Heading back West

“You’re moving where?”

In 1990, as my family grew and housing prices in Toronto skyrocketed, my wife and I decided to move back west. This time it was Winnipeg – having given the other prairie provinces a try, I figured I should make it a hat trick.

Over the years, I have had different agents represent my work. I decided in the mid-nineties, that I had enough experience to go on my own. This gave me the freedom to choose the type of work I wanted to do. I still do the odd advertising or corporate job, but I find that my love of magazine and book work forms most of my career.

Comic Stripper

“Close but no cigar - or contract”

My love of words came back around this time. More and more words began popping up in my illustrations, and my infatuation with comic books has always permeated my work. I decided to chase that passion by developing a comic strip for syndication. This developed into a seven year journey. My early efforts garnered quick rejections (trust me, they deserved them). But I got better, and worked hard at one of the most difficultartforms I know. Comic strip artists develop characters that people want to visit everyday, tell stories about them using the sparsest amount of words, and make everything look beautiful to boot. (My heroes here were Watterson, Kelly and Herriman – not the Scott Adams school of bad drawing). I learned a lot about the business – I developed a friendship with another artist who did go onto to score a syndication contract (visit: Mark Heath - Spot the Frog). And I think I got close. One of my strips made the finals in a Washington Post Writers Group competition, and the last strips I developed got me some personal notes from King Features, culminating in a checklist of things to change to help me start my career as a syndicated comic strip artist.

(Periodically I will post some of these strips on the website - just so they have some life beyond my shelf.)

But I was done. Rather than keep pushing the strip I decided that I wanted to tell stories a bit longer than a few panels.

 Fiction

“The story’s the thing”

In the late nineties my childhood dream of being an “author” jumped up and grabbed my by my cerebral cortex. Stories started flowing out of me, novellas, and even a complete novel. This is a parallel passion to the drawing now - and I have placed stories in literary magazines such as Hobart, Carve, Slow Trains Literary and Smokelong Quarterly. (You can link to my blog from the home page for more info on my fiction).

So... as I said: I live, draw and write in Winnipeg - oh, and now I teach too. But that is for another bio.

Thanks for reading.

I find that the length of your biography moves in inverse proportion to how long you’ve been at something.

Lately, mine has become,

"Craig Terlson lives, draws, and writes in Winnipeg, Canada."

Now for most that would probably suffice (stop reading now, go look at the pictures). But for those who still are hanging around, I will expand.

Early Days

“I don’t have to be a signpainter?”

Growing up in a small city in Saskatchewan I discovered three major interests: reading, drawing and music. Flash forward to that time where I had to decide what I was going to do for a career and I faced a dilemma. Though, I'd loved playing music (trombone, piano and later, guitar), I couldn't see making a living at it. As well, I didn't know anyone making a living from reading books (I hadn't heard of editors at the time). And as far as art? Well, the only guy doing that for a job around town was the local signpainter. It seemed I was destined to Law School after all.

But that all changed when I found a dusty brochure, circa 1962, that talked about the world of "Commercial Art." The guys in the black and white photos were straight out of the TV series Mad Men, except a lot dorkier. Intrigued, I asked the guidance counsellor what this was all about. He didn't really know, nor did anyone else - the closest comparison was that guy on Bewitched.

Schooling

“You wanna be a what?”

After high school I moved to Calgary and four years later I graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design. By that time I had learned a lot about commercial art (for example: no one called it that any more). Like a lot of art colleges there was an emphasis on graphic design – probably because you were more likely to get a job in design. Instructors told me that illustration was just too hard to break into.

Now being 22, and finally discovering a real passion, meant that I didn't listen to them. I packed up the Dodge and moved to Toronto.

Going to the Big Smoke

“We’re just three guys in a box”

I moved to Toronto in 1985, along with a few others from my graduating class and hit the pavement with my portfolio. I remember that the group of us from Calgary were all quite aggressively seeking work, and I learned that some Art Directors had started referring to us as the Alberta mafia.

My instructors were right in that it was very difficult, even in the prosperous 80's, to break in. I worked part-time at abunch of lousy jobs, phoning and setting up appointments with Art Directors on my lunch breaks. Slowly, I started getting regular work and larger jobs. I also learned about illustrating for educational clients, something that would become a large part of my career. I rented a studio with two other illustrators on Spadina and King and watched the Skydome go up. We were three guys in a 500 square foot room with high ceilings. I said we were "Three in a Box." The name stuck and went on even after we had split. Three in the Box is now an artist's agency representing over 50 illustrators and photographers.

Clients

The people I need to thank for all this

Since 1985, my pictures and stories have appeared in books, magazines, newpapers, and even fridges across North America.

Click here to view Client List