A personal illustration. It's been a long time since I've done a finished piece just for the fun of it. I wanted to keep it fairly simple, and I believe I succeeded. Marker and colored pencil, 4.5x6.5" on smooth bristol.

This was done just a couple days after Kahlil and I moved to Tampa- to a house with a yard. Kahlil's dog, Bailey, went from being cooped up in an apartment all day to having the freedom to run around in her very own fenced-in yard. This is a fairly accurate representation of what she looked like those first few weeks.

Life Drawing of the Day from January 4, 2008; our Pappasan chair. This drawing was an exercise in texture and pattern. Between the oversized plush snake, the intricate celtic-knot raven blanket, and the printed throw pillow, I had quite a challenge representing everything accurately. Overall I am pleased with the results, and may revisit the subject now and then over the course of my daily life drawings.

Please Note! I have made a few changes to jenikaart.com. The front page is now a static portfolio, which allows me to start posting sketches and more fun, less refined stuff to the blog section without making it difficult to find the finished works.

My one and only new years' resolution for 2008 is to draw something from life every day. I plan to post the best ones here. This one is a drawing of a bunch of bananas on a glass surface, done in ballpoint pen on recycled paper.

One of two illustrations for a short story called "The Girl with the Iron Foot" (by Jessica Jernigan), to be published in the January/February 2008 issue of "New Moon: The Magazine for Girls and Their Dreams". The issue is called "Through the Looking-Glass (Coming of Age)" and the story is about a girl whose blacksmith father tries unsuccessfully to help her fit in with other children. In the end, she goes on a journey by herself to discover that she is unique and wonderful in her own way.

This illustration appears at the beginning of the story. I wanted to both illustrate the opening scene and include some imagery from a bit later in the story. The snow hares may seem a bit out of place in a green field, but they allude to the girl's first efforts at changing herself in order to be accepted by the other children.

Both this and the 'Bear' illustration were colored using markers and colored pencil on Bristol Board.

One of two illustrations for a short story called "The Girl with the Iron Foot" (by Jessica Jernigan), to be published in the January/February 2008 issue of "New Moon: The Magazine for Girls and Their Dreams". The issue is called "Through the Looking-Glass (Coming of Age)" and the story is about a girl whose blacksmith father tries unsuccessfully to help her fit in with other children. In the end, she goes on a journey by herself to discover that she is unique and wonderful in her own way.

The bear is a symbol for the girl as she leaves on her journey. I wanted to portray the bear as a sort of guide to her self-discovery; its presence is symbolic rather than literal. Its nose points the way as a light through the trees.

This illustration is tiny! The printed size is only two inches square, and I worked at a size not much larger. Since it's so small, I knew that it would have to 'read' at a glance, but I wanted to bring the viewer in for a closer look, too.

This was a personal commissioned 'badge.' Casidhe is the wolf, and I was asked to use the moon as a theme. The trick was to figure out how to incorporate the name, the wolf, and the moon into a small (3"x4") space, without being too cliche. This was drawn in pencil, then colored using ArtRage.

Here's a cover design proposal for the girls' magazine, NEW MOON. Instead of commissioning illustrators or designers to do their covers, they accept submissions from women and girls based on predetermined themes for upcoming issues. A team of 18 girls ages 8-14 called the Girls Editorial Board (or GEB) reviews all the cover submissions for a particular issue and decides which cover they want to use.

The March/April 2008 issue is "Listen to This!" (the music issue). My artwork was not chosen to be used for that cover, but it did get me in contact with the Magazine's Associate Editor, and I am currently working on a pair of interior illustrations for a different issue.

This illustration is special to me. Not only was the research of imagery enjoyable; but the image seemed to 'want' to be created. The first time I sat down to start a thumbnail, the entire composition seemed to flow from my pencil in only a matter of minutes. Once that was done, the only thing left was to enlarge it and work out the details. Of the six illustrations in my Thesis, this one probably took the least amount of 'work' and has gotten the most compliments. It's interesting how such things work out.

This was a fun Illustration for Kim Hazel of her pet Blue Crown Conure as a pirate. This piece went through a lot of process to get to this point. Despite (and perhaps because of!) all the extra work, I'm really happy with the result. I love playing around with color in a piece and the conure gave me a lot of opportunity to do so. I also enjoy messing with subtle things like shadows-- elements that might not be noticeable right away, but that add to the story behind the illustration.