28 Facts About Travis Charest

Travis Charest was born on 1969 and is a Canadian comic book penciller, inker and painter, known for his work on such books as Darkstars, WildC.

Travis Charest is known for his detailed line work and muted color palette, and is a much sought-after cover artist, having done extensive cover work for many other books, such as various Star Wars series from Dark Horse Comics.

Travis Charest's work has influenced artists such as Chrissie Zullo, Shelby Robertson, and David Marquez.

Travis Charest's parents held various jobs, though he has stated that his mother and sister were skilled designers, and attributes his early childhood interest in drawing to them.

Travis Charest did not initially know how to parlay his drawing ability into a career, as there were no schools where he lived for such an endeavor, and did not foresee it as a profession.

Travis Charest worked a number of dead-end jobs, and it was while living on his own at age 18 or 19, and became friends with people who read comics, that he realized he could make a career out of it.

Travis Charest cites Mike Mignola, Adam Hughes, and Brian Bolland among his artistic influences, as well as many artists from the early 20th century.

Travis Charest spent six months continuously producing new sample art and sending them to various publishers, including Marvel Comics and DC Comics.

Travis Charest was selling plumbing supplies at the time he got his big break in the comics industry.

In 1993 Travis Charest became the regular artist on Darkstars, illustrating issues 4 - 7.

Travis Charest was then contacted by publisher Jim Lee, who offered him work for Wildstorm Productions.

Travis Charest's first work for that studio was a pinup that appeared in WildC.

Travis Charest subsequently illustrated back-up stories featuring Voodoo and Warblade in issues 8 and 9 of the regular series.

In 1999, Travis Charest joined writer Scott Lobdell on a second series of Wildcats, illustrating five of the first six issues.

Travis Charest came to feel that his Wildcats work, both under Moore and Lobdel, had begun to "slide," and that it was time to do something different.

Travis Charest, having grown tired of superheroes, accepted the job, and planned to paint the entire graphic novel, something he had never done before.

The process of that work went much more slowly than Travis Charest had anticipated, and he illustrated only the first 29 pages of the book.

Travis Charest ran the free webcomic strip Spacegirl on his MSN group.

In September 2022, Marvel released Fantastic Four: Full Circle, an original graphic novel written and illustrated by Alex Ross, in which Ross utilized for the titular group's uniforms a stylized numeral "4" that Travis Charest had designed in 2013.

Travis Charest usually prefers not to employ preliminary sketching practices, such as layouts, thumbnails or lightboxing, in part due to impatience, and in part because he enjoys the serendipitous way in which artwork develops when produced with greater spontaneity.

Travis Charest prefers to use reference only when rendering objects that require a degree of real-life accuracy, such as guns, vehicles, or characters of licensed properties that must resemble actors with whom they are closely identified, as when he illustrated the cover to Star Trek: The Next Generation: Embrace the Wolf in 2000.

Travis Charest previously illustrated on regular illustration board provided by publishers, though he disliked the non-photo blue lines printed on them.

Travis Charest uses mainly 2H lead to avoid smearing, and sometimes HB lead.

Travis Charest applies the wash with watercolor brushes of various sizes.

For color work, Travis Charest uses Aquarelle watercolor pencils and acrylic paint for airbrush work.

Travis Charest uses white Pelikan ink for additional effects such as highlights, fades and blends.

Travis Charest stated in 2000 that while he did not use a computer for his artwork, he would be using one soon, and anticipated they would be a necessity for professional artists.

Travis Charest's work has influenced artists such as Chrissie Zullo, Shelby Robertson, and David Marquez.