Second One…

November 25, 2022November 23, 2022Leave a comment

Yes, this is going to be a series. I’m planning to share all 150 of these, one every other day.

This little guy seems happy.

A little black boy stands with his hands holding his belly as he laughs. He's wearing a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers.

First One…

November 23, 2022November 23, 2022Leave a comment

I just recently completed a project for Learning A-Z. I drew 150 characters, full color, isolated on white. Here’s the first one.

Isn’t she cute?

A cartoon drawing of a preschool-aged, little black girl. She has an afro pulled back with a scarf. She's wearing a pink dress, striped leggings, and sneakers. She is standing with one hand raised as if waving.

Monsters Go – Lily N.

December 17, 2021Leave a comment

Today I participated in the Monsters Go illustration prompt. That’s where professional illustrators recreate monsters drawn by children.

This week’s art was by a kid named Lily N. Here was her drawing:

A child's crayon drawing of a monster by kid artist Lily N. It's a purple monster with a lot of eyes, blue feet, and turquoise shaggy things in it's hands. — Art by Lily N.

And here’s my version of it:

My version of the many-eyed monster from the previous drawing in a professional style. I interpreted the shaggy things to be some furry things it's juggling. They also have eyes. — Art by Karen B. Jones

And here’s a link to Monsters Go on Instagram.

Sports Logo Sketches

October 8, 2021October 8, 20212 Comments

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.

SCBWI Illustrator Day

April 10, 2021January 13, 2024Leave a comment

I just finished attending a webinar hosted by the KS/MO chapter of the SCBWI. I have been doing illustration long enough now that a lot of these seminars (in person and online) are sort of reviewing things I’ve already picked up. But I did get a few points that were sort of new, or at least good to be reminded of. And it’s always good to get out there (metaphorically because it was on zoom) and actually discuss things.

The subjects were picture book dummies and working with art departments.

There was a lot of information, but the advice I took away was:

Continue reading →

Color Version of Inktober #28

November 26, 2020November 30, 2020Leave a comment

Inktober #28 was Float. Here’s that one colored in.

Girls at a sleepover playing Light as a feather, stiff as a board. One girl levitates in midair while 5 friends chant the magic words. The floating girl observes that "This feels weird!"

Color Version of Inktober #22

November 6, 2020November 2, 2020Leave a comment

Here’s a color version of my faceless chef.

An illustration of a woman in a chef's uniform standing with a spoon in her hand. Drawn in a simplified style without a face or detailed hands.

Color Version of Inktober #21

November 5, 2020November 2, 2020Leave a comment

Two babies in color this time.

An illustration of a human toddler and a young dragon curled up around each other, asleep. The dragon is green and the toddler is black.

Inktober 2020 #31 – Crawl

October 31, 2020October 31, 20202 Comments

So, since this is posting on Halloween, I thought it should be a Halloween themed image. So, the two things that come to mind with crawl is creepy crawly bugs and crawling babies. Bugs only seem really Halloweeny if it’s a spider or if they’re crawling over a corpse. I already did a spider this month and corpses are gross. Trying to not go for too gross since my target audience are kids.

So, a Halloween-themed baby.

I doodled a baby pumpkin-head, a baby Dracula, a baby Frankenstein’s monster, and a baby zombie. By the way, baby zombie? NO. Not cute. Bad. Very bad.

And I also doodled this baby Death, which is the one I liked best. So, that’s the one I finished off for today.

Whew! This is the last one! I’m done. I hope you enjoyed the month of inktober as much as I did. Thanks for watching!