ILLUSTRATOR JONES!

Web comic Coming This Summer!

philjones — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 13:34:19 +0000

When I was a little kid I wanted to be a cartoonist. I idolized the cartoonist from my local paper and acted like he was a rock star when I first met him. His name was Ralph Smith and with that my path and future was set in stone. Since I’m relatively short, round and have absolutely NO athletic skill, I guess you could say a career as a professional basketball player was out of the question! You could say I have a face for cartooning. Somewhere along the line I got lost. I had a little comic strip when I was in high school called “Captain Cartoon”. If you look really hard it probably looked a lot like my cartoonist idol at the time, Ralph Smith’s cartoon called “Captain Vincible”. Ehh, who needs copyright laws right? Well I go off to college at the Ringling School of Art and Design and Captain Cartoon bites the dust. Somehow I land a job at Disney after graduation, leave job to join the Army, get out of Army and go back to Disney and have not seriously cartooned since. The trigger finger has been itching to create another comic strip again. Now is the time. All I will say right now is the comic strip will be based on an 8 year old little boy who’s family runs a cleaners for super heroes. Think of the Jefferson’s meet the Incredibles.

I will come out and say it now. It’s going to be next to impossible and extremely hard to get a comic strip based on African Americans published. I don’t know why that is, I do know that its a fact. I don’t care. This is why I choose to go the underground way. First of all I plan to build a following. Hopefully I can reach an audience of people wanting something funny, a little off center that does not involve potty mouth humor. The humor will be a little less for the kids and more for the parents. The Editor in Chief will be me, the rules I follow will be mine. We will see where it goes. It just seems like I was born to be a cartoonist but just got off track a bit over the past 20 years or so. I don’t know where this will go but I do plan to have a lot of fun with it.

With that, all I can say is kick off the Jefferson’s theme music remix!!! It’s going to be a fun Summer!

Phil Jones, “Stuff” and growing a fan base!

philjones — Fri, 27 May 2011 04:54:16 +0000

What's that stuff coming out of my nose!?!

I have worked with some really strange characters in my career as an artist. I’m talking everyone from Mulan to Mickey Mouse. One particular dragon takes the cake. I am of course speaking of Stuff, mascot of the NBA’s Orlando Magic. I have seen Stuff do everything from slam dunk a basketball to rappel from the rafters of the Amway Center. Upside down no less!

I have been creating artwork for Stuff for a number of years and I have to admit it has been one of the most gratifying parts of my artistic career. My son is still the only kid on the block to have a large green dragon show up for his birthday and play with his friends.

So what exactly do I do for a furry green dragon that can dunk and shoot confetti into the seats at basketball games? I am responsible for creating “the look” of Stuff. Admittedly he is still a work in progress but I have to say I am happy with how he is finally coming out. I have taken him from a rough line art image in the beginning to a clean cut vector image. The artwork I have created has been used for posters, logos, cartoons, and even Stuff’s Castle in the new arena. Someday I would LOVE to see come to life in animation on the arena’s massive jumbotron.

Over the last few years I have come up with a concept I plan to pitch to other professional sports organizations called “mascot marketing”. What is mascot marketing you ask? When I speak of this concept I’m not really talking about established teams such as the Boston Red Sox or New York Yankees. For instance I live and work in the Tampa Bay market. I’m a HUGE sports fan and of course my allegiance stands with the home teams. In a hot weather climate such as Tampa, Florida you would wonder how would a hockey team grow a fan base? The key word here is GROW. With a team like the Boston Bruins who have been around since 1924 they have had plenty of time to grow a fan base. Generations of fans have cheered on the black and gold in a climate that actually sees snow! In Tampa the local NHL franchise has been around since 1992 in a climate that’s more conducive to water skiing than snow skiing! I can’t really recall ever seeing a lot of kids playing hockey on any frozen ponds in Hillsborough County! What better way to market to a young fan base than the mascot. I’m talking that fuzzy and lovable character that hams it up at games. Remember any trip as a child to Disney World? Could you imaging a trip to the Magic Kingdom WITHOUT seeing Mickey Mouse? Use the cartoon character as a hook!

So what can we see coming from Stuff in the near future? I have to admit the Orlando Magic are a very smart thinking organization. Stuff is busy not only during basketball season but during the off season as well. He’s out there making appearances at birthday parties and can even show up at your child’s local school. Imagine pulling up to school in the morning in the Orlando Magic “Fanbulance!” In the future don’t be surprised to see anything from a children’s book to other plush and huggable itens for sale at your local store.

Well, with that I have to get back to work on creating artwork for Stuff’s new website! Team pride starts with the kids too!!

Stuff's Animal House!

Logo used as signage for gift shop at Amway Center.

Here He Goes Again!

philjones — Fri, 27 May 2011 03:25:42 +0000

Yes it has been a while since I last wrote anything but I can tell you, yes YOU all three of my readers not including my Mom who fears technology as if it were a cobra, more stuff is coming. The fact is I have been very busy of late working on an iPad app. Now that the app is out of the way I can move on to other things like creating artwork for a new website belonging to the mascot of the Orlando Magic, Stuff. So sit tight kiddos, more verbiage is on the way!!! Until then, why don’t you just check out some of the other stuff I’ve written!

Talk soon!!

Children’s Book Art.

philjones — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 01:09:02 +0000

Cover art for "Airport Mouse" written by Dr. Ruth Clarke

So a few years ago I started creating artwork for a series of children’s books called “Airport Mouse”. The 4 books were written and published by Dr. Ruth Clarke and I have to admit it was one of my more favorite projects to work on. It’s pretty cool having your name and artwork printed in hard cover format. I want to do another one!

I have had several ideas for book floating around my head for some time now. The problem is how to get them out of your head especially when I have been so busy as of late. Kind of hard to invest time into a project that’s not going to make any sort of money until its out in the world. Right now there are officially two ideas for books and one idea for a comic strip currently occupying the dusty shelves of my mind. Consider this space to be like a vault. I would LOVE to share them with my friends and the general public but what if some unscrupulous person decides to steal them and make them their own. What shabby luck for me huh? So until that time comes that I am able to scribble a few things down I may hive a sneak peek into my crazy ideas. Until that time……

GO OUT AND BUY AIRPORT MOUSE!!!

philjones — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 03:51:41 +0000

My visit to Ohio Northern University was a smashing success! A success in that I didn’t completely embarrass myself in front of the students there! Also a success in that I hopefully was able to encourage some of the students there to reach their goals of becoming better artists. Bright futures for many folks there in Ada, Ohio! Not only was I impressed with the students, I was impressed with the instructors and the facilities. ONU may not have the equipment or resources of some of the larger and more specialized art schools, however the students there are definitely getting their money’s worth. I found the instructors there to be caring, knowledgeable, and available. If I were in the Ohio area I would definitely send my son there (when he’s old enough, he’s 9 now!).

ONU is set in the small town of Ada, Ohio. The campus is incredibly safe, clean, and easy to get around unlike many monster sized institutions of higher learning. Admittedly there may not be very much “to do” around Ada, but if you are there to focus on a great education, you will not find a more perfect place to concentrate.

Besides the lecture I somehow managed to get through I was able to get reacquainted with a long lost friend from my first year in college. She also just so happens to be one of those caring instructors I spoke about earlier in this entry. All in all it was a great trip and I wouldn’t hesitate to do it all over again! It WOULD be nice to do it maybe at the end of Spring when it’s not BONE CHILLINGLY cold! I guess these old Florida bones couldn’t stand up to the Ohio weather! If I had to give the ONU art department a grade, I’d give it an A+!!

GO POLAR BEARS!!

Me going over animation art I worked on while at Disney.