Jess Perna

Jess Perna (born March 11, 1972) is an American artist.
Early life
Born on Long Island, New York he was first commissioned at age 11 to draw a pen and ink cover for Briard Magazine by a neighbor and from then on was a working artist. Perna was home schooled from age 12 to 15 and then studied for a year at Queensborough Community College in the art department. At 16 he studied at the School of Visual Arts earning a Bachelors Degree of Fine Art and was a finalist in art competitions: The New York Art Directors Guild, The Society of Illustrators Scholarship Competition, The School of Visual Arts Annual Illustration Portfolio 13, the School of Visual Arts Annual Spring Illustration Show 1991/92. As a student his work was included in Will Eisner's Gallery - Best of Student Art and won a New York Newsday children’s art completion.
There was an article written about his art in the Queens Tribune when he was a teen. He was interviewed on the cable TV show Here and Now hosted by William LeSure in Virginia in 2000.
Freelance
In 2001 he moved to Portland, Oregon and then a year later to San Diego, California where he works currently as a freelance illustrator, caricaturist, cartoonist and fine artist. In California he studied digital art and combined his classical training with modern technologies.
Commissioned works
Perna has been commissioned by numerous book and magazine covers, brochures, business and greeting cards, calendars, court room evidence, graphics, logos, newspapers, painted glass for store windows, print and web ads, realistic fine art portraits. He has illustrated over 65 children’s coloring books for Orange County Choppers, Hot Wheels, The Care Bears, The Planet Earth for the BBC and children’s entertainment related to TV shows. Celebrity Nicky Hilton commissioned Perna for a fine art caricature for her birthday party invitation in 2006.
Notable subjects
Among the 30,000 guests who have posed at events for his caricatures is former NYC Mayor David Dinkins, singer Toni Braxton, Portland Winter Hawks and the staffs of: Bloomberg Radio, The International Herald Tribune, CNBC, David E. Kelley Productions, J. Walter Thompson, Bureau of Immigration and Customs, Viacomm International, Inc. and the New York Stock Exchange. He has drawn thousands of pets and their owners at Petco store events since 2003 in Southern California.

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