Selling Art at Local Source Co-Op in the Westfield Fashion Square, Sherman Oaks

Plush Elements Fire Plush Toy at Local Source Co-Op Front Counter

I’m getting back into retail! No, not working a retail job again (I used to work at Target when I was I Highschool). I’m actually selling my art, plush and other things in a retail store. As of last Friday, you can now find some of the stuff I’ve made at Local Source Co-Op (LSCO) in Sherman Oaks.

Ever since I had a pop up in Sweet! Hollywood a few years ago, I’ve wanted to expand and sell in more stores. The state of the world, obviously, slowed down those plans for a while but now that things have gotten back to normal, its time for me to get back on that track!

Currently LSCO has a limited number of art prints (including my Tattooed Ballerinas, Monsters & Dames, Dapper Animals, and a few others), Raven Stitch Plush Elements, Death is Silent Hand Fans, Classhole University BS Diplomas, and Corvink Enamel Pins. Overtime I plan to add more things as well, but for now I just wanted to get a better feel of what the market is here and what people are interested in.

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Denis Caron’s set up at Local Source Co-Op

This shop is pretty cool. It’s basically a collective of different kinds of artisan small businesses selling their stuff in a single location, curated by the owner of the shop. It’s an honor be have been selected to be a part of this thing, and I’m excited to have my art and things featured here at this location.

If you’re in the Sherman Oaks/Los Angeles area, be sure to stop by the store! It’s located in the Westfield Fashion Square in Sherman Oaks, California.

Address:

Local Source Co-Op

14006 Riverside Dr Unit 227

Sherman Oaks, CA 91423

New Raven Stitch Exclusive Prints Coming to San Diego Comic-Con

It feels like forever since I last did an exclusive print, hasn’t it? Well, with my focus shifting more towards Raven Stitch, I thought it would be a cool idea to put together two limited edition prints for the Plush Elements!

As you can see in the promotional image above, I separated the Fire and Water elements from the Earth and Air elements. I thought these two pairings complimented each other fairly well, showing two different kinds of emotional pairings. Their differences either putting them at odds with one another and or building trust together through companionship.

Each print will be limited to 15 and will be hand signed and numbered by me, like all my previous limited edition prints. They will be available at table in Artist Alley (B-22), along with other prints, plush, diplomas and enamel pins. This will mark my first time at Comic-Con not under the banner of another brand. Previously I’ve exhibited either at Small Press as TNP Press, or on the main show floor as Corvink. I’m both nervous and excited to see how this goes. Hopefully I see some of you there.

See all my previous and upcoming appearances on my events page.

Raven Stitch Plush Toys Have a New Website!

I'm really excited to announce that my plush toys, the Plush Elements, have a new website! This is something l've wanted to do for a long time. It's finally time to focus my energy on my plush toy company, Raven Stitch.

This is the first of a bit of news I will be sharing this year, so stay tuned! But for now, make sure to grab some Plush during the site launch because I'm throwing a sale to get things going. By default the sale will be giving a $2 off each plush discount, but as an added bonus to anyone who wants to help test the new site and order process, I'm offering an additional $3 OFF per plush if you use the code FIRST5 during checkout! That's $5 off per plush (+ FREE SHIPPING over $60)! This code will only work for the first 5 customers.

Let me know if you run into any issues during checkout. Thanks for your continued support!

Monsters and Dames 2018 - Denis Caron Returns for Another Year

Calling on the Earth Spirit

Wow, it's been another year already?!? I'm excited, once again, to say that I'm going to be featured in Emerald City Comicon's 2018 Monsters and Dames charity book. It looks like this year the number of books went down from 1000 copies to 750. Crazy. I guess if you want one, don't waste any time! They'll be available at the ECCC merch booth the first day of the con.

