All right gang, this is it. (I will stand my ground and say that my 2 readers formally constitute a gang!) The Totoro Forest Project is now formally being announced and the organizers have created this nifty website that will tell you all about it in more detail. Above is my framed contribution to this great cause.

In quick summary, this will be a charity auction to help save the “Totoro Forest” in Japan which was the inspiration for Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece “My Neighbor Totoro.” The auction will take place at Pixar Animation Studios on September 6th. But please make sure to visit the website for the full details, since there is so much more, including a book cataloging the event and all the art, and an exclusive exhibition at the Cartoon Art Museum!

The website is not fully complete as they still need to get some more artwork and artist bios up there, but it should be filling up soon. I learned that, like my own piece, some of the artist’s scans weren’t so great and so they are taking the time to re-photo or scan those paintings for better quality. My big thanks to Yukino Pang of the Asian Art Museum who told me she could arrange to have a higher quality photo taken of mine.

Another big thank you goes to my friend Dice Tsutsumi, art director at Pixar, who invited me to participate. I am truly thankful, and am deeply in awe of all the artists that are participating.

The finished illustration from here. The scan is a bit funky because of a gloss coat over the painting, but ah well. This piece will need to find a happy home with someone at a charity event coming up. The event still has not been officially announced, but I will send out links and info as soon as I am able. And yes, there was a theme… It’s going to be a doozy!

I’m starting to run into her more often in the mornings when I’m on my run. This is a super quick sketch when I got home, but her face is just so striking to me, I can’t help it. All that makeup! I wonder where she’s off to every morning? This morning she was all about the lavender jumpsuit, probably to celebrate spring. Stylin’!

This is a little guy I had made some time back. Please don’t ask why he has a telephone. He’s pretty annoyed at the absurdity himself.

A little bit of scribbly ballpoint covered with Photoshop later. Violetta is looking a bit on the “bad girl” side on the bottom. Probably needs to be toned down. She’s a trickster, but she’s not evil. More like a Puck character. And I kind of like the little Hindi woman that appeared.

This lady crossed my path while I was on my morning run a couple days ago. Her pale face caked with makeup and white-blond hair set against her backdrop of dark clothes was rather striking. And it was a grey, cold and foggy morning.

About something.

I’m still figuring her out. She’s lithe and limber, an acrobat, and can balance on the ball quite well. She wears the traditional harlequin’s costume of the Commedia Dell’Arte. In this incarnation anyway!