Comicon: Imaginism Booth G6-7 & Schoolism Booth 2042-2044!

It's getting to that time of year again! San Diego COMICON!!!!
This year we have a booth just for Schoolism: booth 2042-2044
3 great reasons to stop by the Schoolism Booth.
1. Receive FREE personal critiques from our teachers at the booth.
2. Watch them paint and draw over top of your work.
3. People that go to our booth and sign up for our mailing list will receive a FREE DVD of "Creature Design for Live Action Films by Bobby Chiu"


*FREE DVD supply is limited so visit us at the Schoolism booth first! booth 2042-2044

Imaginism Studios Booth G6-7
3 great reasons to stop by the Imaginism Booth
1. We are premiering our 12th book "Chiutensity/Whispers". This book is half Kei Acedera and half Bobby Chiu. It's all about the late night sketches and paintings we do as well as some great stuff we've never published in our previous books.



2. There will be tons of new prints such as the one below.


Title: Mushroom Hunter
Artist: Bobby Chiu
Medium: Photoshop

3. Special Comicon prices on prints is $20. (Regular price $30) This is only for the people that buy prints at our Comicon booth.

Wizard World Philly and Subway Sketching Postponed

Hi Everyone,

Friday May 30th to Sunday June 1st Bobby, T and I will be in Philadelphia for Wizard World Philly. Because of this, Subway Sketching is postponed until June 8th.

If you're in the area, come on by. We'd love to say hi!
We'll be at:
TABLE 1401-1403

Here are some recent subway sketches...rotating my pens and pencils for practice. Hope you like them :)


and..
Here's some killer links that we've wanted to add for quite some time but never got the chance to!
Sylvain Marc

Geneviève Godbout

Nathan Fowkes’ Landscapes

Nathan Fowkes

Erwin Madrid

Oren Haskins

Claudio Acciari

Aurélien Predal

Chhuy-Ing IA

there's more links to come...

-Kei

They're commmmming! Toronto Fan Expo

Tomorrow the Fan Expo begins!

Our friends Alberto Ruiz, Stephen Silver, David Colman and Joe Weatherly are all coming across the border to pay Toronto a visit! You don't want to miss this.

ARTIST ALLEY
Alberto Ruiz - Table A3 & A4
Stephen Silver - Table A5
David Colman - Table A2
Joe Weatherly - Table A12
IMAGINISM STUDIOS (Bobby Chiu, Kei Acedera, Thierry Lafontaine & Peter Chan) - Tables A8, A9, A10, A11

Stephen Silver will be signing books and doing caricatures as well!

Here's a caricature Stephen did for a fan at the Chicago Wizard con a couple of weeks ago.

Fan Expo this weekend: Stephen Silver, Alberto Ruiz, David Colman and Joe Weatherly coming to Toronto!

Toronto Fan Expo 2007 in 3 days!

There's going to be tons to see and people to meet so come on down! I hear it's the 3rd largest Comic Con in North America. The Fan Expo has always been one of our favorite Comic Cons, not just because it's so big and so much to see but because it's in our hometown of Toronto Canada. Whenever Kei and I go traveling we always tell all our friends that the Toronto Fan Expo is something that they have to attend.

This year's comic con is extra special for us because we've asked some of our friends from California to attend for the first time: Stephen Silver, Joe Weatherly, David Colman and from NY Alberto Ruiz!!

Stephen Silver - is a truly inspirational artist and friend that Kei and I have admired for years. One of our favorite character designers and lead designer at Disney. His new book "Stephen Silver's Sketchbook" is an exact duplicate of his real sketchbook! A real MUST HAVE. Completely self taught and full of passion for his craft. CARICATURIST OF THE YEAR 2001. He'll be sitting with us signing books and talking about his online classes at SCHOOLISM.com.

Alberto Ruiz - just about the best modern day pin-up artist today. His sense of design and ability to draw the female form is unmatched. He's also an independent artist and is one of the friendliest people in the biz. We love this guy because he always 'keeps it real.' Never afraid of saying exactly what's on his mind and fights for what he believes in. Alberto will also be sitting in our row talking to fans and signing books.

Joe Weatherly - is a Southern California based artist specializing in the drawing and painting of animals. His style is bold and vigorous capturing the essence and drama of the subjects he draws and paints. The attitude and expression of the animal’s character along with telling a visual story is what his work conveys. Conservation of the natural world is something Joe is very passionate about and hopes his work will motivate people to protect it and promote its survival.

David Colman - is an amazing animal drawer and designer working at Disney Feature. Recently he won an Emmy for his work at Cartoon Network. He also has a wonderful book on "The Art of Animal Character Design." Another must have!

So come on down to the Toronto Fan Expo this weekend and show these amazing artists a real Canadian welcome! We're going to talk Stephen Silver into doing caricatures as well!

