About the Cartoonist

Like most cartoonists, I began drawing at an early age, sketching dinosaurs and war scenes at first, followed by the types of adventures and stories I enjoyed reading in comic books such as Classics Illustrated, Scrooge McDuck, Sergeant Rock and Turok, Son of Stone. Movies and books also contributed to the subject matter, along with my own adventures in the outdoors.

I drew my way through 12 years of public school, two years of junior college and four years of university with doodles, illustrations and commentaries on notebook margins, school papers and café napkins. Cartooning wasn't all on the sidelines; I also took art classes in high school and at university, integrating cartooning into classwork when I could and doing cartoons and illustrations for high school and university newspapers.

After graduating with a bachelor of arts degree in print journalism from Central Washington University, I went on to work as a part-time freelance cartoonist, illustrator and graphic artist while working a “regular” job.

My work has been published locally and nationally in magazines, books and newspapers and I've designed logos and done graphic arts work for local businesses and government agencies. Some of my work has been published on t-shirts, sweatshirts and mugs. In the late 90s I wrote and illustrated the nationally distributed “Forest Firefighters” coloring book.

Portrait of the Cartoonist as Potential Bear Fodder.
"Those bears were hungry, but not hungry enough to be drawn into a confrontation with a trained cartoonist. I let them off with a warning sketch."

Most of the cartoons shown in the online portfolio were done in a combination of traditional media (pen, brush and ink on paper) and digital media. I currently work on a Mac with Adobe Photoshop and use a scanner and Wacom Intuos digital drawing tablet.

Thanks for visiting jonscartoons.com I hope you enjoy your stay and get at least a smile (if not some laughs) or two from the artwork here. If you're interested in using any of my cartoons or in commissioning me for illustrations and cartoon-related work, please contact me for further details.

Cover illustration for the "Forest Firefighters" coloring book published in the late 90s by the Northwest Interpretive Association.

How is a cartoon made?