Here’s the first interior page of the picture book I just finished for Entrepreneur Media, Inc. This image will have text overlaid over the sky and maybe the tops of the buildings. This is a nice spring day.
A Basketball Story – Interior 1
A Basketball Story – Cover
This week I finished illustrations for a new picture book for Entrepreneur Media Inc. Here’s a mock-up of the cover. The final text will be formatted a little different, probably a different font, but this gives you the idea.
A little behind-the-scenes detail: I originally had a different cover design concept in mind (below) but the client wanted this one (above) because they wanted to show everyone on both teams and didn’t want them to look aggressive.
Boy Leaning on Windowsill
Here’s a recent commission for rap artist, David Smith, who goes by the stage name Dave 3X3. This image is to be used for an upcoming album cover. He was wonderful to work with.
Good luck to you, Dave!
This image (above) was based on an earlier image (below) from 2013 with the same character. You’ll notice these aren’t drawn in my typical style. The first was one of my experiments, playing with different ideas. Then I matched the style (and refined it just a little) for the new commission. I like playing with different ideas, and sometimes they even lead to new opportunities.
And always, I am accepting commissions!
Martin Luther King Jr.
Here’s a new piece. A portrait of Martin Luther King Jr.
I hope I got the likeness right. I’ve been staring at it so long, I’m not quite sure.
Sports Logo Sketches
Radio silence on here usually means I’m busy working on something. This time I’m illustrating a picture book for Entrepreneur Media Inc. The story is about two kids’ basketball teams, the Jack Rabbits and the Sea Turtles. Sports teams always need logos, so here’s a little sneak peek of that detail.
Sweet Tooth
Here’s an illustration of the title character for the Netflix series Sweet Tooth.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Been meaning to draw this for awhile. She’s wearing her dissent collar. She looks cross because she’s dissenting. (Also, because I had dental work done and it suits my mood.)
Girl Rescuing Duck
a.k.a. Don’t litter the sky!
Here’s an illustration of a girl with a pocket knife preparing to cut a duck loose from a balloon string it’s tangled in.
When you release a helium balloon into the sky, you’re actually littering. That balloon has to come down somewhere and many times it causes trouble for wildlife when it does. Animals often try to eat it and can get choked or tangled in the process. It can kill them.
Finished: Claudette Colvin on the Bus
And now I’m done.
This is the final version of my illustration of Claudette Colvin refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus on March 2, 1955 in Montgomery, AL. She was 15 years old and was riding the city bus home from school. Because she refused, police were called and she was arrested.
This was 9 months before Rosa Parks did the same thing, but they were not the only ones. Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald, Mary Louise Smith and Jeanetta Reese also refused to give up their seats. Their arrests were the trigger for the Montgomery AL bus boycott that ran from December 5, 1955 to December 20, 1956. All these women were plaintiffs in the Browder v. Gayle lawsuit against the city of Montgomery, AL and the bus company. On June 5, 1956 the court found that bus segregation was unconstitutional but it was sent to the US Supreme Court and through an appeal before the city and bus company were finally forced to integrate the buses on December 20, 1956.
There are two photos of Miss Colvin taken around that time which I used for references on her likeness and a hint at the clothing she might have worn that day. I’m not sure what color she’d have worn, but red illustrates anger and stands out nicely from the green bus seats. I always draw kids with big eyes, so her eyes are disproportional. I hope that doesn’t throw off her likeness too much. I think her face could be a little narrower, but then the huge eyes wouldn’t fit. I got her chin with that little almost-cleft. The nose is pretty close. Glasses and hair are right, I think. I got her coloring from a color photo of her as an adult.
I didn’t find any references to who the white woman was who demanded that Miss Colvin move or any of the other passengers on the bus. So, I used my imagination and designed some generic characters with 1950s clothes and hair. I hope I didn’t make the women too colorful. I got their fashions from vintage photos and drawings.
The bus interior is based on several reference photos of buses of that era.
Anyway…
What historical figure should I tackle next?
WIP: A Little More Progress…
Here’s some progress on my Claudette Colvin illustration. Lines are more-or-less final and I’ve done the colors and shading on Miss Colvin there in the middle.
More to come…
Karen B. Jones - Illustrator 