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TCAF review - 100% awesome. Thanks so much to EVERYBODY that came by our booth. It was completely overwhelming. 3 of our books sold out and a whole bunch of our prints as well!
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Here's an illustration I'm working on. Not sure if I posted this before. I really like the idea but I wanted to tighten up the design of the "dragon pig" a bit better.


It's a creature study I did to explore the form a bit better and tighten up the design. At this point I'm not worried about texture, tone or lighting.. I'm just concentrating on the basic form of the creature.

TCAF this Sat, Sun! and.... Art Contest!!

For those of you in the Toronto Area, come on down to the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, otherwise known as TCAF! The Imaginism crew will all be exhibiting there.

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Fan Art challenge!

After a long day of work Kei and I found ourselves watching 80's cartoon intros on TV last night and found ourselves inspired to do a little fan art! We had so much fun doing it that we decided that it might be fun to come up with a little challenge! Post your best He-man fan art on your blog from now until the end of August 31st and then post your link in the comments. It's just for fun and free to enter.

Kei and I will check them all out! There will be two winners. We'll each pick out a winner and mail them our fan art sketches (posted below)! It'll be a fun and nerdy way to do some art for ourselves again. So anyone interested?

Not sure how many will enter or if any at all but if it works out well then we'd love to do it again!

Bobby's


Kei's

Chicago Wizard World was amazing...

Chicago Wizard World was amazing... Thank you to everyone for a fantastic time!

Kei, T and I had our first piece of real authentic Chicago pie and boy was it AMAZING! No I don't mean some little fruit filled pie like grandma used to make. I'm talking about some thick juicy pizza pie... best I've ever tasted. Big thanks goes out to our buddy Jason Seiler for showing us what real pizza is supposed to taste like.


Besides the amazing food, we had an incredible show. Our Creature Sketches book is officially SOLD OUT! I'm sure going to miss that book.

Also another big thanks goes out to Michael Wright and Quanza (my apologies in advance if I didn't spell that right) for inviting our crew out with them. They showed us a wonderful time!

We had the pleasure of sitting beside Jason Seiler and Stephen Silver during the Chicago Wizard World Comicon. It was caricature heaven. Here's a clip of Seiler drawing a caricature of one of his fans. New podcast coming soon, I promise. As soon as I get a free moment


Here's another link to an amazing mind blowing caricaturist
Joe Bluhm Joe is the author of a fabulous new book called REJECTS. Besides the art, my favorite part about this book is all the writing. It's so interesting to read a glimpse of how it is to be a pro-event caricature artist. He's going to be at TCAF with us this weekend so come on down and show him some love, buy his book and get a caricature!

Wizard World Chicago! Artist Alley Table 3400!

Hi all.

Kei, T and I will be absent from subway sketching for the next 3 weekends. We will resume on Sept. 2nd.

We're going to be in Chicago Aug 9-12 for the Wizard Convention - Table 3400 in Artist Alley.

Then it's TCAF in Toronto the weekend after and then it's the BIG Toronto con, the FAN EXPO. Can't wait for that one!! Sorry about this... but don't worry. Comicon season is coming to a halt end of this month.

These weren't from this Sunday's subway sketching but we were on a bus at the "African Lion Safari" in Hamilton Ontario. We had a pretty fun time. I haven't been there for over 20 years...

Here's some sketches of a lion, baboons picking each others butts and other beautiful wildlife :)

Bobby's








Kei's

San Diego Comicon - Table A5. Who's going??

Hi All,

It's that time of year again, where artists from all over travel from all over to go to the San Diego Comic Con.

For those that have never been there, this comic convention is so BIG that we just call it "Comic-Con."

It's sooo big that if you are standing in the middle of Comicon, you can't see any walls! Only the ceiling.

It's sooooo big that you NEED more then one day to see the whole convention.

It's sooooooo big that you'll probably get lost just wandering around the place. Not to worry though... all you need to do is remember one important letter and one important number.

A5 - We'll be happy to give you directions :)

Can't wait to see everyone again!
So where's everyone else sitting? Leave your info in the comments so we all know!

Alberto Ruiz H3
Bill, Jeff Pidgeon, Scott Morse booth 4800
Cheeks - E2
David Colman - H5
John Nevarez - H9
Jose Lopez - H somewhere I believe...
Justin Ridge - 1035
Louie del Carmen - ??
Kevin Dart - E4
Patrick Morgan - H somewhere I think...
Octavio Rodriguez - ?? with Louie del Carmen I think...
Robin Mitchell - E9
Stephen Silver - H6

Imaginism Studios (Bobby & Kei) A5

Here's some more pics for our next book "Dragon Sketches"
These original sketches will also be available for purchase at the con starting from $65.

Digital Painting Class September 20th is open for registration.

