Set up your easel, stretch your canvas and crack open a fresh tube of paint – Sky Arts is looking for a talented artist to crown Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2014, and there’s no reason that someone shouldn’t be from Watford.

Following the success of the first series, Joan Bakewell and Frank Skinner will return to present the exciting search for the UK and Ireland’s next star of the art world. They will be joined by the judges: award-winning portrait artist Tai Shan Schierenberg; former director of exhibitions at the Royal Academy, Kathleen Soriano; and Kate Bryan, head of contemporary art at the Fine Art Society.

The competition will be filmed over the summer and broadcast on Sky Arts in October.

The series finalists will see their work exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery for a month, while the winner, who will be announced in September, will be awarded a major £10,000 commission for the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. The prize commission will be exhibited at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and will become part of its permanent art collection.

The winner will also receive a year’s supply of art materials from fine art supplier Cass Art.

If you would like to apply, you will need to submit a digital photograph of one self portrait that you have produced within the last five years, as well as photographs of up to two further works of art of yours, which need not be portraits. You must be at least 16 years old, and if you are under 18 parental consent is required.

Successful applicants will be invited to attend one of six heats between May and July. At the heats, participants will be challenged to produce a portrait of one of three famous sitters, and one artist will be chosen to go through to the next round of the competition. The London heat will take place on Tuesday, May 27 and Wednesday, May 28.

The heat winners will then take part in more extraordinary portrait challenges, with the semi-final to be held in London and the grand final taking place at the National Portrait Gallery. The overall winner will be chosen by the series judges together with Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery.

“We knew the UK and Ireland was brimming with artistic talent but we were amazed at the standard of entries in the first series,” says Joan Bakewell. “That’s the reason I can’t wait to get started on this second series. Hopefully we can find the next Gainsborough or Freud!”

The entry process closes at 12pm on Thursday, May 1.