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Home » Initiatives » Sketch for Survival » Sketch for Survival 2025 » Sketch for Survival 2025 Longlist

Thank you to everyone who took part in Sketch for Survival 2025.
We’re delighted to reveal the longlist of artworks selected by our panel in the first stage of the judging process. Your creativity, passion, and dedication to conservation have once again inspired us.

Artwork at top: Charlotte Cook, Together 

This year’s longlist features 155 artworks selected by our panel based on the online submission forms and images provided. The standard was exceptionally high, with many detailed and technically accomplished pieces. While we saw fewer loose watercolours this year, we were thrilled by the diversity of styles and media represented – ranging from acrylic and charcoal (including white coal), to collage, thread painting, scratchboard, screen print, and hand-cut paper.

We also welcomed a growing number of digital submissions. Around half a dozen longlisted entries were created using tools such as Procreate, Ibis Paint, and Infinite Painter.

The longlist spans 29 nationalities, with artists from across the UK and Ireland, as well as Brazil, Nigeria, Kenya, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Ukraine, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Czech Republic, Germany, the USA, and Canada, to name just a few. It’s a truly global celebration of wildlife art and conservation.

We’re proud to share that this year’s longlist includes 78 different threatened species – from iconic wildlife like the Sumatran orangutan, Amur leopard, African wild dog, and Savannah elephant, to lesser-known but equally important species such as the Chinese water dragon, Cuban crocodile, Horned marsupial frog, Snowy owl, Sun bear, Hammerhead shark, Great hornbill, and Narwhal.

If your name and artwork appear below – congratulations! You will also receive an email confirmation (please check your spam/junk folder). This means the selection panel would now like to view your artwork in person – please ship it to us as soon as possible using the detailed guidelines given below.

The panel will reconvene in early August, and the final Sketch for Survival 100 will be announced on Thursday 18 September at 2pm (BST) via our website and social media channels.

Whether you’ve been longlisted or not, we’d love for all participating artists to be represented in our exhibition mosaic. If you have not done so already, please upload a photo of yourself with your SFS25 artwork here.

Thank you once again for supporting conservation through creativity.

Artwork: Silvia Frei, Waiting for Snow 

If I have been longlisted, what do I need to do?

Please ship/mail your artwork to Explorers Against Extinction – Sketch for Survival, Lower Farm Barns, Lessingham Road, Happisburgh, Norfolk NR12 0QQ, UK. Your artwork should reach us by 4 August 2025. Detailed instructions follow in the Q&A below!

Before you send your artwork please check:

  • It is the same original artwork that was submitted to the competition.
  • It complies to our size restrictions (A4 or A3) and is UNFRAMED.
  • Your artwork is signed on the front and it has your name printed clearly on the back.
  • You have uploaded an image of you with your artwork for our exhibition mosaic (if you would like to feature in it!)

Sketch for Survival Longlist

Sketch for Survival – Stage One Q&A

Explorers Against Extinction

Sketch for Survival

Lower Farm Barns

Lessingham Road

Happisburgh

Norfolk NR12 0QQ

UK

**Note: A few people have queried the address.

We are based in the small village of Happisburgh in the county of Norfolk.

The postcode NR12 0QQ may bring up NORWICH (the nearest big city/mail depot to us). It is fine to include both Norwich and Happisburgh in the address: Happisburgh, Norwich, Norfolk NR12 0QQ

Sending your artwork rolled in a cardboard tube is often the easiest and most economical option. Please ensure it’s rolled carefully to avoid damage.

If you’re sending your artwork flat, here are some tips to help it arrive in perfect condition:

  • Recycle stiff cardboard—slightly larger than your artwork—to protect it.

  • Sandwich your artwork between two pieces of card to prevent creasing or corner damage.

  • Use just two pieces of tape (ideally paper tape) to secure the edges—this is enough.

  • Place the protected artwork in a (recycled) packet or envelope and send via your chosen postal service or courier.

🌍 Please avoid plastic packaging where possible.
♻️ We recycle as much packaging as we can, so minimal tape makes it quicker and easier for us to unpack and recycle your materials.

We love receiving your parcels—especially the illustrated envelopes, handwritten notes, and cards—thank you!
Parcels are usually opened once a week, and we often share the unwrapping process on our Instagram Stories. A confirmation email is sent once your artwork has been safely opened—typically on a Thursday or Friday.

It’s a very busy time of year so please don’t email us to chase safe receipt the moment you get a tracking update as it may take several days for us to process your parcel. If you have not heard anything after one week of the parcel arriving at Explorer HQ then please do drop us a line with all the relevant details.

We understand that courier services can be costly, especially for international participants.

To help keep costs down, we allow several weeks for you to send your artwork using your country’s regular postal or mailing service. While this can be slower than express options, it is usually much more affordable. With selection taking place on 6–7 August 2025, we recommend sending your artwork as soon as possible.

