Disclaimer: All images in this post are copyrighted by Jeff Miracola and/or me. Do not redistribute the images without permission.

It's been a few months since I first stumbled upon the site of Jeff Miracola, a very talented artist and illustrator. I've fallen in love with his unique style ever since. I'm finding his illustrations to be extraordinary: vivid, original, challenging the imagination and insanely detailed. Jeff's work ranges from children books to Magic: The Gathering playing cards, from digital to traditional painting, from magazine covers to web sites, and more. Be sure to visit his portfolio to be thoroughly impressed.

If only I could hire such a talent for project JungleDragon. It turns out I can! I was looking for an illustration to brand JungleDragon. Something that is recognizable, like a mascotte for the site. Jeff created it. Here is the (low-res) result:

There is also a night version, since JungleDragon supports two stylesheets:

I will integrate this image into a fluid web layout, here is a very early teaser:

Notice how I have slightly tuned the colour, the eye (Jeff provided many to choose from), and simplified the background. I'm still experimenting with some options to see how it best fits the rest of the design, but I'm absolutely thrilled with the result.

The good news is that more is coming. JungleDragon allows you to earn karma points by positive actions on the site. The more karma points you earn, the more you move up in the food chain. On the food chain axis, you are assigned a class, ranging from ant to lion. Jeff Miracola will produce an illustration for each class that acts like an avatar, and is visible everywhere a user's name is displayed (such as in comments). Here's a first illustration (lion class):

Brilliant, isn't it? Imagine a dozen or so exclusive images like this. I have long searched for an artist who produces this kind of quality, who's style matches my desires, who is down-to-earth and flexible to work with and  has fair conditions. In Jeff Miracola I have finally found one. It is a privilige to have him working on JungleDragon. 

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