voting bots associated with a contest entry will lead to disqualification.

Awards will be presented Saturday evening at the Finale and Awards presentation on Saturday, September 12, 2026. Winning entries will be posted on the ToshoCON Art Contest webpage after Friday, September 18, 2026.
It is strongly encouraged participants be present to accept any awards. No prizes will be mailed to award winners.
Participants must live in Utah. Any unclaimed prizes at the end of ToshoCON must be picked up in-person from a Salt Lake County Library branch. The prize pick-up deadline is Saturday, October 17, 2026.
All prizes that have not been picked up at a Salt Lake County Library branch by Saturday, October 17, 2026 become the property of Salt Lake County Library.

Contest Rules