NEW YEAR, NEW CLASSES!!

It’s January, and we’re counting down the days until Ty starts teaching his next set of classes at Toronto Cartoonists Workshop.

Before he does though, the one and only Leonard Kirk is teaching a SNEAK PEEK WORKSHOP on DYNAMIC PAGE COMPOSITION. That class will be THIS Saturday, January 7, 1-4pm. Click through to book a spot; it’s $25/+HST.

Next Wednesday, January 11, it’s Ty’s turn for a SNEAK PEEK WORKSHOP, FIGURE DRAWING FOR THE COMIC BOOK ARTIST. This will be a three-hour look at what is a brand spankin’ new class. There will be a live model and instruction from Ty.  The class runs 7-10pm. Click through to book a spot; $25/+HST.

Classes “officially” begin the week of January 16. First up will beWRITING FOR COMICS, LEVEL ONE. Immediately following this session, Ty will be teaching a brand new course which will be WRITING FOR COMICS, LEVEL TWO. Level One starts Monday January 16, 7-10pm. Click through to book a spot. If you’re interested in Level Two, but it’s been a while since you’ve taken Level One, talk to Sean Menard, TCW director–he’s offering an AMAZING DEAL wherein you can get a 50% discount off of the first course.

On Tuesdays, beginning January 17, 7-10pm, Ty will be teaching INKING FOR COMICS. This is a brand new course; previous versions involved four different inkers teaching their methods and ideas. This course will be taught solely by Ty, and will involve lots of in-class work so that you can get immediate feedback on your techniques. Click through to book a spot.

Starting on Wednesdays, the following week, Ty will be teaching the full version of FIGURE DRAWING FOR THE COMIC BOOK ARTIST. This class will involve a different live model each week, with ongoing instruction from Ty.

Check out the Toronto Cartoonists Workshop website for all details and for all the other courses available. There’s also a course about watercolour painting, Life Drawing with Geordie Miller, and–yayyy!! Dave Ross will be teaching a class on Designing Environments and Props for the Comic Book Artist.

Learn how to do this from artist Dave Ross

Keiren

Ty Templeton’s Sketchbook! Yay!!

Ty had this idea that he was going to have lots of free time once he finished up his last assignment–ha! He forgot that it’s “that” month. He’d started drawing up a great Bun Toon for last Saturday but he had to finish work on the sketchbook he’s having printed up, so he posted a sequel to Son of Bun Toons instead (and there’s more! Taylor had a lot of comic book ideas in him at the time…these days, he’s much more about the video games).

But the good news is that Ty finished all the work he needed to do putting together pages for the sketchbook, and I finally finished all the work I needed to do prepping it for print.

And all for what? For this Friday December 9! Toronto Cartoonists Workshop is hosting a Faculty Art Show for its very own staff members. Ty will be there, with Leonard Kirk, Dave Ross, and Eric Kim. The guys will have artwork for show and sale, and will be answering questions about their upcoming classes.

587A College Street (at Clinton), 7-11pm. $4 suggested donation ($$ go to the Toronto Public Library), and a cash bar.

(I’ll be the woman at Ty’s table–stop by and say hello!)

Keiren

WORKSHOPS!!!

Ty is up to his neck in deadlines so I’m here to let you know what classes are coming up for him…

Saturday December 3, Ty will be running a “FIGURE DRAWING FOR COMIC BOOK ARTISTS” Sneak Peek Workshop. This will be a one-day three hour class for $25/hst. This will be a Life Drawing class but with instruction/advice/divine intervention from Ty, and with a comic book slant .

(Also check out the SNEAK PEEK WORKSHOPS from some of my fellow instructors…THIS Saturday, November 26, TCW’s newest instructor Dave Ross will give you a taste of DESIGNING ENVIRONMENTS AND PROPS 

and on Saturday December 17, Mr. Leonard Kirk (New Mutants, Marvel Comics) will teaching DYNAMIC PAGE COMPOSITION.

