Tony was born and raised in Southern California. He attended the Art Institute of San Diego, where he studied Illustration and Graphic Design. He became a nationally published Cartoonist at the age of 19. After graduation, Tony worked as a Cartoonist and Art Director for a Looney Tunes licensee in Washington DC. He also worked in Maryland, for Marriott Corporate Design & Promotion. Today, he designs & illustrates for clients worldwide.
Tony brings a sense of pride and immense work ethic to every design and illustration project, which he attributes to his hardworking Italian family. His success as an independent artist is mainly due to his creativity, his problem-solving skills and his accountability. "If I say it's going to get done, it gets done," says Tony.
As an Illustrator, Tony's cartoons have been published and sold around the world. His drawing style has been compared to Matt Groening, the creator of "The Simpsons" and Jim Davis, the creator of "Garfield."
Tony has also spent time as a disc jockey, commercial voice talent and internet radio host. He hosted the "Saturday Sound" on KRTM, voiced the narration for a national television campaign and co-created, produced and co-hosted a worldwide internet comedy podcast.
In 1998, Tony established the "Cartooning with Bigfoot" workshop, and has since taught more than 50,000 children the fun and creative art of Cartooning. Tony also teaches Art & Design at various other private, public and charter schools throughout the southland.
Bigfoot Graphics' art programs now include Anime, as well as classes in Animation, Mixed-Media and Fine Art. Students from all over Southern California recognize Tony as the fun and talented artist with a true gift for teaching.
Tony's design clients continue to work with him because he is their link to all things creative.
Katinka Clementsmith is a Master of Watercolor and Acrylics who has shown in galleries and live painting events throughout southern California, since 1996. She creates obsessive-compulsively, learning and adding new mediums as she grows. Her focus is bold, playful images of amusing subject matter, often with the addition of found or repurposed items. She created a long term environmental art project called "Medusa Bloom" using art to bring attention to the damage done by one-time use items like plastic bags.
Katinka has run the Fine Arts program for Bigfoot for several years and also teaches Color Theory and Mixed Media for our Elite Teen program. She is an artist of a tremendous caliber that we are very proud to have as part of our staff.
Ly Bucci is a Professional Anime Artist. He started as a member of the BFG Elite program in 2010 and went on to earn a degree in Graphic Design from Platt College in San Diego, in 2013. Ly Illustrated a children's book, "Little Yellow Dog" in 2016 and is also the creator of Web Comics.
Now running the online Teen drawing/Anime program and an Instructor for various other programs, Ly enjoys teaching the basics of creating characters, along with many other techniques. He loves helping young artists expand their skills and grow confidence in their drawings. Ly's favorite quote is "An artist cannot live without creating, since the pen in hand is connected to our heart."
Brian Manning is a Professional Cartoonist who has taught in various schools, camps and municipalities for many years. His funny personality, wit and sense of humor make him very popular with our students and staff. Brian got his degree in writing from CSUF and has been a member of the Bigfoot Staff for many years. We are proud to have Brian on our staff and spend most of our time with him, with a smile on our face.
Hayden started with Bigfoot programs when he was about 11 or 12. He earned his invitation to our Elite Artist program in high school and was Bigfoot's first ever Hall of Fame inductee AND Student of the Year in the same year! Hayden is a VERY talented artist and one HECK of a nice young man. He is a recent graduate of CBU, with a degree in Graphic Design. We are very proud to have him on our staff. Chachi is a Guest Instructor for our Anime & Cartooning classes and also assists where needed.
Sarah has been with Bigfoot since she was about 11 years old ... Over a decade! She started in our Anime classes and matriculated into our Teen Elite program. She began helping out with our classes as a teenager and has been doing so, ever since.
Sarah is our Wednesday online class Instructor and also the main Guest Instructor for our Monday and Tuesday classes, filling in when Katinka needs a break.
Sarah once said Bigfoot is kind of like the Uncle she never wanted (LOL) and we are very proud to have her with us!
Arman is a very talented Professional 2D Artist, who graduated from Academy of Art University/SF in 2017, with a BFA in Animation. He is a young master of Illustration and teaches our Draw Lab program. You may also catch Arman in one of our Cartooning classes. We are very happy to have Arman with us and our students enjoy his classes.
Amanda is a creative dynamo, with talents in many areas. They bring a high level of intellect, experience and friendly personality to our Monday Digital Art Class and our Friday Animation Class. We are very proud to have Amanda on our staff. Amanda has a masters degree from Cal State Irvine.
Annemarie is a former Elite student, who has gone on to devour everything art related ever since. She is a graduate of River Springs Charter School and has studied at the Concept Design Academy, Schoolism, Brainstorm, the New Masters Academy, Karl Gnass & Cal Arts.
Annemarie loves Avatar: The last Airbender, drawing storyboards and animation.
She is in charge of our Saturday Figure Drawing program and we are very proud to have this talented young lady on our staff.
Sabin was quite possibly the hardest worker and most thoughtful student that there ever was, in our Elite Teen program. Sabin interned under Master Painter, Jono Vengo, helping to produce the amazing murals at Lisa J. Mails Elementary School. He also painted the incredible Mural, commemorating the 2018 Pandemic, that was exhibited at the Temecula Valley Museum. Sabin's knack for color and Illustration is an amazing thing to behold. We are very excited to have Sabin with us, teaching our Tuesday & Wednesday in-person classes in Menifee.
From young student, to Teen/Elite and now our Key Assistant! Sully is an extremely talented young Artist and our students love his calm demeanor and quirky sense of humor.
Mary is a talented Artist and is great with kids! She is Bigfoot's Main Assistant for our Meridian, ID Classes and Camps. Rumor has it, she MAY be Bigfoot's Niece ... That can't be true. Our students love Mary and we are very proud to have her with us!
