Report from TCAF

Hi everybody.  I just got back from a very well spent Saturday at TCAF, where I caught up with some extremely cool and talented artists.  They’re inspiration for me to keep drawing and improving, and when you see their work, you’ll be inspired too.

Don Corleone of The Godfather, as a rabbit.

First up is Karl Kerschl, of The Abominable Charles Christopher.  He was debuting his new collection of strips from his webcomic.  I asked him to autograph and sketch my copy of his book, and I threw him a challenge:

Needless to say, he did an outstanding job.  Normally he would be using photo reference of Marlon Brando, but he pulled this right out of his head.  It was an honor to watch him draw this.

Clarice gets some extra attention.

Danielle Corsetto writes and draws Girls With Slingshots.  It’s one of the webcomics I read every single morning, and she’s a phenomenal artist.

I was fortunate to attend a panel she did, Comics In Strange Places, where she talked about working for the Weekly World News as a staff cartoonist (before it went “tits up”).

Sharing the panel space were Frank Cammuso, Chip Zdarsky, and Abby Benson.  They talked about drawing cartoons for major newspapers such as The National Post, magazines, textbooks, and (of course) the Internet.

And all of them had some funny stories to tell.

And finally, I got this piece by Cameron Stewart, the Eisner Award nominated artist of the comic The Apocalipstix and projects for DC Comics like Catwoman and Seven Soldiers: The Manhattan Guardian.

Original art by Cameron Stewart

I had actually met Cameron at another convention two years ago, shortly before The Apocalipstix comic was in my favorite comic store.  He talked about how tough it was to get started in the comics industry.  But, he persevered.

After working in his day job, he would go home and spend hours at night practicing and refining his skills.  His dedication, working on his passion from 7 in the evening to 2 in the morning, won him work in DC comics and his own projects took off from there.

And even this sketch here was something of a challenge he set up for himself.  He normally works from Dark To Light, meaning that he roughs in his pencil sketch, lays down thick (but varied) areas of black in ink, and then lays down tones of gray.  He finishes his sketches by dabs of white with a Liquid Paper pen.

But for this piece, he purposely reversed his process.  After the light pencil sketch, he laid down a light grey tone with markers, then medium grey, and then black.

It was a joy to see him work.

TCAF continues Sunday, May 9.  If you’re in the Toronto area, come down to the Metro Toronto Reference Library and check out these phenomenal artists.