A young aspiring author and illustrator has taken a huge leap towards his dreams by being named a winner in Townsville City Council's Festive Flags Competition.
Kiran Blackburn, 11, said his mum encouraged him and his friends to enter the competition earlier this year.
Now his design will join 19 other works of art when they're transformed into flags and flown along The Strand, the Townsville city centre and Riverway to celebrate Christmas.
"Everyone else finished way before me, and I was sitting at the table colouring in. It takes me longer than everyone else to finish my art, I'm always the last one in the classroom and the last one in the house, the last one everywhere, because I'm a perfectionist," Kiran said.
"I like drawing fictional things, things that are mythical and magical, I like that kind of thing. I might draw a dragon or a very beautiful mushroom that's got weird wisps of magic around it. You can see very tiny golden dots around the words and the sleigh on my design, it's magical flying dust."
The fifth grader said the competition made him even more passionate about his future goals.
"I feel pretty proud that I made it in the competition and I think this shows that maybe I can do bigger and better things. I'd like to become an illustrator or an author, I love books," he said.
Now the Belgian Gardens State School student is looking forward to seeing his flag flying high ahead of Christmas with his family.
"We usually just have a pretty nice quiet-but-not-quiet Christmas and have a little feast at someone's house," Kiran said.
"We have a Christmas tree with decorations, we do presents, and every Christmas we get in the car and drive around to see people's decorations, so we take a little tour together."
Division three representative Ann-Maree Greaney said she was proud of all the students who entered their works.
"We had lots of beautiful and thoughtful designs entered into this year's Festive Flags Competition by our city's many young artists," Cr Greaney said.
"Thank you to everyone who entered and well done to all of our winners. I can't wait to see the designs across Townsville this Christmas."