This years piece, keeping with the common themes in my work, is centered around another witch. Since I did a water themed piece 2 years ago, I thought it could be cool if I did all the elements! Hopefully I get selected the next few years so we can complete the set! Speaking of which, once the convention is over I'm allowed to sell these pieces as prints. Each year at the convention I've been releasing the prior year's piece as a limited edition print! If you haven't had a chance to get one of those, I still have a few of each of them left. The older they are though, the less of them I have. Start your collection before it's too late! Check them out my previous Monsters and Dames prints at the Corvink store. Last year's will be available at this year's Emerald City Comic Con BOOTH 309 OR online any time after the show.

Anyway, here's to another year at Emerald City Comic Con! Thank you for having me. Hope to see some of you there!

Denis Caron in Monsters & Dames 2017

Traversing Spectral Pasts

I'm incredibly honored to have been selected for a third year in a row for Emerald City Comicon's 2017 Monsters and Dames charity book for Seattle Children's Hospital! Just like the years before, there are 1,000 copies that will be printed and available at the convention's merch booth (not my own booth, however you can definitely stop by mine [Booth 307] and have me sign a copy if you get one). 

One thing I really like about the concept of this book is that each year I've challenged myself to try new things, different angles, more colors, creative types of creatures and most importantly diversifying the actual women in my art. I see these books as an opportunity for me to empower different types of women each time and want to use it as a platform as best as I can.

For years I pretty much only drew my characters from L.A.W.L.S. (Cadence and Autumn) and Anhedonia Blue (Eydis and Valdis), who without much consideration as to why, ended up being stereotypical white women. With each Monsters & Dames submission so far I've been pushing myself to create stronger female characters that have more diverse influences. For instance, in my 2016 Monsters and Dames piece I chose to draw inspiration from different aspects of African culture. My challenge that year was coming up with a strong black woman, which hopefully accurately and tastefully represented aspects of African beauty without falling into any racial stereotypes. It may be because, as a white male, I've conditioned myself to be sensitive about respecting cultural diversity. So much so that I worry quite a bit about offending anyone or any particular culture. However, I think it's important for all of us, White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Middle Eastern, etc to celebrate one another through art. In making pieces like this I hope if even in the smallest ways, I can inspire more people to think about others as equals. Which leads me to why I'm particularly excited about this piece.

Post the 2016 Presidential Election, with a rising hateful rhetoric (particularly against our Muslim American brothers and sisters) I felt it was important to show a badass but beautiful, strong Middle Eastern woman. She wears a nazar (evil eye), an eye-shaped amulet believed to protect against the evil (a common symbol in my work), a golden bracelet of the triple moon that represents new beginnings, new life, and rejuvenation, and other meaningful jewelry. The presence of the ghosts that come to life as an extension of her hair have a number of metaphors as well. With the ghosts of our past, and a hope for new life and stronger future, I hope that America can step away from our demons and move forward together; no matter what race, gender, political or economical backgrounds we may have.

All that being said, I hope you guys like this piece as much as I do. You can get it this year in the 2017 edition of the Monsters & Dames book at the convention itself. If you liked last year's submission, I will be selling it as a limited edition metallic printing (only 15) at the con. Like always, if any are left at the end of the show, I will make them available at my online store. Which, if you didn't know there are still a few of the first years Monsters & Dames available now, in my new "Limited Editions" section of my site. 

Meeting Joss Whedon at the #HeForShe LA Media Summit

This last weekend I not only had the honor of listening to one of my biggest influences talk about gender equality, but also had the opportunity to discuss it with him as well. Joss Whedon was a huge inspiration for me to be more bold about the feminist themes in my work. If you were to look back to my earlier work until now, you can actually see that message become more overt. Largely due to my introduction to the Whedonverse, I finally came to that realization it was important for me as a male creator in a male dominated world, to do so.

Denis Caron talks feminism with Joss Whedon.

I grew up in a house hold where I had a strong female role model, and a father, who not only saw his wife as an equal, but listened and valued her counsel more than anyone else. In my mind, I never questioned that men and women were equal. I saw our togetherness as a 1 to 1 partnership designed to build each other up equally, not some other disproportionate ratio made to use and disadvantage our counterparts. It was only when I got older and began to see and truly hear what women were saying about their struggles and inequality.

