November - December Recap

NOVEMBER 4 - My next show after Grand Rapids was the Mini Comic Con at the Vernon Library in Lincolnshire, IL. This was a smaller show but it had a great turn out of families. Afterward Wesley Sun and I grabbed some coffee and talked about the shows we had during the last few months.

NOVEMBER 20 - I received my check from The Upper Deck Company which meant I was finally able to break my silence! I got to work on a special Alien sketch card set for 20th Century Fox, which I started way back in March. I've been posting them periodically on my Instagram.

NOVEMBER 29 - Back in September, I did an interview and photo shoot for the upstart, Urban Matrix Magazine. I had such a wonderful time talking about the creative process and on this day, they compiled all the footage and released a video.

DECEMBER 1 - As the holiday shopping season began, I decided it was a good time to finally open up my Threadless Artist Shop. I had my older brother John, help me design some images that I wanted to put on to t-shirts. If you check out the link, I have 5 designs right now and will be adding some periodically throughout 2018. I'm so excited that I can put Thump on a Tee! Visit art2heart.threadless.com!

DECEMBER 3 - I was invited by Pop Culture Classroom and Barnes And Noble Orland Park for a book signing and appearance. I was joined by fellow creatives: Jim McClain, Sean Dove, Gene Ha, and Zach Lehner. It went from 12pm-4pm and I had a wonderful time. So many shoppers came up to the tables and picked up signed copies of our books as holiday presents. I think the best part of the setup was that they were able to take a book, get it signed, and continue with their shopping experience. I felt like that took off a lot of the pressure on my end when it came time to pitch it to the potential buyers. The group of us also got to take a photo with Elsa so it was a pretty magical afternoon and SO CLOSE to home!

DECEMBER 16 - My very last show of 2017 was Pocket Con. Taking place at the historic Chicago Cultural Center, Pocket Con celebrates diversity in comics. From 12pm-6pm crowds were treated to live music, comics, and games. Pocket Con also featured works from underrepresented groups, such as women, Latinos, LGBTQ, and other minorities. I had a great time and even traded some art with young aspiring artists. Afterwards, our comics group got together for a post-con dinner at the wonderful Elephant And Castle.

Month of October Recap

OCTOBER 5-8 - This was my first time attending New York Comic Con. It was also my first time visiting this city and I wanted to share this experience with my lovely wife. The convention itself took up a majority of our time there. We only had a few hours on each day to really site see.

The convention was absolutely insane. So many people piled into the Javits Center wanting to experience the fun of comics and pop culture. I did not have a whole lot of time to walk the show floor but that was a good problem to have as the Artist Alley felt like a convention of it's own.

I was table neighbors with the wonderful Sara Richard who was the absolute best. It was great to see her work up close. Truly astounding. Behind me sat the always hilarious Kurt Wood Dot Com, the fastest "drawer" in comics, Scoot McMahon, and the Aw Yeah Comics crew of Art Baltazar and Franco. It felt like being at C2E2 which was great since I missed that show earlier this year.

I was able to shoot some behind-the-scenes while at the show and even snuck in an art drop on the third day. 

OCTOBER 20-22 - Towards the end of the month, I did the Grand Rapids Comic Con. I was actually pretty disappointed in the turn out for this show. Coming off of a huge success that was NYCC, I was hoping to ride a momentum into GRCC, which has always been profitable in years prior. One of the best things about GRCC, was visiting with the fan base I've built over the past four years I've attended.

Another truly great thing that I did at the show was film an episode of Art 2 Heart with the insanely talented, Angel Onofre.

OCTOBER 1-31 - Also all-month long, I was doing the daily drawing challenge, INKTOBER. Created by Jake Parker, Inktober is a way to challenge yourself by drawing one ink drawing a day for the entire month as a way to improve your skills and develop positive drawing habits.

My project for this year was to do a follow-up to last year's concept, The Murder Balloon. So I decided to take this year's prompt list and do a drawing of The Murder Balloon killing a character based on the word of the day. I plan on collecting the images into a book for next year's convention season. Here are a few of the images I did:

The Con is on!

