THESE stunning images saw a talented artist from Malvern scoop a top illustration award.

William Elliston saw off competition from more than 200 entries to claim top honours in the ‘student talent’ category at the prestigious 2013 Cheltenham Illustration awards.

The 22-year-old, of Malvern Wells, graduated this summer with a first class degree in visual communication (illustration) from Birmingham City University.

He is presently focusing on illustration, creating artwork for albums and book covers, but has long-term ambitions of working on concept art for films and video games.

Mr Elliston believes winning the competition – which has a worldwide profile and attracted entries from 16 different countries – will give his profile a real boost.

“I’m very grateful for my project to be chosen as the winning entry, as I know the competition was very tough,” he said. “I am certain that this will help me develop my career.”

The competition asked entrants to create a collection of images inspired by Gustav Holst’s The Planets.

And Mr Elliston said this suited his style to a tee.

“Music has a strong influence in my work and using Holst as inspiration for my illustrations was very satisfying,” he said. “I tried to adapt the principles Holst used to create his successful music into my images, such as emphasis, balance, harmony, variety, movement, rhythm, texture, space, tone and character.”

If you would like to see more of Mr Elliston’s work, visit his website at williamellistonstudio.co.uk.