Squirrel Book 2 of 10

March 4, 2023March 4, 2023Leave a comment

Here’s the second illustration for Chapter 1. This illustrates where a thunderstorm knocks the terrified baby squirrel right out of his nice, warm nest. He’s young enough that his eyes aren’t open yet and the fur on his tail hasn’t grown out long yet. I was particularly proud of the lighting.

A cartoon illustration of a baby squirrel falling from a tree during a nighttime thunderstorm. The view is from below looking up. Lightning splits the sky and the lighting is backlit and dramatic.

The Neighborhood’s Night – Page 3

March 26, 2021March 25, 2021Leave a comment

Here’s the first illustration for the book project I just finished for Learning A-Z. Page 3 of The Neighborhood’s Night by Juliana Catherine. Like with all the interior illustrations in this project, this one’s a spot illustration that will be the width of one page without any bleed. The image has a half inch on either side that will likely be cut off, but allows the publisher some room to shift the image left or right or to adjust the size a bit if they like. Like the cover image, the lighting was quite important on this one too. I rather like the swirling smoke.

An illustration for page 3 of The Neighborhood's Night by Juliana Catherine. The image shows an interior shot of a girl's bedroom. A worried girl in bed has the covers pulled up to her chin and is looking out the window. Outside, it is nighttime, but the sky is red and there is smoke swirling around a streetlight;

Project Complete! The Neighborhood’s Night

March 25, 2021March 25, 20214 Comments

I just finished illustrating a graded reader from Learning A-Z. The Neighborhood’s Night by Juliana Catherine. It’s about a family who has to evacuate their home due to forest fires near their neighborhood. Here’s a mock-up of the cover. It was work-for-hire, so it’s copyright Learning A-Z.

A mock-up of the cover of the book The Neighborhood's Night by Juliana Catherine Illustrated by Karen B. Jones. The image includes text over an illustration of people and vehicles on a street during an evacuation due to a nighttime forest fire.

I sure got practice drawing vehicles on this one and the changing perspective along the curve was challenging, but the most important part of this illustration was the lighting. I wanted it bright enough to show what was going on and all the people and such, but still look like it’s actually nighttime. An argument could be made that maybe it should have been more smoky, but the haze would have obscured more of the background details, so I went light on the smoke. This image took longer than all the rest of the images in the book.

The full cover image actually wraps around the back. I’ll share that later.

I’m going to dole out the interior illustrations over the next few days here, so keep an eye out if that interests you.