The theme of this puzzle series is young animals playing games together. (Awwwwwww!!) Puzzle illustrations in this cute and somewhat realistic style have a been an ongoing thing around here for the past couple years. At first it seemed kind of an odd direction for me as my artistic tastes are mostly in the wild in wacky realm, but after a while I found myself really enjoying making these sweet innocent images. I'm actually really starting to love it.. Its hard to have a bad day when you're painting kittens and puppies.
Which Two Are the Same?...
Also... for the same Highlights Puzzlemania issue, this was an additional game illustrated to go along with the "differences" puzzle. It was made for little kids, but how fast can YOU figure it out?...
Cover and Interior Illustration for Highlights Puzzlemania Book
So... every now and then the little kid in me gets all giddy because I get to work for one of the companies I grew up with. Many a dentist's office visit I spent searching for hidden pictures in a Highlights magazine. Here's a recent cover I got to create for an issue of a Highlights Puzzlemania book. The illustration also appears on the inside with a nearly identical version next to it with 20 differences to find. Check out the pics below in case you're stuck in a dentist's office with nothing to do.
Find twenty differences on the next picture...
Find 20 differences from the previous pic!
Here's the original sketch with cropped areas indicated for cover and interior activity pages.
Board-game Design- The Great Coin Caper
Slowly but surely, the plan is to add more and more history about some of the more interesting projects that have made their way through this studio over the past couple years- in what the Jones Studio scientists refer to as the "Pre-Larryial Blog Era". Many a fun and joyous game board has been designed and illustrated here over the years and today we'll take a look at that momentous educational phenomena known as The Great Coin Caper- A Dewey Whodunit Game- (Highsmith). Attached are some of the original sketches that still remain as well as the finished art. And now ladies and gentlemen, I present to you... some stuff I drew...
"Game Box in Repose on Oak Dining Room Table"
This is how I draw stuff.
The finished game board a la photoshop.
Goofy robots make me happy.
The card face.
Sketches of some of my favorite old acquaintances from school.
This game is fashioned after the game of "CLUE"... and these are your Professor Plums, etc...
...but no-one get's killed by these...
...And the finished game, in morning sunlight, upon shooing the cat away 14 times.
Boardgame Design- Science Lab Series
Boardgame design has always gone down as one of my all-time favorites for illustration projects. In fact, just about any toy or game related assignment is pretty much guaranteed to rev up that kid in me. I love the process of designing and illustrating the different components that go into a working game and then to one day get to finally see the final product sitting on my doorstep. Here's a collection of art for three separate science-themed games I worked on a while back for the educational market. Everything began with very rough pencil sketches and color mock-ups. The final art was hand-inked, scanned in, and colored in photoshop.
Spot Illustrations for a Children's Publication
Here are eight recent spot illustrations done for a children's magazine that won't be published for a few months... (so I can't say which one right now.) The theme of the article is about the origins of common games we all know and play.
Adobe illustrator is becoming more and more my program of choice these days. I don't know if it's because it produces such clean art, or the fact that it has unlimited "undos". All I know is that it takes the sloppy artist in me and cleans him right up... like having my own personal illustration robot to do my bidding.
The game of chess originated in India where the bishop was actually a camel or elephant.
Kite flying got it's start in China.
Checkers has 3000 year old roots in Iraq.
The game of marbles originated in Egypt.
The game of Jacks used to be called "knucklebones" and originated in Greece... and used real bones!
We have the Dutch to thank for our jump-ropes.
An ancient Greek vase was found with art depicting someone playing with a yo-yo.
A 3500 year old clay top was found in Iraq.