For this photo essay, we’re flashing back to 2013, back to my very first experience at CTN Expo, where I spent most of it working at my cubemate and co-worker David Boudreau’s booth.
Sitting next to us, was character designer and animator Craig Knowles, who hails from Manchester, England. When he wasn’t chatting with CTN attendees, he was sketching away on post-its.
Here’s a post-it sketch that he gave me.
And here’s a post-it sketch that I gave him in return.
The event served as a reunion for me and some animation folks that I hadn’t seen in ages, such as:
“The Simpsons” storyboard artist Mike Morris. Can you not see how thrilled I am to be blessed with his presence? Um, maybe I’m a little too thrilled…
My Story Development for Animation classmate and DreamWorks Animation production assistant Jessie Greenberg, a.k.a. Jessie Velociraptor, who was working at the Motivarti booth.
Background painter Ivan Aguirre, whom I randomly met back in 2009 at a Women in Animation event at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Check out his portfolio and prepare to have your mind blown!
I also got to meet new artists, including:
Animator and Herobear and the Kid creator Mike Kunkel. Such a nice guy. And he worked on “Cats Don’t Dance,” one of my favorite animated movies as you can tell from these pieces I did for the Villains of Animation Art Show.
Anthology 451 contributors John Hoffman, Craig Berry, and Kris Pearn. I was so impressed with the artwork in the book, I bought a copy for myself.
Fast forwarding to 2014 now, I was only able to attend this year’s CTN on Sunday, November 23, because I was playing with cheerleading for the Family Guy team in a softball game against the McCarthys the previous day – sad news: we were annihilated. Photo above is me and the Family Guy team with second assistant director M. Ryan Traylor after our game against Children’s Hospital, which, for those of you who know me as the least athletic person in existence, serves as proof that I actually played and that I’m not making this shit up. Now that game we actually won.
With only a few hours to wander the convention this time around, I was more concerned with talking to as many artists as I possibly could, which meant opting out of taking a lot of photos as that would have interrupted the flow of things. Artists that I spoke to, but aren’t pictured here, were Zach Bellissimo, Tara Billinger, Mingjue Helen Chen, Clio Chiang, David Colman, Alice Herring, Rad Sechrist, and Gabe Swarr. Check their stuff out. You won’t be sorry.
I did, however, get a snapshot with the lovely Megan Nicole Dong, whose comics are a huge inspiration to me. I bought a copy of her comic diary and sketchbook Shark Bites Vol. 2.
And through my friend Pierre Bernard, I was introduced to a lady with the coolest name ever, Satine Phoenix, who was working at the MAXON booth. She is the co-creator and illustrator of the graphic novel New Praetorians, and has a rather colorful resume. We hit it off right away with our love of comics and fashion (and probably made one of Pierre’s dreams come true in the process).
For more photos from CTN, check out the sets on Flickr: