My girls and I walking home from HyVee.
Walking Home – Final
My girls and I walking home from HyVee.
Category: Personal
Hidden Picture Image
Here’s a commission I just sent in to Hart McLeod.
Hidden in the image are 12 pictures. They weren’t supposed to be TOO hard to find, so you should be able to spot them. A woman, a man, two girls, one boy, one owl, two rabbits, three turtles, and a frog.
Interesting thing about this project. They told me which hidden elements they wanted to see, but said that the scene was the artist’s choice. I hate that. That means I had to figure out an interesting scene and compose it with no guidance or limits. I love limits. Contrary to what you’d think, I can be so much more creative if I have defined framework to work in. Oh well.
Luckily, I pulled out this reference photo from my photo collection and used it as my framework. I took this at the Overland Park Arboretum this fall. There actually is a pond off the frame to the left, but it isn’t to the horizon like in the drawing.
Annoyed Grown-Ups and Guilty Kids
Here’s some images I just finished for Hart McLeod.
521 Promo Pet Cartoons
I created the following cartoons for Kellene Addison with 521 Promo. I understand they’re intended to be printed on T-shirts. They were created in Adobe Photoshop. I’m posting them as art samples only and all copyrights are owned by Kellene Addison.
While developing the dog character in the second cartoon, I drew out this guy as well. He ultimately wasn’t used. So, he’s still mine. He’s a little unfinished, but I like him.
Chicken or Egg
Which came first? The chicken or the egg?
Please note that this is a bit simplified, since it’s doubtful that the distinction between a red jungle fowl and a chicken came about in just one generation. More likely, there were quite a few generations of a long grey area between sorta-a-red-jungle-fowl-sorta-a-chicken before it became obviously the distinct species we now call a chicken. Plus, they think they might have bred them with the grey jungle fowl as well.
Dammit, Jim, I’m an illustrator, not a biologist.
Either way, the egg still came first.
Sunrise Over Lake Michigan
Sunrise over the lake side of the Door County Penninsula in Wisconsin.
Raccoon Sketch
Candy Cane Hearts
I think this will be next year’s Christmas card. I was playing with HDR again. Real HDR, not HDR-style. The image didn’t really need HDR, but… eh. I like how it turned out, though I haven’t printed it, so it may need some adjustments still.
I love the spot healing brush tool in Photoshop, because after several days, the snow I used wasn’t perfectly clean. Also, when you set a candy cane in the snow, it starts bleeding red into the snow. So, I had to correct that as well.
And here’s another one.
Two Picture Books I’d like to Recommend
An illustration by Jez Alborough for Duck in the Truck. Notice how the muck spills out of the panel?
My youngest daughter brought home a book the other day titled Duck in the Truck by Jez Alborough. Here it is on Amazon. Look at the preview and you can see some of the images. What I like about it particularly is the way he laid it out. The illustrations themselves are great, energetic, expressive scenes worthy of admiration on their own. However, the layout is what struck me. See, he laid the illustrations out in panel style a bit like a comic strip. The text is in the white space underneath each panel, which is very easy to read (I always appreciate that). But what I liked best is that as it gets further into the book and things get hard and messy and chaotic for the characters, the scenes start to spill outside of the boxes. They don’t obscure the words at all. Those are still in white space, but the panel boxes seem unable to contain the action and muck. Then when things calm down, they scenes are neat and in their boxes again. I just really like how the illustrator did that.
My Cat, the Silliest Cat in the World by Gilles Bacelet. The twist is that it’s not a cat.
And while I’m mentioning other illustrator’s work that I admire, I’d like to mention My Cat, The Silliest Cat in the World by Gilles Bachelet. Here it is on Amazon. It’s another one that my daughter brought home from school, but this one came home last year sometime. Anyway, this story would be really inane without the illustrations. It’s this guy just talking about the normal, weird things his cat does in a day. But the twist is that the illustrations aren’t of a cat at all. They’re of an elephant! That makes all the difference! So, it’s like this guy doesn’t know that his cat is really an elephant. I think the elephant thinks he’s a cat too. It’s really funny to see the elephant doing all the things ascribed to the cat.
We’re Dreaming of a White Halloween
We decided to be creative with our pumpkins this year. The girls thought it was SO funny. 🙂
Karen B. Jones - Illustrator 