a.k.a. Don’t litter the sky!
Here’s an illustration of a girl with a pocket knife preparing to cut a duck loose from a balloon string it’s tangled in.
When you release a helium balloon into the sky, you’re actually littering. That balloon has to come down somewhere and many times it causes trouble for wildlife when it does. Animals often try to eat it and can get choked or tangled in the process. It can kill them.
Here’s what I think is going to be the last in the portfolio series I’ve been working on. This is a very current scene. Our girl is participating in a zoom conference with her peers. Perhaps in an online class or study group? I don’t think she’s sick, but she is isolated in her home, away from her friends.
Here’s a new one for that same series I’ve been working on. Seems our girl has been texting in class.
And here is the final version of the piece I’ve been working on! So much excitement going on here. You’ve got the rockets blasting off behind, probably an emergency evacuation. Are the searchlights searching for her, specifically? You have the abandoned motorcycle, maybe it was hers and it ran out of gas or something? That would explain the goggles. Looks like she must have met with an accident on her right side at some point in the past because she’s got a prosthetic arm and leg. They must be good tech, though, since they don’t seem to be slowing her down any. Notice the blue light on her arm? That’s a power indicator. She still has a full charge. It’ll turn orange, then red as it runs dead. At which point she becomes a lefty. I’m not sure what the earpiece is. Maybe just communications equipment, maybe a hearing aid of some sort? It is on her injured side. What’s in her bag do you think? Tools for maintaining her prosthetics? Or the plans to the enemy’s base that she has to deliver into rebel hands? It doesn’t look like she has any offensive weapons. Just that energy shield, but I think it’s underpowered to stop that robot hand. Maybe it will buy her a crucial second to slip out of its grip, though!
Here’s an Easter egg. You can’t tell at the resolution above, but this is in the background. The search light washes it out, but you can see that she’s not the only one running.
And here’s a behind-the-scenes from way back when I first started this piece. This little mannequin helped me work out her pose.
This piece was a personal project, not one meant for any particular client. I wanted to add a detailed sci-fi piece in my portfolio, one with a lot of action. So, that’s the reason for it. I’ll get it up on the portfolio in a couple of days here. [Edit: It’s up now.]
I had not really intended it to be as involved as it ended up, but the concept demanded certain elements and complex lighting. Luckily, since I had no real deadline, I was free to take as long as I liked. It was fun and I really like how it turned out. 
Something lurks at the bottom of the basement stairs, and she just found it.
Here’s my second in a series of illustrations depicting tween issues and activities. Here’s a tween oil painter. I haven’t put it up on the website yet, so this is a bit of a sneak peek.
Karen B. Jones - Illustrator 