Joss Whedon being honored for his work as a proactive feminist in Hollywood. #HeForShe

Patricia Arquette, Joss Whedon and other at Un Women USNC LA Chapter Panel.

My conclusion that I identify as a feminist came from my understanding that men, particularly privileged straight white males, need to be part of the solution not the problem. The word "feminist" isn't this scary beast that some men fear means women must have all the power; it not that at all. It's equality. Equal and fair opportunities for both sexes (and gender identities) that benefit everyone. Film, animation, comics, art, business, everything in our society has a subtle way of undermining women not only in our casual behaviors but even more so in our reinforced portrayals of women in our work. I’ve since dedicated a portion of what create to empowering women, by creating characters or pieces that show non-sexualized* strong women in ways that I, other men and women themselves should see women. Not our better halves, not a sexy trophies or un-realistic fantasized version of what no human can be, but our equals. We need to stop writing stories centered around male characters who win over women with their prowess, stop drawing women bent over in unnatural positions with their body parts barely holding themselves in their clothes, and start exploring a broader pool of interesting and valuable stories that just get pushed aside because “they wont sell.” It’s not that they won’t, they simply don’t because we don’t invest our money, our intellect and talent into creating more and more of this content with genuine interest and intent.

Denis Caron meeting Joss Whedon for the first time. #HeForShe

Denis Caron taking a silly selfie with Joss Whedon.

I am thankful for every opportunity that I have been given on this crazy ride I’ve been on creating, and hope that what I do empowers everyone. Hopefully one day message like this wont be a thing, that we can finally stop debating race, gender and every other different qualities that make us human… but until we get there, be kind, speak up for those who are disadvantaged and hopefully we can be the generation that stops spreading hate.

If you’re at all interested in what this event I went to was about, please check out this link: http://www.heforshe.org #HeForShe

*I do have sexualized content with women, but I take time to consider the female perspective when doing so. If I touch on these topics I try my best to make these genuine explorations of a characters sexuality, or a relatable scenario I realized women experience, just like men.

Art Collab with Shawn Coss of Any Means Necessary

I’m excited to announce this really cool art piece that I did with my friend Shawn Coss of Any Means Necessary (you may know him from his work on Cyanide and Happiness, or his “It’s All in Your Head” Mental Health Collection). This exclusive print will be available at Emerald City Comicon!

Sketch progress

This was a really cool collaboration. It’s the first one I’ve ever done, in this form anyway. Being that I live in California and he’s in Ohio, this gave us an interesting challenge of having to send a very large PSD file back and forth to each other as we made progress. The process was simple at first, with us both sketching our ideas in different colors (me drawing the girl and him the creature, the things we’re both good at). Then each of us taking turns drawing the line art, coloring, texturing, etc. Each time the file getting bigger and bigger. By the end it was a rather massive file. Either way, this was a super fun experience collaborating with him, discussing ideas, and getting to see the process of an artist as talented as he is.

Since it was something special that we made time to do, we decided we wanted to make this a limited printing; we went with a print run of 50. Which is the largest limited edition print I’ve ever done!

Print proof before final production to test metallic linen paper.

The final printing of this looks fantastic! The above photo is a print proof, that still has the white trim line (the ones for sale do not have that). I can’t wait for everyone to see them. Shawn will be coming by my booth at Emerald City Comicon to sign these, and they will be available at Booth 607! I hope to see some of you there.

Denis Caron and Shawn Coss signing Limited Edition

Edit: Added photo of Shawn and I signing these at the convention. We still have some of these left. If you weren’t able to make it to the con, you can get them on my Etsy Shop.

Denis Caron Selected for Monsters and Dames 2016

I'm super stoked to say that I got into the Monsters & Dames book for a second year in a row at Emerald City Comicon! Like last year, this book will be available in limited quantities (1,000 copies I think?) at the ECCC merch booth at the convention on April 7-10th. Proceeds for this book go to Seattle Children's Hospital, a premier child health care & pediatric center, so it's for a totally awesome cause. 

"Luminous Sea Sorcerous" for Emerald City Comicon's 2016 Monsters & Dames book.