Hello Friends,

It is March and my convention season has officially started. I had two shows on back-to-back weekends starting with Emerald City Comic Con and following that up with Lexington Toy and Comic Convention.

The Emerald City Comic Con takes place in Seattle, Washington and it was my first time ever visiting the city.

I had a wonderful time at the convention.  I hosted a drawing workshop on Sunday and met some really talented kids.

It was an exhaustive four days of straight up con but we looked forward to the extra days we were staying in the city. One of the highlights for me was visiting the grave site of Bruce Lee and Brandon Lee. It was a cloudy and rainy day but the head stones were showered with flowers and it was amazing to see something I've only seen in photos up close and personal.

After flying back and landing in Chicago at 9pm on Wednesday (03/09), I drove down to Lexington, Kentucky for Lexington Toy & Comic Con.

I always have a wonderful time at this show being a comic guest since it's inception. I have met a lot of cool people from returning fans of my work to super awesome comic creators, like Tressa Bowling. She and her husband, Danny, let me crash at their place all weekend.

Justin Stewart runs the liveART at the show and I've been spoiled by it's vibe and setup ever since. If there's one way to do it, it's the way of Six Bomb Boards.

On Saturday and Sunday of the show, I had time to drop some art. If you found any of the pieces, feel free to show it on your socials and tag me via Instagram or Twitter.

It is also important to note that we ended our post liveART get-down with a viewing of Samurai Jack Season 5. JACK'S BACK and I'm super excited!!!

If you would like to see some of the con sketches I did for both shows, head over to my sketch blog or follow me on Instagram and Twitter! 

First show of 2016: NWI Comic Con

Hi all! I hope you are having a great start to the new year. I have been busy since January getting ready for my first show of the 2016 con season! I will be at NWI Comic Con in Schereville, IN this Saturday (Feb. 20) from 11am to 7pm. I'll be joined by fellow artists Angel Onofre, Ali Cantarella, the Sun Bros. Studios, and Instant Press Comics. I hope to post some pics, shoot a periscope, live tweet the show that Saturday so be on my social media feeds if you can't make it out.

Click the photo for more info:

PocketCon / Full Bleed 2 THIS SATURDAY

Here's all the info for the two events I will be at tomorrow (Dec.5th):

Location: Chicago Art Department RM 100

1932 S. Halsted, Chicago, IL

Time: 12pm-6pm

* I will only be there til 5pm

Location: International School of Comics

1651 W. Hubbard St. Chicago, IL

Time: 7pm - Midnight

Post: Appleseed 2015

Earlier in May, I attended the Appleseed Comic Convention in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I also had the pleasure of staying with my good friends, Justin Stewart and Tressina Bowling. We recorded an episode of their podcast, Sequential Spirits which had special guests too, from Victor Dandridge (writer on Wonder Care Presents: The Kinder Guardians), to Ren McKenzie, and Mason Easley. It was incredibly fun but very, very NSFW.

The show itself was a lot slower than most cons I've been to. I did get some groovy commissions which you can check out here. Also did a few art drops but again no one stopped by the table to claim it. Victor's girlfriend Adrianna spotted it, but left it for some lucky kid to find.

Post: c2e2 2015

Last weekend I had an incredible weekend at the c2e2 convention! There was a lot of happenings and events going on through the weekend and I wish I could've been a part of them all. We attended the pre-con party at Aw Yeah Comics which was super fun, from what I remember.

The show itself was fantastic. It was a busy three days and I had a lot of people taking commissions. That kept me busy all weekend! On Saturday night, they had a Drink N' Draw to benefit the Hero Initiative as well as an art auction for St. Jude's in which they raised around $11,000!

Sunday morning I led a workshop in the Family HQ entitled Shape our Drawings. It was a fantastic turn out and kids were really into the demonstration as well as participating in a fun shape game that we played towards the end.

