I just did my second illustration commision with the ILRCSF (Independent Living Resource Center San Francisco) for there election postcard. It’s important that everyone gets out to vote. Pen and Ink with Watercolor.
OUR MISSION is to ensure that people with disabilities are full social and economic partners,
both within their families and in a fully accessible community.
OUR CORE VALUES include choice,
consumer leadership, full access to and inclusion
in the community for all people with disabilities, universal usability of housing and consumer products, and that persons with disabilities are experts on their own disabilities. We achieve our goals through Service, Education, & Advocacy.
John Hodgman (book: areas of my expertiese, TV: Apple commericals, Daily Show, Movies: Coraline) was on Boing Boing TV talking about his book with this funny interview. The guy is so deadpan and odd, and very funny. Check it out.
The Cartoon Art Museum has a multi-faceted art exhibit coming up starting on September 20th. The show will actually appear in segments with the fist one opening in a week. So by December the show will encompass 1/3 to 1/2 of the museum. The art work was created as part of a fund raiser for the Totoro Forest Project.
Now you might be asking yourself, what’s a Totoro?
Totoro is a mystical forest creature that appeared in the delightful Japanese animated movie by Hayao Miyazaki, my neighbor Totoro. Here is a clip from the movie:
The Totoro Forest Project is an a group who have set out to protect the forest that inspired the movies setting and story. To help raise money many of the artist who have been inspired by the movie and it’s talented director donated original art for an auction that was held at PIXAR animation studios a week ago.
Sayama Forest is one of the most remarkable urban forests in Japan, located just outside of Tokyo. This forest is said to be the inspiration for legendary animated film My Neighbor Totoro. With Japan’s rapid urban development in the 1970s and 1980s, the forest has been diminished to a small fraction of its former self. In 1990, Miyazaki helped set up a national trust, Totoro no Furusato National Fund, to preserve the park and promote awareness of environmental issues.
It is estimated the PIXAR art auction raised about $201,236.00 to protect the forest. Much of the artwork will be on display for the museums show. You can see all of it at the official website, Totoro Forest Project.
I will be teaching the drop-in cartooning class at the Cartoon Art Museum on the same day the show officially opens, Sept 20, 2008 and I am trying to create an art project to tie into the exhibit. My idea is to take a painted blog and turn it into our own version of the Totoro. Here are some experiments I did below, inspired by a kids art lesson where they turned fingerprints into people.
What do you guys think?
As a bonus, here are some short animations made from the art that was part of the fund-raiser…
Labor day weekend has come and gone which, for many, signals the end of the Summer season.
Of late my blogging has gotten more sparse, so I have lots of catch up with news of my projects and cartooning classes (instead of just posting random art and interesting links). I know that folks like to know whats going on, but I find more personal blog post hard to do since I could say the wrong thing. After all the internet is forever and what you say can come back to haunt you. But I would also like to tell you folks a bit more about whats going on. I guess I am just am not going to bear my soul.
The classes I taught this summer were all really awesome. The kids in the four week-long classes all did an amazing jobs and really produced some amazing work. The kids created characters, drew comics, and created animation (both at the Schulz Museum and the Cartoon Art Museum.) I have posted some of the animation on my YouTube account and some of the artwork has been posted here on the blog too. The summer was really busy, but rewarding as well.
I have cartooning classes lined-up for the fall school year with many returning clients. I am hoping that my full schedule starting from a year ago will have provided me with some wisdom on how to do this teaching thing more efficiently (starting next week). Keeping your life/work flowing is always an interesting challenge.
Just last week I just got a new illustration assignment from a previous client with an exciting challenge for me. I am looking forward to working on it.
I am also working on some graphics for Silicon 2008 in San Jose CA in October which should be appearing on the website and other media fairly soon. Well, I am just finishing them up so you will just have to wait and see. But you can get to see some rough sketches I did for the images below.
Well, that is it for this post. I sure wish more folks, besides spammers, would comment. But I don’t keep my breath held too much. After all some of the most awesome artist in this world of ours get only a handful of comments too.
Dang nab it, being an artist can be hard.
Art Show and Parking for Silicon 2008.
Night Time and Information for Silicon 2008.
Activities/Entertainment and Science Alley for Silicon 2008.
Not sure what I was thinking, but there images I like… for Silicon 2008.
