Well, I’ve been super busy lately. When that happens, nothing gets posted on the website at all. But today I’ve got a bit of a breather while I wait on feedback from a client, so I’m setting up some posts.
I illustrated a short graded reader for Learning A-Z titled My Treehouse. Here’s the spread for the wrapped cover on that one. The first page is the same image, but a cropped version showing just the right-hand side of this scene.
A slightly sleazy businessman commissioned by Kyle Szklenski of Diurnal Productions. His company is a small video game company and this is for a scene where the player signs with their new employer. It’s a digital image drawn in Photoshop. There are a couple gradients, but mostly it’s flat colors with cel shading.
Here’s the completed image. It was designed as a full spread. That means nothing important in the way of the center fold. Also, not much is happening on that right side because it would have a fade over most of that half with text overlaid.
I’ve been quiet here lately. Sorry about that. I’ve been working on a new project. I’m illustrating Paul Maguire’s new children’s book The Genie Loophole. Here’s a background for one of the illustrations I’m working on today. I was playing with a distorted three point perspective. Fun. 
My second kite-themed entry for the SCBWI Postcard Illustration Contest.
A delighted boy is carried aloft by his kite while his mother chases behind in a panic.
Here’s a background I’m using on another piece that I’ll post later.
I was playing with my big zoom lens a week or so ago and came up with these. Usually there are too many leaves to get pictures of the birds way up there, but it’s spring, so I got some halfway decent shots. And I finally have a camera that’ll let me crop a shot and still have a decent size to do something with it. Yay!
You can’t see it because these are low-res for-the-web versions, but there’s actually enough pixels to print if I wanted to. 🙂
Of course, blackbirds aren’t all that photogenic, but I did what I could from the ground. 🙂
Here’s the same image as a night scene with the aurora borealis.
Karen B. Jones - Illustrator 