All SNEAK PEEK WORKSHOPS are three hours, $25 + HST (hey, blame McGuinty not us!), at 587A College Street West (at Clinton). Reserve a spot online (you can just drop in, but if we don’t see online that people are interested in a course, there is a chance that it will be cancelled. Leonard has to travel in from St. Catherines to teach which is one heckuva drive. Ty has to come in from Mississauga and is at the mercy of the QEW/Gardiner conditions. The drive can take thirty minutes…or it can take ninety).

On Friday December 9, TCW will host a FACULTY ART SHOW with instructors Dave Ross, Leonard Kirk, Eric Kim and Ty Templeton. Each instructor will have some of his artwork on display, and each will have a table to show and sell art. Not sure what each will be bringing but Ty will have pages, prints and (if all goes well) sketchbooks. As with all TCW Industry Nights, it’s Pay What You Can at the door (with a suggested $4)–the money goes to charity (not completely sure for this event, but generally it goes to help with The Joe Shuster Awards). There will be a cash bar, and instructors/artists will be available to answer questions about their art and their courses.

AND…if you can imagine all the way ahead to January:

WRITING FOR COMICS Level 1:  students who have taken this course have begged (seriously–begged!) for a Part 2. To that end, Ty will teach Part 1 starting Monday January 16, 7-10 pm for seven weeks. Part 2 will be in the session immediately following. (I took this course with Ty just this past summer–the stories are completely true! Ty is an incredible teacher and it motivated me to start writing after a twenty year hiatus.)

INKING FOR COMICS, Tuesdays 7-10pm starting January 17, 2012. People know Ty as a penciller and a writer, and many know that he often inks his own work…but those who have been following him from the beginning know that he started at DC Comics as an inker (Neal Pozner once took me aside and BEGGED ME to convince Ty to return to inking–he was drawing Batman Adventures at the time–because he said, “He’s absolutely one of the best”). Ty loves inking (he often wishes aloud that he could “just spend a year inking comic books”) and wants to pass on his knowledge and skills.

pencilled by Mike Parobeck, inked by Ty Templeton

FIGURE DRAWING FOR THE COMIC BOOK ARTIST This is a completely new course beginning Wednesday January 18, 7-10pm. The course will feature a live model each week and will feature anatomy instruction as part of the session.

Keiren

Free Comic Book Day!!

Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday, May 7. Ty will be appearing at Paradise Comics, Toronto, Ontario (after lunch-ish…he’s been keeping some late nights working on the art for the Bill Finger biography).

Other guests will be Emily Ragozzino (Dork Girl, Tom Boy Tara);

Ken Wheaton (Radioactive Man, Futurama)

Dave Ross (teacher at Max the Mutt Animation School)

and last, but certainly never least–“Canada’s Ultimate Fangirl” Liana K.

So, stop by Saturday for sketches and autographs and FREE comic books!!

Keiren

Wizard World Toronto, a little convention art, and the GREATEST CON SKETCH OF ALL TIME!

Uncle Ty's Convention Sketches. Ready in just FIVE MINUTES

I just got back from Wizard World Toronto, and boy, are my arms not tired.

Not because I live in Toronto (and the flight back wouldn’t affect my shoulders, get it?)  but because I spent the weekend, not sketching particularly much.  No more than thirty  sketches over a three day weekend, and at a big convention, I usually do fifty on the Saturday alone!   At first I

One of my less embarrassing con sketches of Kara Zor-el.

thought it was me…did I have a piece of meatloaf hanging off my face?  Did I wear my misanthropy on my sleeve too obviously, or was it the whiff of urine on my street clothes?

No, it was happening to almost everyone at Toronto Wizard Con, (other than Dale Keown and Richard Pace, who seemed to have a crowd around for a while on Saturday, and Adi Granov, who had a minor crowd on Friday).  The attendance was thin, and mostly wrestling fans there to see the Iron Sheik and his pals.  It’s always a bad sign when you start doing sketches for the other con guests or dealers because neither they, nor you, have anything else to do for the next ten minutes.