Wonder Care Issue 2 made its con debut and by the end of Sunday, I had sold out! I also sold quite a few prints and Heart books which always pleases me. All in all it was a fantastic weekend and I was so happy that Tressa came to the show and stayed with us. If you see her at a con near you, pick up her new book, Motherless Creatures, it's great! I also want to give a big shout out to my table buddies and all around awesome bros, Miker & Foo, for grabbing dinner with us both nights and making it a fun three days. Also I sat next to Mark Waid who is one of the nicest guys I've ever met.

Thanks to the Aw Yeah Comics crew for the invites and a big awesome thanks to the Mighty Mike Negin for putting together an incredible Artist Alley! I look forward to the next year and building upon the amazing friendships I've made since this show's inception.

c2e2 2015

I will be at the C2E2 convention in McCormick Place from Friday, April 24 to Sunday, April 26. My artist alley table number is table V13 and I'll be alongside my good friends Mike Roll and Tressina Bowling.  I also be doing art drops all weekend and on Sunday (kid's day) I am hosting a drawing workshop in their Family Fun Zone.

Here's the info for that:

Shape Our Drawings with Justin Castaneda

Sun. April 26| 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM | Family HQ – N427bc

Artist Justin Castaneda will show you the importance of using 

shapes when drawing. You will be able to see what core shapes

make up some of your favorite heroes and villains. Also, we will tap

into our imaginations and create fun, dynamic drawings from the unique 

shapes we make up.

If you are in the area or plan on coming down to the show, stop by the table
and say hi! I'll be doing commissions all weekend. And I'll have copies of
Wonder Care Issues 1 AND 2 as well as some other comics I have worked on. 

Look forward to seeing you there.

- J

Post: DanCon 2015

The third and final convention I had in the month of March was DanCon. With all the traveling I did the past two weeks, this was a nice one to end on because it's pretty much right in our backyard of Orland Park, IL!

The show was fantastic. There were a lot of comic creators this time around from Instant Press, The Sun Bros, and the lovely, Ali Cantarella. The crowds were also excited to be there and the comic trifecta of tables that included Victor, Miker, and myself were excited to draw and talk comics. You can check out some of the commissions I did over here. And even though the venue is smaller compared to other comic shows I do, the people kept coming in and STILL I was able to sneak an art drop: 

Since its a local show for me I had some family and friends visit and my former co-worker brought her adorable daughter. I stealth took this photo as it captured the essence of why I am behind the table and why I make my art:

I always look forward to this show. Dan and Amy have been really big supporters of my art career since the jump. I'm honored that he asked me to do the last two show posters and I'm always thankful when they throw some work my way.

Up next: C2E2!

Post: Lexington Comic and Toy Con 2015

This past weekend was the Lexington Toy and Comic Con, or LCTC! This was a fantastic show and Nicole and I had a great time. The main highlight was the live art put together by Justin Stewart and his Six Bomb Boards crew.

There were some fantastic artists drawing that night from Jim Mahfood, Andy Suriano, and Dave Crosland. At one point Dracullama artist and all around BAMF, Tressa Bowling got up and did what I affectionately called a "drunk draw" with me. I think it turned out pretty awesome for how far "gone" we were.

The rest of the convention was pretty amazing and I did quite a few commissions that weekend which you can check out here. I always dig the crowd that comes through LCTC, they are always excited to see you and wonderful to chat with. I also did a few art drops for the show and even successfully planted one, *achievement unlocked:

Attempt 2 success! #artdrop #jdropart @lex_con #LCTC15 #cardBOREDsketch #Gollum

A video posted by Justin Castaneda (@whenuwerelittle) on Mar 14, 2015 at 9:22am PDT

Post: Wizard World Fan Fest 2015

I had a great time at the Wizard World Fan Fest. It was a smaller show than Wizard normally puts out and the main focus was definitely the celebrities but I had a good time any way and met a lot of really cool people. I did a few commissions throughout the weekend which you can check out here.

One of the highlights was that Arrow star, Caity Lotz helped a lucky fan find my art drop and she even commented on my Instagram about it so kudos to her!