OCAD U School of Continuing Studies presents an online exhibition featuring artwork from instructors and students in the courses Children’s Book Illustration Studio and Comics and Graphic Novels Studio. The exhibition’s name is inspired by Chris Ware’s graphic novel, Building Stories.
WILLOW DAWSON AND JENNIFER LUM
Little Sister Little Brother
This piece shows some of the steps involved in creating a finished page. The Children’s Book Illustration Studio and Comics and Graphic Novels Studio courses place a strong emphasis on process. This is a collaborative project with instructor’s Willow Dawson and Jennifer Lum.
Willow Dawson graduated from the OCAD U Illustration program in 2006. Her illustrations have been published worldwide, and are full of “whimsy and menace,” they are conceptual and many-layered, requiring viewers to look and look again. She uses a combination of traditional and digital media and techniques. Her work is inspired by current issues, politics, history, mythology, oral storytelling, symbolism, science fiction, science, biology, and the natural world. Dawson has exhibited with Museum London and Library and Archives Canada. She has been a finalist for many prestigious awards and the recipient of many grants. She is a satellite member of the RAID Creative Agency and collaborates with award-winning, world-renowned authors. She is the author and/or illustrator of several books, most recently White as Milk, Red as Blood (Knopf) and The Wolf-Birds (Owlkids Books). Dawson teaches Children’s Book Illustration Studio at OCAD U’s School of Continuing Studies.
Jennifer Lum has worked as a Senior Designer at Penguin Random House Canada, where she took the lead role in developing an illustrated publishing program for adults. She has collaborated with many prominent creators in the graphic novel community, and has art directed projects that have received recognition from the Eisner Awards, The Joe Shuster Awards and the Governor General Awards. Lum has expanded her comic endeavours and now works with publishers and studios all across Canada to produce graphic novels. Notable works include the Eisner nominated graphic novels The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Attwood and Scott Chantler's Two Generals. Lum teaches Comics and Graphic Novels Studio at OCAD U’s School of Continuing Studies.
FIONA SMYTH
Getting There, 2021
Lukkie, 2020
Fiona Smyth is a feminist painter, illustrator, cartoonist, and instructor in OCAD University’s Illustration Program. For more than three decades, Smyth has made a name for herself as a woman cartoonist, a rarity in the mid-1980s, in the local Toronto comic scene as well as internationally. In 2019, she was inducted into the Doug Wright Awards’ Giants of the North Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame. She teaches Comics and Graphic Novels Studio at OCAD U’s School of Continuing Studies.
MELANIE PROULX
Trauma, digital art, 2023
My work illustrates how trauma impacts one’s sense of self; the cohesive pre-traumatized self is fractured into multiple selves including a traumatized and core self.
ISABEL AMOS
A Stage for Dungeons and Dragons, Procreate, 2023
Winter Walks Home, mixed media and Photoshop, 2022
Flower Shop Deliveries, Procreate, 2022
Home of Chef Tav, Procreate, 2022
Chef Tav in the Kitchen, mixed media and Photoshop, 2022
I want to explore, imaginary or real, locations that bring me joy and comfort. As an architect in training, spending time with spaces I feel emotionally drawn toward is compelling.
SHERRI GALLOWITZ (SHEGAL)
The Shape of Grief, Procreate and iPad Pro, 2022
In February 2022 my mother was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. When she died 3.5 months later, I was exhausted, numb, and confused. I decided to try and work out my feelings through graphic storytelling. The Shape of Grief is my story of caring for my mom through the final months of her life, a reflection on the state of our healthcare system, and what I learned about grief.
instagram.com/shegal_creative/
MICHELE MASTROENI
Hamba the Hippo; Cassius the Croc #1; Cassius the Croc #2: watercolour and ink, 2017
Miri and the Moon 1; Miri and the Moon 2: watercolour and ink, 2022
Michele Mastroeni invites you to come with him on his flights of fancy. His dream is to write and illustrate the many stories and rhymes running through his head, stories of courage and determination.
JAYE MARSH
I Don’t Know (cover and page spread from The Sibling Smudges), pencil, ink, brush, digital painting, 2020
The Sibling Smudges are inspired by my two sons in amusing slices of life using minimalist imagery and a focus on eyes and stick-arm gestures for humour.
