Program Overview
The Sponsorship Program identifies one or more promising artists or creative professionals who use technology in novel ways to inspire or advance the fields of popular visual arts including drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, videography and filmmaking. Selected individuals are sponsored for attendance at a major industry convention and networking event. The sponsored individual is provided with an opportunity to display, sell, or promote their work at a booth on the convention floor, along with opportunities for meetings with other creators, artists, publishers, and notable professionals in their creative field.
San Diego Comic-Con 2024
Please click here to learn more about the submission timeline and for the application form. GOOD LUCK!
Previous Sponsored Artists
SDCC 2023 - Daria Aksenova
Daria Aksenova is a Houston, Texas-based artist best known for her pen and ink, suspended, cut paper narrative shadowboxes.
The current focus of her work is the creation of cinematographic storytelling through constructed dynamism - arising from layering and complexity of composition - within a static media, inspired by her experience with the fashion and film industries.
Daria uses ink as an unforgiving medium that precludes editing and demands precision. Individual elements are then hand-cut with a scalpel and suspended against each other, achieving the desired depth. Her technique demands a steady hand and unfailing commitment, often requiring over a hundred hours of dedication and intimacy with each piece.
The Subject matter choice is driven by her interest in symbolism, often reflecting conflict inherent to the human condition, as echoed through mythology and folklore. The balance of playful storytelling and deeper-seated significance provides unique yet relatable work. Her pieces evoke a dreamscape-like narrative that pulls in both the eye and mind, presenting space and opportunity for the imagination to wander into a deep narrative that you need to experience first-hand.
The current focus of her work is the creation of cinematographic storytelling through constructed dynamism - arising from layering and complexity of composition - within a static media, inspired by her experience with the fashion and film industries.
Daria uses ink as an unforgiving medium that precludes editing and demands precision. Individual elements are then hand-cut with a scalpel and suspended against each other, achieving the desired depth. Her technique demands a steady hand and unfailing commitment, often requiring over a hundred hours of dedication and intimacy with each piece.
The Subject matter choice is driven by her interest in symbolism, often reflecting conflict inherent to the human condition, as echoed through mythology and folklore. The balance of playful storytelling and deeper-seated significance provides unique yet relatable work. Her pieces evoke a dreamscape-like narrative that pulls in both the eye and mind, presenting space and opportunity for the imagination to wander into a deep narrative that you need to experience first-hand.
SDCC 2020 / 2022 - Daniel Ibanez
Due to COVID-19, our 2020 Sponsored Artist, Daniel Ibanez, had to wait 2.5 years to finally exhibit at SDCC in the summer of 2022!
Daniel Ibanez is a Fort Collins, Colorado-based husband, father, teacher, and artist who is as talented as he is prolific, and exhibiting at Comic Con helped KWF in our mission to try to cultivate the best and the brightest rising-star visual artists, and to expose work that is fresh and unusual to a much wider audience.
Excelling in a number of traditional mediums as well as digital, Daniel effortlessly transitions between myriad styles and subject matter: everything from neo-impressionist landscapes and still-lifes to otherworldly, Frazetta-inspired fantasy scenes.
Daniel Ibanez is a Fort Collins, Colorado-based husband, father, teacher, and artist who is as talented as he is prolific, and exhibiting at Comic Con helped KWF in our mission to try to cultivate the best and the brightest rising-star visual artists, and to expose work that is fresh and unusual to a much wider audience.
Excelling in a number of traditional mediums as well as digital, Daniel effortlessly transitions between myriad styles and subject matter: everything from neo-impressionist landscapes and still-lifes to otherworldly, Frazetta-inspired fantasy scenes.
SDCC 2019 - Peter "Attack Peter" Santa-Maria
Peter Santa-Maria is a Miami-based artist and teacher. Working primarily in the process of printmaking, his artwork spans from original designs to pop culture icons.
He is heavily influenced by traditional imagery from Thailand, American traditional tattoo flash, and his peers.
Peter's unique style immediately drew our eye and we feel it's safe to say that Comic-Con had never seen anything quite like his work before.
His clients and partnerships include Marvel, Sideshow Collectibles, LucasFilm, and Hot Topic.
Find Peter Here:
Website
Instagram
Facebook
Twitter
He is heavily influenced by traditional imagery from Thailand, American traditional tattoo flash, and his peers.
