Yeah, I know. It’s not even Thanksgiving yet. But if I’m going to get my Christmas cards printed in time, I have to design them about now. So, here’s my Christmas card design for the year.
Buy it here.
Category: Images
The Slender Man
My version of the Slender Man.
Happy Halloween!
This is my submission for Illustration Friday’s prompt of creature.
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Karate Contractions
I was supposed to make the apostrophe into a character and have him knocking out the letters to form these three contractions. I decided to make it a karate character so he could use karate moves. Kids like karate. The only thing I’m a little iffy on is making the character white. I made him fully white because a karate gee is all white. I actually tried drawing it in a bit more detail so that the shirt was fully defined, but that just didn’t look right. When I colored the “skin” of the apostrophe, it looked even worse. So, I decided all-white without much detail looked best. The black belt is the important bit, I think.
These are for a textbook project for Hart Mcleod.
Combining Words
Here are a couple cartoons about combining words in silly ways. I was given very specific instructions on these, including what words to use and what is happening.
These images were commissioned Hart McLeod.
Poets
Here’s the finished version of an illustration for Hart Mcleod.
The original discription wanted a poet breaking up and reattaching words to make new words. Specifically January + August = Januaugust and October + September = Octember. Several suggestions on how to do this were given, including making the words into logs that are being cut apart with a saw and nailed together with a hammer.
I chose this interpretation because two poets allowed me to show both the sawing and nailing in one image instead of two panels. It showed that both boys and girls can be poets. It showed a girl using a hand tool, which is always a good thing in my view. They’re beatniks because it’s about the closest thing to a poet’s uniform I could think of. If they’d been older, I would have given the boy the stereotypical beatnik goatee, but I wanted them to be kids, so I couldn’t.
The colors came from the sample layout that went along with the assignment. Not exactly the colors I’d have chosen, but they should go well with the final pages. I haven’t run a test print yet, so the colors may be off a bit.
I think it turned out pretty well. This is the most complex of the images in this project.
Silly Thesaurus Page – Rough
I’m working on a project for a text book publisher right now. One of the images they had me do was supposed to be a set of specific words on a thesaurus page that were trying to get off the page. I just heard that they decided to cut this particular image for space reasons, so they don’t need the final. I thought I’d share the rough with you, since I don’t have much else to do with it at this point.
Had I finished it, the lines would be nice and neat and dark, and the cartoon words would be colored.
There are several other images they do still want me to finish and I will get paid for the work I did on this one.
Final Doofus
Here is Doofus the BS fairy in the pose my father-in-law requested. Leaning back on a bar with one leg bent back to prop his boot on the rail. Holding a beer. I would have had him leaning straight back on the bar with both elbows propped up on the edge, but those wings get in the way. This is as close as I could get to that without crushing his wings.
Can we take a minute and admire the beer he’s holding?
I just really like that beer mug and the hand position. I think it turned out nice. The glass even looks shiny. Also, it’s the one thing in the image not smeared with filth. 
Doofus: Revised
My father-in-law had some changes for Doofus. Here’s the revised version. Ideally, he’d be in a different pose also (at a bar with a beer). Maybe next time.
Doofus: The BS Fairy
My father-in-law is an aspiring novelist and he has this character he writes about named Doofus. To the best of my memory, this is how he is described. He’s the fairy in charge of BS. This is for you, Gary. 
For everyone else: I’m sorry.
Karen B. Jones - Illustrator 