I'm particularly excited about this piece because it's one of the first times I've really pushed myself with the use of color. Both because I wanted to explore more color choices in my work, but also in its own way to celebrate diversity. As I'm trying to represent more women of color in my work, which is super important to me, it was pretty exciting to see that the convention wanted to include a piece like this in their book. I won't overly go into the meanings behind this piece, rather I'll let it speak for itself. However, I will say I love that Emerald City Comic curates a book for a children's hospital that not only celebrates women, but gives an opportunity to artists like myself to express ourselves in positive ways like this.

In addition to this year's piece being available in the Monsters & Dames book, last years piece Necrowmancer will be available this year at the con as an exclusive metallic printing at the con. I will only be bringing 25, but if there are any left, I will make the remaining prints available at the Corvink Store!

Coheed and Cambria Dragonfly Plush Toy

I made a thing with Coheed and Cambria! It's pretty exciting to finally be able to properly announce this. A little under a year ago, a representative of the Evil Ink, Coheed's label/comic company, reached out to me asking if I'd be interested in working on a project with them. Just coming off my successful Kickstarter campaign for the Elements toys, I was on a high for making more toys and exploring new challenges. So, obviously I said yes. When I first received the email, I was in a friend's car driving to get dinner, or something like that, out in Portland. It was only about a day after finishing Emerald City Comicon, and I was feeling pretty exhausted from the con, and everything really. It had only been a few months into the year and I was already busier than I had been in a long time. So when the email popped up on my phone, I pretty much had a triple take. I even showed my friend and was like "um... you see this too right?" Once I realized that my mind wasn't playing tricks on me, in state of an absolutely delirium, I replied and the conceptualization of this toy began!

Original concept design by Denis Caron

I mentioned the "exploring new challenges" in reference to this toy, because this was my first toy in which I was "breaking the mold." In fact, it was my factory's first time too. We had a very specific idea in mind, and it wasn't particularly an industry standard. They had a hard time understanding what it was we wanted to do, as most plush toys are plump and squishy. To them, they've done toy making one way for a very long time, and were convinced I wasn't sure of what I wanted to do with this. I was, so I pushed them to try. I have to say, I'm proud of the factory I work with, particularly my primary contact for championing the idea for me, because only after a few revisions we nailed it. We made a toy that looked pretty damn spot on to my design.

The band, their management, the factory, and every moving piece that made this thing come together, did so, so fantastically well, that I have to say this experience has been nothing short of amazing. Music is my heart, it's the one constant in my life that has always lead me in the right direction, so it's been an honor to work with rock legends like Coheed and Cambria as a part of my journey to continue doing what I love so much, creating.

The toy is available at the band's official merch store, and at the merch booths on their tour! 

I Made a YouTube Channel

That's right! I've made a YouTube channel. After helping my buddy Roberto of Throwboy at Vid Con this last year, and meeting Romina, I've started to realize that I'm missing out by not being part of this community. I've been on Twitter and Facebook for years now, and even tried things like Google+ and Ello, but their all a bit of the same. YouTube allows me to give a bit of flavor to my brand that I can't give on other social media plat forms. There's something fun and charming about creating something like this. It's like a more personal look into to my art and brand that writing blogs like this don't really seem to accomplish. So, it's time for me to get over myself and get on that camera!

I'll have to admit, this isn't the easiest thing for me to do (be on camera), but while recording my Kickstarter video for the Raven Stitch Plush Elements, I realized that it was really stupid how hard of a time I had filming myself! So, this will not only give me an outlet to get more comfortable with that (because in reality that's not gonna be the last time I have to be on camera), but also to explore a new creative medium I haven't yet!

What are you to expect from this new channel? Only time will tell... but I'm hoping to do convention recaps, videos about my setups for conventions, overall vlog (video updates about things going on) and hopefully some art videos where I show everyone my creative process!

Until time, does in fact tell, check out this video I did about my trip to Seattle for Emerald City Comic Con! 

Let me know what you think, and what other kinds of video's you would like to see! :]