Tom Jester was born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa. As a child he was constantly exposed to art and the creative process by his mother who is a painter, ceramicist and printmaker. He was inspired by books his mother gave him with art from Roger Dean, Salvador Dali, H.R. Giger, Thomas Hart Benton and many others. Tom excelled in various form of art in High School and attended the Kansas City Art Institute. There he excelled in illustration,sculpture and photography among other forms of art. In his final two years at the Art Institute he majored in Illustration and apprenticed with illustrators John English, Mark English and Brent Watkinson.

Upon graduating with a BFA in 1992, Tom dove head first into his illustration career. He initially worked in pastel and eventually switched to rendering digitally on his Macintosh computer. Working digitally allows for more experimentation and for the artist to change his mind without starting over. Tom has worked for clients such as; Anheuser Busch, Activision, U.S. Army, Applebee’s, Procter and Gamble, Sprint, Longhorn Steakhouse, American Royal and many others.

Tom Jester currently resides in Kansas City, Missouri with his wife, 2 children and silver Labrador. He loves spending time in nature and getting away to the mountains and desserts of Utah and Northern Arizona. The beautiful elements of this part of the country sometimes make appearances in his art.