OH!CON art gallery and competition
Calling all artists – the OH!CON gallery returns for another year! Showcase your sci-fi, fantasy, game and comic artwork!
As in previous years, there’ll be recognition and prizes for the best artwork (categories: aged 11 or under, aged 12 to 17, aged 18 or over). Entries for the gallery will be judged by some of this year's fabulous guest artists, so it's a great way to get your work seen by industry professionals.
And if you don't want to enter for a prize, that's fine too – you can submit artwork just for the fun of it.
How to submit artwork
Anyone living in the Outer Hebrides or attending OH!CON 2025 can submit artwork for the gallery. It is as simple as emailing it to us along with a few details. Here's what you need to do:
- Read the gallery guidelines. These'll tell you what we're looking for and what we don't allow.
- You can submit up to 4 illustrations or pages.
- Email your artwork to us as high quality jpg or pdf – one page or illustration per file, please.
- Include your name, your age and the title of each piece of artwork (if applicable). We'll display your name and the title next to your artwork. If you create your artwork under a different name than your own, make sure to tell us so we display the right name in the gallery!
- If you have a website or social media channel for your artwork, include the details and we'll put those next to your artwork too.
- If you don't want to be considered for a prize, make sure to mention that.
- Send your submission to: beammeup@ohcon.info
- We'll send you a confirmation so you know your artwork has reached us, but this may take a few days, so don't panic if you don't hear from us immediately.
- We'll print your artwork and details for the gallery. If there is high demand for space in the gallery, we may reduce large artwork to A4 (297mm x 210mm) when printing it, so that we can display as many artists as possible. We’ll try to print your artwork at the highest quality we can, but we can’t guarantee that the reproduction will be perfect (colours in particular can be difficult to match exactly from screen to print).
If you can’t submit your artwork by email or if you prefer to supply your own printouts for the gallery, get in touch with us at beammeup@ohcon.info and we'll try to sort something out for you.
Closing date for submissions
Make sure your submission reaches us before 5pm, Friday 3rd October 2025. Anything received after this may not make it into OH!CON.
Gallery guidelines
We want any artwork that is sci-fi, fantasy, comic or games-related. It can be a standalone illustration or a comic. The artwork must be your own. You can create it in any medium - pencils, pens, Photoshop, CGI, whatever, but you'll need to send it to us digitally (so you may need to scan or photograph it, if your original is on paper).
IMPORTANT: We are not accepting AI-generated content for this year's gallery.
OH!CON is a family event, so please keep this in mind when submitting – your artwork must be suitable for a family audience. We don’t want to stomp all over your creativity, but in broad terms this means:
- No graphic violence – you can depict fights, just don’t go over the top. A brawl will probably be okay; blood, bones and body parts everywhere, not so much.
- No overt nudity/sexual imagery - if you wouldn’t get it out on the bus, it’s unlikely to be suitable to include in your submission
- No swearing (if your artwork includes speech bubbles or other wording)
Basically, if you could show it on the telly at teatime, it’ll probably be fine for OH!CON.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, our decision is final on what is too bloody, too fleshy or too potty-mouthed. Yes, it’s draconian, but that’s the rule.
If you’re not sure if your work will be suitable, send us a sample or tell us what you’re thinking and we’ll help.
Tips to help us display your artwork at its best
We'll try to print out your artwork at the highest quality we can. Here are some things that can help.
- For good quality printing, your artwork (or the photo of your artwork) should have a resolution of at least 150dpi (300dpi is better). This means that for an A4 page, it should measure at least 1240x1754 pixels (2480x3508 pixels is better). For A3 page, 1754 x 2480 pixels (3508 x 4961 pixels is better). If this technical mumbo jumbo means nothing to you, get in touch and we'll try to help.
- There's always a bit of colour variation between what you see on screen and on paper. Very vivid colours may not print quite as bright as they appear on screen. Very subtle changes in colour may not be as noticeable when printed. We'll try to match as close as we can, but do keep this in mind.
- Some things such as luminous and dayglo colours, glitter, metallic or reflective materials won't look the same when printed. If you're not sure if the materials you want to use will print well, let us know what you're thinking and we'll tell you whether it'll work or not.
- Very dark artwork doesn't always print well. Batman at the bottom of a coal mine may sound like a way cool idea, but do think about including some lights in the scene otherwise it'll be really difficult to tell what it is once it has been printed.