AMY NOSEWORTHY
Municipal Election Time, pen and ink, digital colours, 2022
Police Budget, pen and ink, digital colours, 2023
I make these comics because I get mad. It makes me angry to hear people in power use double talk, faulty logic, and sleazy sleights of hand in pursuit of their own interests, rather than the best interests of the community they’re meant to serve. There is so much evidence, so much wisdom and data, about how to create a society of healthy, happy people. And yet every day, we just don’t. It’s maddening to be an individual with limited power to make change, so these comics are just my way of trying to carve out a little platform and offer fuel to the good fight for the values that matter to me.
instagram.com/hiredhandstudio/
ERIN CLARK
Dreams, ink and digital, 2022
This comic reflects my desire to find a place where I truly belong and the accompanying vulnerability of stepping outside my comfort zone, which I reflected by playing with scale, setting, and text.
FARHANA HOSSAIN
Red Riding Hood – The Fable Within, 2020
The following storyboard pages are from a book I developed in the Intermediate Children’s Book Illustration Studio. The story concept was born in the first course, which I developed further in the intermediate course.
instagram.com/shaktiartstudios/
JACOB YEREX
Something I found in an old book
I was culling through old sketch books, and I found a script I had written with someone. I am not sure when I wrote it, but I think it must have been the early 90's because that is when they last pixies album came out. I decided to illustrate it.
JUDD CARRIERE
A Temperance Gal From Eugenia, Indian ink on paper and Tipp-Ex, 2022
Last year my father, Dean Carriere, published a book of poems about various places in Grey and Bruce counties, Ontario, and he had wished that I might illustrate a few of them. This accompanied a poem concerning the Hamlet of Eugenia.
SARA LYNN MILLER
Hansel and Gretel, pen and ink and watercolour marker, 2020
Researching the history of this folk tale/fairy tale was so interesting! The many ideas and understandings that abounded with each retelling of this fable are mesmerizing. My favourite view was that the children’s mother was the bird who ate the crumbs…chilling indeed.
instagram.com/saralynnillustrations/
ISABELLA HUBERMAN
“D” is for Dam, pen and pencil
These are the first few pages of a larger comic. I aim to convey my research on hydro development and the cost of supposed “green” energy, through a more personal story of a mother-daughter road trip.
SARA NENADA
Lessons from My Grandma, digital illustration, 2022
My grandmother showed me I can walk through the world with my head high and my arms open. This piece is a memory of her gentle guidance towards honesty as a core principle.
RICK LIMA
Mr. Circlesworth Gets Some Money
We are never making enough money, and if we could make just a little more life would be so much better. With a stoic face, Mr. C thinks about all the wonderful things he could have with a little extra cash. This piece brings out the anxiety I'm sure we all feel about our position in life and the digits in our bank accounts.
https://www.instagram.com/King.K.Rule/
MEGAN GANTER
Tree Frog, digital ink (airbrush, marker set, soft brush, watercolor, wet sponge), 2020
Megan Gantor is a Hamilton based creator and visual artist. She is interested in depicting animal and nature scenes, as well as Halloween designs. Megan is a volunteer at RE-Create Youth Art Studio and a committee member of Living Rock Arts of August Youth Art Initiative. She encourages youth and children to explore their creative passions and imagination.
GEORGE WASTLE
Looking at Picasso's Painting; Girl Sending off Her Dove, gouache and digital, 2022
These illustrations are from a story written in French featuring a family’s journey from Southern France to a Paris museum, where the kids choose their favourite piece of art and make up a story behind it. The girl in the painting was given a dove in order to send letters to her travelling parents.
MICHELLE VILLAGRACIA
Rice On My Socks (page spread from book), pencil and Photoshop, 2020
When I was a little girl, I was embarrassed to bring leftovers to school for lunch. My mom’s cooking looked and smelled so different from everyone else, and I felt the need to hide the food I loved so I could fit in. Rice On My Socks is a story about acceptance, tolerance, and love through food. It was originally written as an essay, then a poem, and then finally a children’s picture book since it captured pinnacle moments of my own childhood.
michellevillagracia.com/2022/09/19/buy-rice-on-my-socks/
KAYA DAVIES
Perfect World
This piece was inspired by books I read as a child, such as The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. When I was young, I believed magic and hidden worlds were everywhere waiting to be discovered. Because the world felt so big and so much was unknown, nature had a mysterious and threatening quality that slowly disappeared as I grew older. This comic was an attempt to capture the specific blend of apprehension, curiosity, and excitement that only children can experience.
DON HEWAK
The Girl on the Horse
Don Hewak is a Toronto based graphic novelist. A former Winnipegger, Don’s semi-autobiographical work incorporates his North End upbringing and Ukrainian roots. This is a study for his work in progress, Bloody Jack, a graphic novel about a notorious bank robber in early 20th century Winnipeg. Jack Krafchenko, a swaggering desperado, met a grisly end–executed for a murder he possibly did not commit.