Digital Painting Classes with me are now open for registration!

Classes start Thursday September 20th, 2007.
Lessons: 9
Assignments: 9
Duration: 14 weeks
Fees: $798 USD
Pre-Requisites: None. This course is for any skill level.

Seats available: 15

Please check out SCHOOLISM for more information.

On another note, San Diego Comic-Con is quickly approaching. A couple of months ago Arthur Suydam asked me if there would be any original sketches available for purchase. Well, I'm not one to say no to an artist like Arthur so I've been taking apart my sketchbooks and preparing a little collection to sell at Comic-Con. Kei and I will be at Table A5 so if you're coming to the show, come on by and say hi!

Here's some of the sketches that will be available.


These are a couple of sketches from our next book "Dragon Sketches"

Digital Painting Classes, Comicon, Subway Sketches Book and Links

Hi Everyone,

Lots going on so here's a bunch of updates.


Registration OPEN on Schoolism.com for Digital Painting Classes with Bobby Chiu
Classes Start August 07, 2007.
There are 12 seats avalible. Sign up HERE


Today is the first day of the Paradise Toronto Comicon. The convention will be at the Direct Energy Centre @ Exhibition Place, Hall C
Open this
Friday 3-8pm
Saturday 10am-6:30pm
Sunday 11am-5pm

OUR BOOTH #CA34 (We should be just by Artist Alley)
If you're in the area, come on by and say hi! Kei Acedera and I will both be there.

Sheridan College Digital Painting Classes - CANCELED.
Unfortunately I've had to cancel my digi painting classes at Sheridan College. I will not be starting anymore classes at Sheridan. It's too far of a drive and I just don't have enough time in my schedule to drive out there every week. Thanks for the great time Sheridan! I'll miss all you Oakvillians.

Last bit of news: Subway Sketches Book coming June 30th. We'll be having an art show for the release of our book at Spadina & Bloor. More info coming soon.

Now for some killer links:
Sebastian Kruger
Scott Morse
Ted Mathot
Nick Sung
Aurelie Blard-Quintard
Alex Woo

Subway Sketching cancelled. We'll be at the Paradise Toronto Comicon

Hi everyone!

Subway sketching is canceled this Sunday 10th because we'll be at the Paradise Toronto Comicon June 8-10, 2007 Direct Energy Centre @ Exhibition Place, Hall C Toronto, Canada FRIDAY - 03:00-8:00 SATURDAY - 10:00-06:30 SUNDAY - 11:00-05:00

Here's a couple of great links and a page of subway sketches. Sometimes I'll redraw the same design over and over. The pic below is an example of this.
Alex Cote
Marko Djurdjevic

Detroit Motor City Comicon May 18-20! Subway sketching is cancelled this Sunday.

Hi all

This Sunday subway sketching will be cancelled because we'll be at the Motor City Comicon! If you're in the area, feel free to come on by. I'm told its going to be a great show!

Here's a subway sketch from last Sunday. After, I sketched on it in Photoshop

Calgary Expo Review

Hi Everyone,

We just got back from the Calgary Expo on Wednesday.

It's was one of the best comicons we've been to. Great crowd, friendly people. Fantastic organizers. The BEST hospitality out of all the cons. Thanks to Kandrix and Laurie and all the rest for the awesome time they showed us! We couldn't be prouder that this is a Canadian event.

First night, we shared a ride to the hotel with Ryan Woodward (storyboarder for Spiderman 3 and fellow teacher) then went out partying with our buds Stephen Silver, David Colman, Patrick Morgan, Jose Lopez and our new friends Louie Del Carmen and Octavio Rodriguez. Amazing group of guys.

Second day was the convention. Great friendly crowd. Extremely well organized! Just awesome. Got to see some good friends as well. Freedom fighter: Alberto Ruiz and his ever growing army of independent artists Robin Mitchell, Joe Pekar, Andrew Wilson, Wade Schin. Cheeks, wish you were there buddy. You missed out! Ah.. there's always next year though. Also always good to see our SF buddy John Giang.

The view from the plane


Here's some pics from our booth




After the convention the guest artists were invited to go to Banff for some R&R. We met Bruce Timm and hung out with Francisco Herrera, Humberto Ramos, David Colman, Andrew Wilson, John G and the Udon crew (our Wii coach Jim Zubkavich and the GTA posse Francis Manapul, Agnes, Marcus To, Omar Dogan and Joe Ng).

Playing Texas Holdem with Chicklets.


For all those that didn't make it out, be SURE to go there next year. Check out the view in Banff.





Here's one of our postcards stuck in the snow on the top of a mountain. Don't worry, we didn't leave it there :)


Thanks again Kandrix, Laurie and all the fine people in Calgary for being so friendly and hospitable.

