Caterpillar Vector

November 27, 2024December 2, 2024Leave a comment

Here’s another vector illustration for children’s magician, Jimmy Joza. It will be printed on an 18-inch silk. It goes with the previous butterfly illustration and will be a prop in his act. He originally had another caterpillar image he was going to use for this, but he encountered some problems with the size and vibrance of that image. So, he decided to come back and commission me to draw a whole new caterpillar to use instead.

Because the butterfly was drawn in the style of the original caterpillar, this new caterpillar is also drawn in the same style. So as not to step on the previous artist’s intellectual property, this one uses an entirely different pose, a bit of a different face, different expression, different back spots, and a different approach to the construction of the body.

It was a really fun one to work on.

A vector drawing of a cute, cartoon caterpillar eating leaves. The caterpillar is positioned in a 3/4 side view holding a leaf in each hand. The leaves each have a bite mark and the caterpillar's cheek is puffed as if chewing. There is a blue swirly background framed with a pink border.
A line of text at the bottom notes that the image is Copyright © 2024 Jimmy Joza. All rights reserved.

Butterfly Vector

November 25, 2024December 2, 2024Leave a comment

I recently completed a little illustration for children’s magician, Jimmy Joza. This butterfly was drawn in Adobe Illustrator. (Yes, I can work with vectors!) He plans to have it printed on a 36-inch silk and use as a prop in his act. He has an existing caterpillar image he plans to print on another silk, and he wanted me to match the art style of that one so that it was clear the two images were the same character. He also had a sample butterfly with rainbow colors that he wanted me to use as a color scheme for the wings. Here’s what I came up with!

A vector drawing of a cute, cartoon butterfly with rainbow-colored wings. The butterfly is centered, facing the viewer, with its wings spread out symmetrically behind it. There is a blue swirly background framed with a pink border.
A line of text at the bottom notes that the image is Copyright © 2024 Jimmy Joza. All rights reserved.

Number 12 of 150

December 15, 2022December 2, 2022Leave a comment

Our first adult for this batch. Her headscarf was fun to draw, getting the knot and the stripes right.

Black woman standing with hands gesturing as if talking. She's wearing a t-shirt, cardigan sweater, jeans, and sneakers. She has her hair wrapped in a red silk scarf.

Number 9 of 150

December 9, 2022December 2, 2022Leave a comment

This is the first of three age 9-12 in this batch. I like the pleated skirt on her dress. I had a little trouble getting the angle right on her glasses.

Black girl aged 10-12 stands with one hand raised, palm up, as if gesturing. She is wearing glasses, a blue jumper with a pleated skirt, white blouse, and sneakers. Her hair is in long twist braids.

Number 8 of 150

December 7, 2022December 6, 2022Leave a comment

Here’s the last 7-9 year old for this batch. They’re in a gender-neutral outfit and posed in a side view. The original version of this one had them turned away from the viewer, 3/4 view from the back, but the client wanted to see more of their face.

A black child aged 7-9 stands with their arms clutching their belly, laughing. They are viewed from the side. They're wearing a purple sweatshirt with a black star pattern, jeans, and red sneakers. Their hair is in an afro.

Number 7 of 150

December 5, 2022December 2, 2022Leave a comment

The project also includes diverse body types. So, this boy has a larger body type than the others so far.

Black boy aged 7-9 standing with his hand raised, palm up, as if holding something. He's wearing a salmon and black plaid button up shirt, black jeans, and sneakers.

Number 6 of 150

December 3, 2022December 2, 2022Leave a comment

A pretty color plaid overshirt and bantu knots. I hadn’t drawn that hairstyle before. I think she’s cute.

A black girl age 7-9 stands with a hand up as if waving. She's wearing a purple and pink plaid overshirt, white t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. Her hair is in bantu knots.

Number 5 of 150

December 1, 2022November 27, 2022Leave a comment

I was proud of how the tie-dye pattern and cornrows turned out. This one is intentionally ambiguous on gender because we wanted to be fully inclusive.

A child aged 7-9 stands with one finger to their cheek in a thoughtful expression. They are wearing a pastel tie-dye t-shirt over a white long-sleeved t-shirt, a patched pair of sweatpants, and sneakers. Their hair is in short cornrows. Their gender expression is ambiguous.

Fourth One…

November 29, 2022November 27, 2022Leave a comment

Number four of 150.

This project was divided into 10 batches of 15 images each. Most batches had two little kids aged 4-6, 6 kids ages 7-9, 3 aged 10-13, and four adults. Most of the batches focused on a specific racial/ethnic group in order to ensure that we included a full range of ages and gender expressions for each racial/ethnic group, especially for the kids. We didn’t want to risk leaving anyone out.

As you can see, this guy is supposed to be black, age 7-9, thin body type, with a male gender expression, wearing glasses.