Art Jam at the United Methodist Church in Geneva

Hi all,

The subject of the post says it all. My good friend, Minister E, invited me to be a part of their youth groups art jam session this past Saturday up in Geneva, IL. I brought my books and some concept books and portfolios to share and talked to the kids about my sketch process a bit. After the quick introductions, we warmed up with the hat game, which is when someone picks out topics from a hat that the jammers would then have to draw.

We then used the rest of the time for the kids to focus on their own personal projects. E and I played catch up whilst my wonderful girlfriend made an attempt to draw herself. Her sketches are GREAT! I will have to show them to you sometime...as long as she is ok with it and doesn't punch me in the face.

Anyhoo, here are some of the sketches from the nights event:

A look into the new...

One more post before I turn in for the night. I tweeted two hours ago that I was working on new pages for the next When I Was Little project. So I thought I'd share some info on that as well as future plans with the series.

I really liked the audience participation with the last book and for this next project I wanted to have a bit more fun with that idea...but you won't see me at a con with a submission box this time. Also it will be tiny bit different from the previous books but it will still have a lot of call backs to those three.

I plan to finish this one mid year and get started on what will be the final When I Was Little. This last one will not only evolve the ideas but it will also bookend the series.

Right around the time the last When I Was Little comes out I hope to have another book idea finished. It's one that I've been playing with for almost two years now and I feel like I've spent too much time away from it. So I have to turn my multi-task skills to +11 and really get cracking this year.

I think there will still be more When I Was Little ideas to come from me, just not in book form. I feel like this series has been my pre-school and I'm ready for kindergarten, big boy pants and Snoopy underoos.

As promised here's a little snippet of the new project:

2011 Season

Hi! Real quickly I'd like to tell you about the conventions I have lined up so far. Obviously as soon as the dates for these get closer I will talk about them more.

My first con of the year is going to be in sweet home Chicago!
c2e2: March 18-20 at McCormick Place

I have some one day cons lined up in June and July as well. I'm really excited to be a part of these two, they are shaping up to be great!

Summit City Con: June 18 at The Grand Wayne Center in Fort Wayne, IN

Derby City Comic Con: July 16 at Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville, KY
I did a poster for this convention so be on the look out for that. I'll post pics and links when they go live.

And I just added this one about a week or two ago. My good buddy Mike Roll, whom I shared a table with me at Detroit Fanfare, asked if I would like to join him and Joe Foo at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD! I was so excited to be asked to come. That's going down in September 10-11 at Bethesda North Marriot Hotel and Conference Center.

I went to Maryland last year on a family road trip vacation and I'm excited to go back and bring the When I Was Little series with me.

Well that's it for now, I've been looking into book fairs and other types of festivals I could participate in so I'll keep you all posted.

Holiday Card 2010

Ever since 2006 I've been designing my own cards. What I usually do is draw a Christmas image and find a quote that best represented the image I had in my head. Last year, I designed a card based on my books. As it turned out great and quite humorous, I felt it didn't quite have a Christmas spirit about it as the cards done previously. So I wanted to get back to what I originally did. I had two ideas in mind but at first only thought to do one depending on which quote was the strongest. Luckily I had my wonderful girlfriend find me two great quotes that I was inspired to get both ideas done this year. So some of you will get this:




And the others will get this: http://justincastaneda.blogspot.com/2010/12/holiday-card-2010.html

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! We'll see you in 2011!

Human Centipede Exclusive Print @ Atlanta Comic-Con

If you're heading down to Atlanta Comic Con this weekend stop by and visit table 1105. Drew Blank, writer of Memoirs of an Anti-Hero hit me up with a print based off the disturbingly bizarre horror film, The Human Centipede in honor of the film's stars attending the weekend's convention.

