Residency #139
OCTOBER 11 - 31
(Application Deadline: May 21, 2010)
Graphic Novels/Sequential Art Residency

Svetlana Chmakova, manga author/YA graphic novelist

Svetlana Chmakova was born and raised in Russia and moved to Canada with her family when she was 16 years old.  She studied Classical Animation at Sheridan College, after which she spent a few years as a freelance illustrator/animator, doing toy designs, book cover and interior illustrations, as well as random freelance animation projects. Svetlana's comics career suddenly took off with her first full-length manga series "Dramacon", published by TOKYOPOP/Harper Collins and running 3 volumes. "Dramacon" became a fan favorite as well as critically acclaimed--it was nominated for several industry awards, put on the 2007 YALSA's Great Graphic Novels For Teens list, and published in 12 languages, including her native language, Russian, and the language of works that influenced her so much, Japanese. Among her other credits, Svetlana also drew and wrote a monthly manga strip for CosmoGIRL! for 2 years and has recently finished art-directing a 52-episode animated TV series for Teletoon, set to air in Canada and France in spring 2010.
Currently Svetlana is busy working on her next manga series "Nightschool", with its third volume due out in April 2010.  “Nightschool” is serialized in Yen Plus, a monthly anthology from Yen Press/Hachette Livre.
For current news and more information about Svetlana please visit her website: www.svetlania.com

Residency Statement

Drawing and writing are kind of hard!  Similarly, the ocean is kind of deep.  The residency will focus on both the creative and technical challenges of telling stories in the manga/comics medium, with special attention given to the distinctive visual language of manga as well as the art of creating short stories and its benefits to longer works.  Some sample topics for discussion at Associate meetings will be the generation of ideas, their reluctant evolution into actual scripts and drawings, and the rich history of How Other People Dealt With That in different countries and cultures.  Associates will experiment and work with their own stories in a fun and informative creative atmosphere, as well as complete challenging exercises designed to stretch their artistic comfort zone.

Application Requirements

Applicants are requested to submit the following:

• a short 1/3rd of a page personal biography
• a short 1/3rd of a page personal statement (a brief essay on topics such as why you make sequential art, what inspires you, where you started, where do you want to take it, and so on.) 
• a CV (listing all the jobs, not just art-related. To explain, I consider all jobs to be important creator experiences—the idea for one of my books hatched from the experience of sweeping floors and washing dishes at a small restaurant back in college)
• 7 pages of sequential art from a personal work (these can still be in pencil/rough stage, as long as they are legible and the storytelling is clear)
• 7 pages of life/cafe drawing (i.e. drawings of friends, pets, random street scenes, etc., as long as they are from life.)
• 5 pages of finished pieces

Any media is fine, but digital files are required for review, at resolution between 150 and 300 dpi.