Too bad… The Wizard folks were nice to us.  LOVELY volunteers, good people…they set up my bootcamp lesson/con panel and promoted it (surprisingly well attended, thank you), and were handing out the water and smiles.   It was Wizard’s first big convention in Toronto, and I was rooting for them.  Let’s hope there’s a few tweaks

Fans love Batgirl. And a lot of fans like her bum. I do what I'm requested...

and fixes before next year rolls around, and the thing rivals San Diego in the future.

The low point came on Saturday when some douche-twerp couldn’t resist the demon on the shoulder telling him to pull a fire alarm.  It emptied out the convention center in the middle of Saturday afternoon—taking nearly an hour to sort out whether we were burning up in a fire, or doing the world’s biggest HOKEY POKEY.   Not everyone came back when it was over.   Hats off the perished souls of Wizard Con Toronto, 2010—you will be remembered.

Highlights include:   being seated next to Gail Simone and Her Mysterious Husband, with Dave Ross to my left, and Kent (Planet of the Apes) Burles to my right.  With things a tad slow, I got to hang with the legendary Gail Simone and Her Mysterious Husband, and  got to see Dave Ross’s new pencils for an amazing Star Wars comic he’s working on, and  laugh with the always

A very non-Adventures style Joker. Dig that crazy haircut.

charmingly French Canadian, Yanick Paquette, and drool over piles of just gorgeous AGENTS of ATLAS original art by my buddy Leonard Kirk.   Len is one of those illustrators I’m openly jealous of, partly because he does THE best convention sketches on the planet

The rule with me at a con is, you get the sketch for free, but it’s done in five minutes.  That way, everyone who wants one gets one, and I give back a little for the fans.  You guys deserve it.  But we artists rarely get to see our con sketches after we let you have ‘em.   About one out of ten, I pull one off that I wish I could hold onto…it captured just the right gleam in Joker’s eye, or the right gesture as Robin jumps off a building.  I sometimes ask if the fan could scan it for me and send me a copy when they get home, but after twenty years of doing this, I have less

Must...eat....brains...unless....there's....donuts....

than a dozen scans of con sketches to show you, and hardly the best of the best.

Zombie Homer is the only one from this year,  as I used to think my BONGO contract forbids sketching the Simpsons, but Ken Wheaton (fellow toiler in Springfield) informs me, I can doodle inside published Simpsons books, just not regular sketch books and on blank pieces of paper…  Ken had a PILE of copies of TREEHOUSE OF HORROR: DEAD MAN’S CHEST for people to buy, so I did more Simpsons doodles this weekend than anything else.

As promised, here’s my favorite con sketch of all time, and the recipient was lovely enough to send me one.

A once-in-a-lifetime-art team.

It was in Paris, and I was seated in between Bernie Wrightson, Neal Adams, and Scott Hampton.  A group of BATMAN artists were touring through Belgium, France and Switzerland and enjoying all the lovely sauces we got with every meal, when some Euro-fan asked if Mr. Wrightson minded inking

Another Paris sketch from '92, featuring Tintin and the original appearance of ELSEWORLDS T-SHIRT BATMAN, seen last month!

the Batman portrait/sketch I had just done for him.  Watching my meager sketch be inked by Bernie was mind blowing enough, but then watching Scott Hampton add those moody water colours, I came this close from stealing the image back for myself…I have the scan though, and I share it here with you guys…the word’s only Templeton/Wrightson/Hampton collaboration.

Neal Adams did not participate in the sketch, but I have something better from Neal…something I’ll show you guys in a future post.  I have to keep the suspense going SOMEHOW.

Ty the Guy

Oh, and PS:  This week, I’m promoting this new Simpsons collection, NOW ON SALE.  I’ve got a fun pin-up inside, and the rest of the book is okay too, I suppose, if you like hysterical comic books.

In hardcover. Kirby says: "Don't Ask! Just Buy It!"

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New Info

Check out the pages for Appearances and Workshops for Ty’s next public outings…

Keep an eye on the Toronto Cartoonists Workshop. Ty and Walter Dickinson are deep in thought over other possible workshops and appearances.

Keiren

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Ty (and Dave Ross) at Paradise Comics Toronto Comicon Summer 2008