Peter's unique style immediately drew our eye and we feel it's safe to say that Comic-Con had never seen anything quite like his work before.
His clients and partnerships include Marvel, Sideshow Collectibles, LucasFilm, and Hot Topic.
Find Peter Here:
Website
SDCC 2018 - MICAELA DAWN
Micaela Dawn is an award-winning freelance illustrator.
Her work has been featured in Spectrum 23 by Flesk Publications, Infected by Art 4, the covers of Victor Lavalle's Destroyer series and Saladin Ahmed's Abbott by BOOM! Studios, and several international galleries.
In her spare time, Micaela has been developing projects that speak to her desire for equality and the promotion of women’s rights. Her main focus is creating bold, colourful works of art that have roots in fantasy and mythology.
She also has a passion for developing art that comments on the continued need for diversity while helping empower women and minorities.
Find Micaela Here:
Website
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Her work has been featured in Spectrum 23 by Flesk Publications, Infected by Art 4, the covers of Victor Lavalle's Destroyer series and Saladin Ahmed's Abbott by BOOM! Studios, and several international galleries.
In her spare time, Micaela has been developing projects that speak to her desire for equality and the promotion of women’s rights. Her main focus is creating bold, colourful works of art that have roots in fantasy and mythology.
She also has a passion for developing art that comments on the continued need for diversity while helping empower women and minorities.
Find Micaela Here:
Website
SDCC 2017 - Kelly McKernan
Kelly McKernan is a fine artist and illustrator currently based in Nashville, Tennessee. Kelly obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Kennesaw State University, with a concentration in drawing and painting.
At its core, Kelly’s work always revolves around two forces: A woman and a world. Whether in harmony or posed against one another, the two are always clearly delineated. Her subjects are often found staring into all that exists outside themselves—rights and wrongs, friends and foes, full and empty spaces—seeing them distilled into a single essence to contend with as she may. Kelly strives to create through exploration, leaving a trail which anyone might follow with the very same sense of discovery.
She has been exhibiting her work with numerous galleries since 2009, including notable spaces such as Gallery 1988, Spoke Art, Arch Enemy Arts, and Subtext Gallery. She also began her work as an illustrator in the same year and has worked on numerous projects, including album artwork. Kelly is also a member of the PRISMA Artist Collective and a current Grumbacher Featured Artist.
At its core, Kelly’s work always revolves around two forces: A woman and a world. Whether in harmony or posed against one another, the two are always clearly delineated. Her subjects are often found staring into all that exists outside themselves—rights and wrongs, friends and foes, full and empty spaces—seeing them distilled into a single essence to contend with as she may. Kelly strives to create through exploration, leaving a trail which anyone might follow with the very same sense of discovery.
She has been exhibiting her work with numerous galleries since 2009, including notable spaces such as Gallery 1988, Spoke Art, Arch Enemy Arts, and Subtext Gallery. She also began her work as an illustrator in the same year and has worked on numerous projects, including album artwork. Kelly is also a member of the PRISMA Artist Collective and a current Grumbacher Featured Artist.
SDCC 2016 - Candice Broersma
Candice Broersma grew up in the quaint city of Yucaipa, California. She began her studies at a local art studio under the direction of artist Sharon Rachel, learning the basics of observational drawing over the course of seven years. As an undergraduate at the University of Redlands, she pursued her love of both music and art: painting by day and performing clarinet by night. Candice's involvement in the two fields gave her the opportunity to create recital posters, which introduced her to visual communication and design. Eager to delve further into the commercial arts, Candice decided to pursue illustration and consequently enrolled in the Masters program at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Since graduating, Candice took up residency at the prestigious Bovard Studio as a stained glass window concept artist and marketing graphic designer for four years. She now works full time as a freelance illustrator, primarily in the YA and middle-grade book cover space.
You can find Candice online here:
You can find Candice online here:
SDCC 2015 - Sara K. Diesel
Sara K. Diesel, a young professional illustrator, attended as the recipient of 2015's highly sought-after KWF Sponsored Artist grant. She joined us at the Foundation's booth on the Exhibitor Floor, thrown into the deep end of the world's largest fandom, pop arts, sci-fi, and comic book convention. She rocked it. More...
SDCC 2014 - David Boudreau
David Boudreau, is a concept and caricature artist, as well as an accomplished animator. David was the recipient of the first SDCC Sponsored Artist program scholarship in 2014.