This was such fun to work on! Click for more info on this limited print exclusive to Atlanta Comic-Con:


Human Centipede Print by ~happyfestivus on deviantART

Links:
Drew Blank - Memoirs of an Anti-Hero: http://www.drewblank.com/shop.html
Atlanta Comic-Con 2010: http://www.wizardworld.com/home-atlanta.html

Mid Ohio Con 2010

Mid Ohio Con marks the end of my convention run for the year. Wow, I thought I had a good show last weekend, MOC was just great fun all around and a terrific way to wrap up the year.

This year's show marked the 30th Anniversary of Mid Ohio Con and they really made it worthwhile for the artists. There weren't a lot of Media Guests and dealer shops but a big focus on artists, writers, independents, and comic superstars.

Saturday was a huge success. I probably ended up leaving my table once or twice to go to the bathroom and the rest of the time I was glued to my seat responding to sketch requests.

I think by the end of the day I did about 25+ sketches with another 10 carrying over into Sunday. It flew by so fast! I think posting some of the unique character sketches (at least to me) on the blog, I gotten a lot more of those requests from people at the shows.



I've also noticed that whoever I make my sketch sign of for the weekend, that is usually the most requested character. Hence the army of Iron Men:




Big win for the Pixar prints I framed as within the first two hours, [I think, I have no concept of time, the day was a huge blur of amazing-tude] I was able to sell it.

I seriously thought I'd be taking it home after Sunday.

The only thing that stunk about the show which isn't a real huge complaint, was that I missed 75 percent of the artists/creators who were there. Nic was a real trooper scouting the tables for me and keeping me in the know with what was going on with the show. I was way too focused into drawing to even pick my head up. I tried my very best to meet and greet with all the folks who stopped by the table.

Sunday was nice and light but I was consistently busy. I was able to take some time to meet with some new creators but not really a chance to talk shop. I did get some things signed and met with friends I've made at the show last year.

With the spending spree Nic and I went on last weekend, we decided to put a limit on purchases and instead we focused on getting stuff for other people.

Sunday worked out perfect for me, heck the WHOLE SHOW worked out for me. I am always surprised by the amount of people who dig my work and have a really affection towards the book series. So to all those who got a sketch, prints, or books from me, a big thank you goes out to all.

It was a great time and I hope to do it again, I'll see ya next year. ;-)

Detroit Fanfare 2010

This past weekend I attended the Detroit Fanfare at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn, Michigan.



The Fanfare was a great con for me and quite a fun one. I think having it take place on Halloween weekend opened up the flood gates for creativity on Detroit Fanfare's part. They had a Zombie Walk, a kid's costume contest, charity events, and a well rounded group of artist and creators.

It was nice to walk around and see an enormous amount of talent everywhere you turned. There weren't any ex-wrestlers, porn stars, or tv stars in attendance at all.


This year I shared a table with the very talented Mike Roll whom I met at SPACE back in July. There I picked up Apooka, his Adorable Zombie book. Check out that and some more great artwork here:

Having Stan Lee as your guest of honor really drew in the crowd and the flow of people was consistent. I did tons of sketches for people and met some great new creators and book dealers who were looking to purchase books for the comic shops.


The movie geek in me couldn't pass up the chance to meet Brian O'Halloran, better known as Dante from Clerks and Clerks II. The guy is real nice and very welcoming of the fan appreciation for the work he's done.

On Halloween there were a lot more people dressed up and even some artists passing out candy for the kids. It was a bit slower that day but I did manage to sell quite a few books and sketch some more unique requests like an Iron Fist and a Thanos. The guy who wanted Thanos actually went and bought a comic for reference. I thought that was real nice of him considering he told me he just dropped 2 and a half Gs on an X-Men #1 for Stan Lee to sign.



And the award for most requested character sketch goes to:



The volunteers at the Fanfare were really accommodating, always coming by with snacks and water for the artist. One of the coolest things was that they gave out one of the Fanfare exclusive comic books that they were selling at the welcoming tables.

Overall it was a nice weekend getaway and even nicer introducing my art and the When I Was Little series to a new audience.