Bobby

Some beautiful links
Octavio Rodriguez
Louie del Carmen
Enrique Fernandez
Daniel López Muñoz

Calgary Expo Sunday April 29. Table 909 & 908. Subway Sketching cancelled this Sunday

Hi everyone,

Saturday we're flying off to Calgary for the Calgary Expo on Sunday! A big thanks to our friend Kandrix for making this happen for us. Can't wait to see Banff as well.

This will be our first time in Calgary so it's pretty exciting to visit new places!

Subway Sketching this Sunday is CANCELED until we come back on Wednesday.

Here's a couple sketches I did. One of these cowgirls are for the Calgary Expo artbook. Can you guess which one I picked?

Kei

Digital Painting Classes at Sheridan College Cancelled for the summer. We'll be at the Calgary Comicon April 29. Pic of the Week

Hi Everyone,

*Edit* Digital Painting Techniques at Sheridan College is closed for the summer. Hopefully it'll be back in September. Sorry guys, it's just the way it's got to be right now.

Online classes on Schoolism.com for May 1st are FULL.
Registration for June 26th is now OPEN. Please visit SCHOOLISM.com for more info.

For all those in CALGARY, April 29th, 2007 Kei and I will be guest artists at the Calgary Expo. Signing books and selling books and prints. So if you're in the area, stop by and say hello! This is also your chance to bring in books you've bought from us previously and get us to sign them for you.

Here's a page I did for the Calgary Expo Sketchbook that everyone gets for attending.

Bobby

Aaaaaaand.... we're back!!

What a wonderful trip to California. Thanks to all those that helped make it such a pleasant experience. Highlight of the trip had to have been cruising down the Pacific Coast Highway from SF to LA. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Dominic Bilodeau at Dream Works for giving us a place to stay when we first got to LA. He gave us a tour of DW and introduced us to Nicolas Marlet. One of our favorite character designers of all time. Boy, this man can draw!! Thanks Nicholas for sparing some time to talk with us and showing us your fabulous art.

Big thanks goes out to the Silver family for inviting us to stay with them during the last week of our trip. Heidi and Stephen were great to hang out with and their kids are just non stop entertainment! hehehe...

Alberto Ruiz - Always a pleasure to talk with you. Your stories and wisdom make it such a joy for us to listen to.

David Coleman - Thanks again for lunch and the tour of Cartoon Network. It was a real treat my friend!

Also shouts out to
Patrick Morgan - Always a pleasure to hang out with this man. See you in Calgary!
Sean "Cheeks" Galloway - Almost spit out my drink when Cheeks started speaking Chinese to me!! Multi-talented and full of surprises.
Lord Mesa and Marlena - awesome people with the horniest dog I've ever seen.
Jose Lopez - didn't get to talk too much this time but still always a pleasure
Justin Ridge - Always great to see our friend Justin. One of the nicest guys in the business.
Mr.Scribbles - great to meet you in SF!
Urban Barbarian - great to meet you as well. I promise to post more subway sketches :)
Dean Yeagle - Always a pleasure!
Ed Costa - Wish I could have stayed for more drinks but there's always next time!
Hope I didn't miss anyone!!

Here's a pic I did for an upcoming issue of Imagine FX. I splashed some loose color on top.

As much as we loved our trip to Cali, it's great to be home in Canada! Next stop will be Calgary Comicon April 29th. Hope to see you there!

Bobby

NY Comicon 2007 Review. Let the comic conventions begin! Next comicon: San Fran Wondercon March 2-4

Hi all, we're back in Toronto for a day and heading out to SF and LA tomorrow.
I'll try and post more often but right now it's been a little hard due to comic book convention season... lots of travelling to do. Just came back from the NYC comicon and I had a blast! thanks to allll those that came out to see Kei and I. Much appreciated.

Next event is this weekend March 2-4 San Francisco Wondercon 2007!
This weekend will be the Wondercon in SF so if you're in the area, be sure to stop on by!


This year's NY Comicon turned out to be a lot better than last. Thanks John G. and Stephen S. for the invite! Much better organized and got to hang out with our favorite buds Alberto Ruiz and Stephen Silver. Dang those two can draw! Highlights from the trip would have to be our sushi dinner. Not because of the sushi. Actually the sushi tasted good but made Stephen, Kei and I a little sick. The dinner was the highlight because of the conversations we had during the meal. Hearing their stories and sharing some of my own, I found so many things that we had in common. When we'd talk about art, artists, our careers, there seemed to be a common connection between all of us. To have passion, determination and focus. If you have these things plus a few brain cells, talent and success will follow.

Bobby

Here's a humorous new piece I did recently.
Title: First Line of Defence



wips

New York Comicon 2007

Kei and I will be at the New York Comicon this weekend February 23-25th. Come and say hi if you're going to be at the show!
We'll be sitting with Stephen Silver and Alberto Ruiz.