Guest Artists
Dennis Jones
On 04, Aug 2012 | No Comments | In Guest Artists | By Steve Leeper
I had the pleasure of getting to know Dennis this past year when he sat in on my puppet making class at HU. I was supposed to teach him how to make a foam puppet. In the end I think Dennis schooled us on three-dimensional character design instead. Either way he created a killer Viking puppet named Mangus, which helped to push all of our puppet making techniques to the next level and almost forced us to buy a larger oven.
Dennis’ distinct illustration style gives Brother Thomas a completely new look. Not only has his haircut improved, but it looks as though he may have lost a few pounds while hanging out in Dennis’ studio. I love the mischief that’s going on between he and the dragonfly. They certainly look like they’re up to something.
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Born in Mountain Grove, a small rural town in the Southern Missouri Ozarks, Dennis honed his artistic abilities each Sunday by drawing on the church bulletin during the sermon.
Dennis studied art at Southwest Missouri State University and spent his summers working at amusement parks (Opryland & Silver Dollar City) where he drew caricatures. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree and stumbled blindly into a career as a freelance illustrator.
Dennis has worked in the industry for over 30 years and has done artwork for comics, games, toys, hydraulically animated pizza places, children’s books, curriculum, newspapers, posters, miscellaneous nonsense, and in 2008 won the ECPA Platinum Book Award for his “Read With Me” Children’s Bible.
For fun Dennis plays in a recreational ice hockey league and occasionally plays bass and guitar in the band at his church where he continues to insist that a pyrotechnics show would really add to the Sunday morning service.
You can see more of Dennis’ fantastic illustrations on his blog at
http://thedennisjones.wordpress.com/
or visit his Facebook page at
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