Name: Stephen Downer

Hometown: Big Sky, MT

Publication: The Elementary Safety Book for Children

Born: 1987

Winning Ben Wicks Award entry:

• Cover
• Crossing the Street Safely
• Farm Safety 1
• Farm Safety 2
• What to do in Case of Emergency

Current:

• Bob Hahn
• Rachel Loveless
• Raphael Pirard

Past:

• Alison Acton
• Ryan Browne
• Gabriel Choquette
• Stephen Downer
• Brianne Drouhard
• Jeff Epp
• Henry Fong
• Tanya Francis
• Aaron Given
• Rob Jones
• Al Kang
• Ian Maclean
• Greg Moran
• Mike Myhre
• Eric Peladeau
• Tyler Schroeder
• Rob Seddon
• June Um

Stephen Downer is 17 years old, home educated, and in his senior year of high school.

Completely self-taught, Stephen started drawing at age 9 and just never stopped. He spends an average of 2 1/2-4 hours a day drawing, in addition to his school and a part-time job. With a portion of the winnings from this contest, Stephen plans to buy a new computer & a mountain bike. The rest will go into the bank, perhaps going toward art college. Stephen hopes to become a professional digital colorist soon. Barring that, he would like to explore the field of architectural rendering, and maybe commercial illustration. Stephen resides in Big Sky, Montana, with his family of 13.

He would like to thank his parents for being so supportive and God, for blessing him with the talent he has.

Stephen can be contacted at downerkid_6@yahoo.com