Chalk Art, Illustrations, Digital Painting, and Cartoons by Artist Eric Maruscak

Last weekend was the Anime Central 15th Anniversary Convention at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois. I was asked to appear at the show and make a chalk art of the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica, which is distributed by Aniplex USA. When I first saw the art, I knew this was going to be a tough one, especially coming on the heels just two weeks after my last trip to Chicago for C2E2 and the ShiftyLook chalk art mural.

It was my great honor to appear at the 3rd annual C2E2 convention and create a chalk mural for shiftylook.com. If you are not familiar with Shiftylook, they are an off-shoot of Namco Bandai games, where old video game characters are updated and given new life through webcomics. Their tagline is "Video Game Characters Reborn!", and it is very fitting. They are free to read at the site, so go enjoy yourself!

Coming up April 27th – 29th, I’ll be at the Anime Central Convention making a chalk mural for Aniplex of Madoka Magica. Recently I set out my paper and created the full size 9 feet wide by 12 feet tall sketch which took about 7 hours. Above is the time lapse video of the process.

I am happy to announce not one, but TWO upcoming shows in April, and both happen to be in Chicago! First up is C2E2 (also known as the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo) April 13th – 15th. This is my third time at this great show put on by the fine folks at Reed Pop, and I am happy to be returning.


I will be crawling around on the floor for three days making one of my giant chalk murals, and the sponsor of this piece is Shifty Look. Shifty Look is the awesome undertaking of Namco Bandai Games, and is a website where game properties and characters, some from a LONG time ago, are being given new life through really cool webcomics!

Jill Pantozzi has written for a number of websites including Newsarama, MTV Splash Page, and The Mary Sue. A geek-girl of the highest order, I’ve seen her at several conventions, and her love and knowledge of pop culture is astounding.

Just this past weekend I illustrated an installment of The-Gutters.com, a webcomic lampooning all sides of the comic book industry, from the characters and stories to the creators themselves, and even some picking on the fans from time to time too. (We certainly deserve it.) It was an awesome experience and I can’t wait to do another.

Click on the above image to enlarge my 2012 Fangirl of the Month Calendar artwork produced for panelsonpages.com. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was asked to create an image for Ms. September in the style of Ren and Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi.

I was honored to be asked to be one of the participating artists for the 2012 Fangirl of the Month Calendar created by the fine folks over at panelsonpages.com. Have you been to panelsonpages.com? Well, they provide the official video from the New York Comic Con, do cool things like post the ENTIRE AVENGERS PANEL from NYCC, and they are an awesome source for pop culture (hence the name) from comics to wrestling, television to… well, you name it. They also have a network of podcast shows which are great entertainment, and from time to time you can hear me as a guest on Tuesday nights with my own take on things.

My good friend recently relaunched his website at jasondmoore.com with a focus on graphic design. Jason is an amazing photographer, web designer and graphic artist who also does video production, training and more.

He has also started a podcast called Graphic Talk Radio which is "an educational audio podcast dedicated to graphic design, web design, freelancing, and the tools that help us do our work." I’ve recently made his podcast my top link to the right.

I had the pleasure of talking with Jason on the third episode of his podcast. We discussed my history with graphic design, what it was like when computers really took over the scene, working with clients and bosses, and more. It was a great time.

Click here to listen to Eric Maruscak on Graphic Talk Radio.

Wahoo! I’ve been wanting to post this for a while now. Here is the time lapse video of my Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Chalk Mural that I made for Nintendo at San Diego Comic Con back in July. I had a wonderful time at the show, and I thought the piece turned out great! Crowd response was really positive, and I had been just itching to get the time lapse posted, but of course there was an approval process to go through first.

Sorry I am behind in getting photos posted, it’s only been about a MONTH! Sheesh. As many of you know by now, I was brought by Nintendo to the San Diego Comic Con where I made a The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time chalk mural in honor of the game’s release on the 3DS. This was my second Nintendo mural, the first being the Metroid: Other M chalk art at PAX Prime in 2010. Nintendo is always amazing to work for, putting on an incredible event…. and they didn’t disappoint this time either.

I had made appearances at the Otakon Conventions in 2008 and 2009 but missed 2010. So I was really happy when they asked me to come back for their 2011 Convention in Baltimore, MD. If you haven’t been to the show you are missing an amazing time as it celebrates Anime, Manga and all things related to Asian pop culture. It truly is a sight to behold when thousands of people descend upon the Inner Harbor in some of the most lavish and detailed costumes you are likely to see at ANY show. As always, I had a great time, the people were wonderful and the convention was a big success.

This was a chance to make something different. Instead of a live performace at at a show, I made this Zombie Chalk Art Time Lapse Video for conventionscene.com right in my livingroom. Convention Scene is a site dedicated to providing information about tons of conventions, appearances, and everything that might interest people about a wide range of con news. They are a great resource to stay up-to-date with everything convention related.

Even though I am mostly known for my chalk murals at giant conventions, I also like to work with some local school groups on smaller scale projects as I teach them about chalk art technique and what it is like to work in a public venue. The students are always full of energy and very excited by the project, and I have a great time showing them what can be done on a large scale in a fairly short amount of time.

The C2E2 convention was amazing last weekend, and in 30 hours I completed my Green Lantern Chalk Mural. The original art was by the amazing Ivan Reis.