Justin Currie has built the kind of career most artists can only imagine. The biggest names in the entertainment industry have discovered him: Disney, Marvel and Netflix have all hired him for projects. Not through a studio, but through the convention tables he has spent nearly two decades behind, showcasing his artwork across North America and beyond.
"The conventions are how I found my first big freelance opportunities," he said. "My big clients all came from tabling at conventions all over the world. That's how I got hired by Disney and Marvel and Netflix and all those people, was because I had tables at conventions."
His studio, Chasing Artwork, was part of Fan Expo Canada's 2026 Artist Alley lineup, with Currie's parents in tow all the way from Manitoba to help run the four-table booth. It's a long way from where he first started in a small country town, doodling on every single school worksheet, to now selling his art for a living and working with some of the biggest names in entertainment.
Currie has been coming to the Toronto convention since around 2012, but his convention career started much smaller, back home in Winnipeg.
"I started with my smaller local shows, and I started sharing half a table with a friend, and then eventually I had enough work and confidence to have an entire table," he said. "And then I grew into two tables, and now I have four tables at one of the biggest shows in Canada."
Currie grew up two hours southwest of Winnipeg on a farm with five siblings and a broken TV. With little to do in the country, he would spend hours drawing dragons, robots and monsters.
"Every single piece of paper that was handed to me in school I doodled on," Currie said. "My parents are actually here helping out and they can attest to that. It was a common reoccurring thing on the report card: Justin draws too much, maybe do some more schoolwork. But look at me now."
After graduating from Pilot Mound High School, Currie moved to Winnipeg at 17 and finished Red River College's Graphic Design – Advanced program in 2007. For many years, Currie worked by day as a graphic designer and then as a concept artist and interface designer at a local video game company. On weekends, he sold his art at conventions, beginning in 2008. By 2014, he was doing better selling his art at conventions than at his full-time job, so he made the decision to leave his highly coveted job in the gaming industry.
"It was a dream job I already had, but because the conventions let me do my own artwork and let me reach a wider audience, it was just a bit more fun and, yeah, a bit more rewarding," he said.
Currie used Adobe Illustrator at work, a program known mostly for logos and websites. Over time, he began experimenting with the software, creating fluid and messy techniques that led to the style he coined "Shattered Vector Painting," a blend of graphic design's precision and traditional painting, he told SomewhatNerdy in 2014.
"I'm a big fan of concept art, especially video game and movie concept art, so that would be my number one inspiration, is the concept art behind the big films and video games," he said.
Currie has worked with Disney, Marvel, Netflix and Nickelodeon, and he credits the convention floor for all his biggest client projects. Currie encourages new artists to treat conventions as a way into the industry, as an opportunity to network and connect with like-minded creatives.
For some artists, though, studio jobs can come with a downside: they usually have to draw in the company's house style. For Currie, conventions offered the creative freedom that studio work didn't always allow.
Beyond conventions, Currie has also illustrated children's books. In 2014, Chasing Artwork published Cassie and Tonk, a graphic novel written by Winnipeg creator GMB Chomichuk and illustrated by Currie. Cassie and Tonk later won the children's books and graphic novels category at the 2015 Manitoba Book Awards.
Life on the road means long days behind the table, but what makes it worth it, he said, is the community. The artists he tables beside come from different cities, and he mostly sees them on the road at the big conventions, so every show doubles as a reunion and a networking opportunity.