If you have friends or fellow artists also taking part, you’re welcome to combine your entries into one parcel and share the shipping cost.

Please take care when packaging your artwork:

  • We recommend sending it rolled in a cardboard tube, or

  • Flat, sandwiched between two pieces of recycled stiff cardboard to protect the edges and prevent creasing

🌍 Please avoid plastic packaging if you can. If plastic is necessary, we kindly ask that you use it sparingly and with the environment in mind.

Thank you for going the extra mile to support conservation through art – we’re so grateful to our global community of artists.

When completing the shipping or customs declaration, please follow these guidelines to avoid delays or import charges:

📦 Contents Description

  • List the contents as “Document”
    This simplifies the process and avoids customs charges.

🖼️ If you must declare the item as “Artwork”

  • Clearly state: “Donation to Charity”

  • If asked for a value, list a nominal amount (e.g. under $50) to reflect material costs only.
    This helps prevent us being charged import tax or duty.


Additional Shipping Information

Charity Name: Explorers Against Extinction
Project: Sketch for Survival
Charity Registration Number (UK): 1177505
EORI Number (UK): GB025052069000

Shipping Address:
Explorers Against Extinction
Sketch for Survival
Lower Farm Barns
Lessingham Road
Happisburgh
Norfolk NR12 0QQ
United Kingdom

Telephone: +44 1692 218189
Contact Name: Sara White, Trustee
Email: info@realworldconservation.org.uk

If your entry has been created digitally, you will need to print your artwork at A3 or A4 size in line with the competition guidelines. Please ensure the following when preparing your submission:

  • Use high-quality printing paper (e.g. fine art or photographic paper)

  • Avoid distortion – the printed artwork should accurately reflect your original digital piece

  • Hand-sign the front of the print

  • Clearly print your name on the back

By printing and signing your digital artwork, you are authenticating it as your original work, in line with Sketch for Survival’s submission standards.

Please note that due to the rise of AI-generated content, additional verification may be required for digital entries. This may include a review of your public social media accounts for evidence of your creative process. If this is not available, we may contact you to request images or video of your workflow.

Unfortunately, we are unable to print digital entries on your behalf, so please ensure your printed and signed artwork is ready for submission by the stated deadline.

 

No, you do not need to mount or frame your artwork—as long as it falls within the approved size range, simply send it to us as it is.

Please take care to protect your artwork during postage. We recommend either:

  • Packaging it flat with a stiff piece of cardboard to prevent bending, or

  • Rolling it carefully and sending in a tube, depending on the medium.

Once the selection process is complete, we will mount or frame artworks as required for exhibition and sale.

If you discover that your artwork is too small or too large before sending, please refer to the SIZE section of the guidelines for next steps.

To ensure consistency and reduce waste, all selected artworks must fit into our standard recyclable exhibition frames. If your artwork is significantly larger or smaller than the approved size range, it unfortunately cannot be considered for selection and we ask that you do not send it. Please contact us so we can update our records.

If your artwork is only slightly outside the size guidelines but can still fit in our frames with a custom mount, then we may still be able to accept it—but you must send it with a pre-cut mount.

Mount requirements:

  • Mount colour should be ivory or white

  • Aperture should be cut to fit your artwork exactly

  • External mount dimensions must be as follows:

    • A3 frame mount: 402 × 504 mm

    • A4 frame mount: 279 × 354 mm

To review full size requirements and eligibility, please visit the  competition page.

 

 

Yes, please sign your artwork on the front. This helps authenticate your piece and ensures it is ready for exhibition and sale.

You should also print your full name clearly on the back of the artwork.

If you wish, you may include a business card or certificate of authenticity with your submission. These will be kept with your piece and, if sold,  passed on to the buyer.

 

Yes, we do. Parcels are opened once a week and each artwork is logged and cross-checked against your submission form.

We then send a group confirmation email to the registered email address used during your original submission, confirming safe receipt.

If you haven’t received confirmation within one full week of the artwork arriving at Explorer HQ, please feel free to contact us.

Yes. All longlisted artworks are kept safe at Explorer HQ.

The 100 finalist pieces will be framed and exhibited during our public tour at Nature in Art and gallery@oxo. These works will be sold via an online fundraising auction, which ends on Sunday 23 November. Most starting bids begin at £100 GBP, with all proceeds supporting our Campaign Fund.

Highly Commended artworks also contribute to the campaign. These will be available for purchase through our online shop and at pop-up stores during the exhibition tour. Visitors to gallery@oxo will be able to browse and buy these works directly from our art racks.

In some cases, artworks that narrowly missed a place in the final 100 may be selected by the panel for inclusion in either the Autumn or Spring fundraising auctions.